ABSTRACT
The simple, obvious fact is that what makes us human is participation in information networks. Only by such participation do we learn who we are and what to do in everyday life. Language is the principal medium humans use to spread information-whether practical, theoretical, or fanciful. But as I point out in Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human Affairs (1995), the extraordinary success that reliance on language to direct and coordinate behavior has brought within our reach rests on top of and mingles with older, gestural forms of communication that are needed to establish and sustain emotional cooperation.
