1) Language is one attempt at creating a tool to convey ideas- in many ways it is our best attempt, although music and painting and other arts can often convey an idea in ways that words cannot.

2) Human ideas are composed not only the facts or conclusions of their originators, but also their memories and emotions.

3) Language as we know it is only able to convey an imitation of the original idea to its receiver. During the reception of ideas, receivers add a layer of subjectivity to their own ideas, memories and emotions.

4) Words of any language are useful (and often beautiful) imitations of the perfect language.

5) The perfect language would convey not only the original idea in fact and conclusion, but also the relevant memories and emotions of the originators. Furthermore, it would allow the receiver to receive not only the parts and whole of the idea, but to allow for the same layer of subjectivity as well as interaction and synthesis. There must be clear boundaries between these layers in the receiver’s mind.

6) The perfect language will be found to be made not of words, but of pure, undiluted ideas; therefore it will be less of a language and more of a method.

7) This method for recording, transferring and receiving ideas in a perfect way will be either mechanical or divine.

A public update about Autodidactism 2010, discussing my fundraising progress and other goodies about the project. If you pledge, you get access to all of these updates, public and private.

I grew up in a Unitarian Universalist church- it was interesting to revisit and re-educate myself about UU ideals.

Autodidactism (from the Greek αὐτοδίδακτος, meaning self-taught) “is self-education or self-directed learning. An autodidact is a mostly self-taught person, as opposed to learning in a school setting or from a full-time tutor or mentor. Autodidacts might spend their time reading either in solitude or in public spaces such as at libraries or via educative websites. They may or may not have designed a plan for their course of study. They may or may not engage a network of experts for guidance.” [Wikipedia]

I would like to spend my summer break reading books, learning about and trying things I am interested in. If I raise at least $1,400, I will do these things in addition to writing and self-publishing a book composed of essays written over the course of the summer. The money will go towards my college education.

Flexibility is an important element for any autodidactic pursuit, but I do have a starting point. I maintain a list of books that I would like to read on Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/543548…. I am studying the Great Books at St. John’s, so I would like to supplement that knowledge with more modern works of non-fiction and literature. Some general areas that I am interested in studying this summer include psychology, linguistics, education, Eastern religions and philosophy, mathematics and science, and history.

As far as the experiential part of my summer, I have a few projects I will investigate and probably try: polyphasic sleep, Vipassana meditation, new exercise routines, learning languages such as Esperanto and Latin, attempting programming, etc.

I will self-publish the book on Lulu.com, a print-on-demand self-publishing company.

Thank you in advance for your generous support! I’m very excited about this project and with your help, I can achieve something that will not only be formative and educational, but I will also have a tangible final product, my book.

The Campaign for St. John’s College published a transcript of this lecture to promote liberal education and The Program in particular. The Library of Congress also has a streaming video of this lecture.