The Information Diet

Chapter 2. Information, Power, and Survival

Most of us don’t remember the moment we began to discover language, to understand words, and to speak—the closest we get to it is watching our children discover it for themselves.

Helen Keller was an exception. The renowned deaf-blind activist didn’t learn about language until she was seven years old. Of the discovery, she wrote:

“We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away. I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me.”^[13]

Keller discovered not just language, but a passion to know, and to tell—a ...