[Lojban] Steps

[Lionel Bonnetier <leo@EASYNET.FR>]

Xorxes wrote:

> Lionel:
> >If Lojban is to be the next step for human or AI languages, it will have to
> >add many explanatory footnotes when translating today's little jokes. And
> >I'm sure it will create its own puns and logical puzzles, out of reach for
> >the current languages.
>
> I can't picture Lojban as a next step for human languages. I'm not
> sure either that there was a previous step. I don't know much about
> linguistics, but as I understand it there is no evidence of such.
> Even the most primitive societies have languages that are as fully
> fledged as any.

The anthropologically named 'primitive' societies do master a fully
articulated speech indeed. I was depicting the supposed step from the
instinctive signal toward the complex mental representation coded into
gesture and words. Some apes can master symbolic articulation in appropriate
incitative environments.

My initial question seems to have raised a debate on the various purposes of
Lojban. I find all of these exciting, not exclusively seeking a future
language for the posthuman -- which AIs are likely to invent out of
necessity before we built it from theory.

Another point: I haven't heard of a lexicon of sciences in Lojban. Do some
Lojbanists already work on such a project? I would like to take part in the
work when I reach a decent mastering of the language.

Yours,

Lionel


   Lionel Bonnetier <leo@easynet.fr>   Ph: +33 478 601 862