Re: virus: Tools, Language and Text (is this an ok example?)

Lena Rotenberg (lrr@netkonnect.net)
Fri, 19 Jun 1998 01:33:42 -0400


>Nope, just a lowly grad student polishing up my thesis in Humanities
>Interdisciplinary (philosophy/psychology/anthropology/sociology) at
>the University of West Florida (grin). Salamantis

Yup, you have demonstrated a masterful instantiation of academic
language.... A couple of comments:

"Spoken and written
language forms will continue vanishing as quickly as endangered
species, as informational selection takes its Darwinian toll."

What is the rationale for this conclusion (last section)? Are you implying
that info / cognitive overload will destroy language?

And, "Now [with text] history can be recorded" -- it isn't that simple.
And, more seriously, "So far this may seem mere speculation, but watch how
it dovetails with history."

An interesting book is Edward H. Carr's 'What is History?' -- an very
pleasant intro to historiography. Unfortunately I for one don't see how
much of this dovetails with history. But you've offered some interesting
speculations nonetheless....

lena

--
Lena Rotenberg
lrr@netkonnect.net