[MD] Zen

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Platt]
Arlo flatly contradicts Pirsig. About those two biological 
individuals -- according to Arlo they both started talking simultaneously.

No matter how Arlo tries to justify a communitarian agenda, "Someone 
has to be first."

[Arlo]
Arlo does not contradict Pirsig, he simply takes all of Pirsig into 
account, and he certainly does not use one one-liner to disprove 
other things the man said. As for your "one lone man who just started 
talking", I don't know how much more ridiculous you can get (but I'm 
sure you'll find a way to top it eventually).

Yes, they did in that moment of recognition of shared attention both 
start talking simultaneously, as they negotiated rudimentary symbols 
for the experience they were sharing. And in that moment, culture and 
selves were born. And this event was made possible by the long chain 
of evolution that set in place the neurobiological affordances and 
constraints upon which the recognition of the shared event, and the 
storage of symbolic representae was made possible.

But, it makes soooo much more sense that there was this one lone man, 
who just decided to invent language, and then went out and taught it 
to others. Nevermind that if he had no language prior to inventing 
language, how'd he do it? No, you can stick with your I-B-I MOQ all 
you want, I'll take Pirsig's I-B-S-I.