How do babies start speaking (that is, why do babies start speaking)? How does a baby's consciousness emerge?

A Scientific Model Of The Brain:


How do babies start speaking (that is, why do babies start speaking)?

How does a baby's consciousness emerge?


 * A baby's cry for help: our first aha moment and how it gives rise to our most basic concept.


At this point, it may be helpful to ask, why do newborn babies cry? The question may sound rather silly, since obviously babies cry because they feel some need, that requires attention from somebody else. Now, if we assume the existence of a decision-making agent, it seems reasonable to consider, if, perhaps, there are times where the baby is just being manipulative. There are certainly instances, where one would swear that the baby is only crying for the sake of getting some love and attention. On the other hand, admittedly, the proponents of the decision-making agent line of thinking could bery reasonably argue that a newborn's screams are only an instinctive conduct, and it is just that, at some point in the baby's early life, its intelligent, decision-making agent will wake up. This second part of the argument certainly leaves very unclear what leads to the miraculous awakening of the intelligent agent; but, in any case, it is not at all far fetched to conjecture, that Evolution slowly wired up such a behavior in our brains: whenever the baby experienced some need (even if this is only emotional), the baby would instinctively start screaming. Those babies who developed such conduct would evidently enjoy an evolutionary edge, since those who did not would not receive proper attention and care, even in the direst of crises. Now, even if we accept that babies screams are (originally) just instinctive gestures, it is not lost on anybody, that at some point they become part of a manipulating scheme. There is indeed no doubt, that in many occasions a baby will start crying only to get a fancy. It may be a candy or a stuffed animal it has just totally fallen in love with. Since the baby will normally at that time barely be able to speak, it will franctically point to the thing to make its 'needs' clear. It is only that eventually mom will explain such manipulating attitudes are not OK!: "Sweetheart, if you want something, you politely ask for it; but do not just scream, because I will then definitely not buy it!" At the end of the day, as we all know, the baby will follow whichever conduct yields the desired prize. If mom does not follow through with her moral teachings and screams are all what the baby needs to get its way, it will continue repeating such attitude, until the day that it finally does not work anymore. 


In summary, life is so much easier as a newborn!: In those first weeks, since nobody can expect a newborn to know how to ask for things politely, - regardless of whether the newborn's cry expressed some real necessity, or only the wish for a fancy - everybody would run to attend its every desire. Hence, importantly, - regardless of whether the newborn's cry was an instinctive or concious behavior - we would have to agree that, for all intends and purposes, the baby successfully expressed its thoughts and transmitted its will. Furthermore, since everytime it cried everybody would run to fulfill all its desires, - regardless of whether its conduct had been originally instinctive or conscious - it will not be long before our little angel becomes 'aware', that screams are all the magic words it takes to get some prize. Indeed, if our sweetheart's crying began as an instinctive gesture and eventually developed into a (conscious) manipulating scheme, it is interesting to ask what led to such transition, or, if you so prefer, what led to the awakening of the baby's intelligent agent? Well, it stands to reason to say, that our sweetheart's brain, little by little, put together the connection between the crying gesture and the baby's needs being addressed. Alternatively, if you favor the intelligent agent line of thinking, I guess you can say the baby's decision-making agent had an aha moment; in fact, a truly fantastic one, indeed!, or is there anything better in life than a magical recipe to get everybody to do as you wish? From a scientific perspective, though, the moment should represent the formation of the first concept (in all likelihood the very first concept in a human's life): "'crying' is the thing that gets everybody to do as I wish". No doubt about it, Chess is so much easier when we are babies!: all what it takes to win is the king to cry a little. It is then too bad that it will not be long before Chess will soon get so much more complicated. Indeed, much to every baby's disappointment, such magical recipe will soon stop working, and it will become necessary to use some real, human-language words. Yet, how on Earth is our sweetheart going to learn to ask for things politely, if it does not know their names nor has formed any concept of them; but all what it has figured out so far, is to scream and point at the thing in question? Even worse, what if the baby is born to a world, where mom does not know any name nor has yet formed herself any concept of anything either?


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