Neal Stephenson Quote

We've got two kinds of language in our heads. The kind we're using now isacquired. It patterns our brains as we're learning it. But there's also atongue that's based in the deep structures of the brain, that everyone shares.These structures consist of basic neural circuits that have to exist in order toallow our brains to acquire higher languages.Linguistic infrastructure, Uncle Enzo says.Yeah. I guess 'deep structure' and 'infrastructure' mean the same thing.Anyway, we can access those parts of the brain under the right conditions.Glossolalia -- speaking in tongues -- is the output side of it, where the deeplinguistic structures hook into our tongues and speak, bypassing all the higher,acquired languages. Everyone's known that for some time.You're saying there's an input side, too? Ng says.Exactly. It works in reverse. Under the right conditions, your ears -- oreyes -- can tie into the deep structures, bypassing the higher languagefunctions. Which is to say, someone who knows the right words can speak words,or show you visual symbols, that go past all your defenses and sink right intoyour brainstem. Like a cracker who breaks into a computer system, bypasses allthe security precautions, and plugs himself into the core, enabling him to exertabsolute control over the machine.In that situation, the people who own the computer are helpless, Ng says.Right. Because they access the machine at a higher level, which has now beenoverridden. In the same sense, once a neurolinguistic hacker plugs into thedeep structures of our brain, we can't get him out -- because we can't evencontrol our own brain at such a basic level.