17th April 2005, 7:36 PM
Need I point out that to a baby, not a single thing they see is understood at at. Eventually though, they figure out how it works, partly from their own investigations and partly from others explaining things to them as well as the evidence that shows it. I'm fairly certain that the concepts we understand aren't "way beyond" their comprehension. We do both live in the same physical universe, with the same laws, so our experiences, while different in many respects, are going to share a lot of similarities based simply on that fact. As a result, there is going to be some common ground on which to explain it all. They'll understand so long as they are willing to learn, because they are human.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)