[extropy-chat] ai reading the internet again

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of BillK
...
> 
> On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 22:19:30 -0800, spike wrote:
> > ..
> > his cheering section unfurled a banner which read:
> > Don't Suck, Straigis!
..
> 
> Suck is a word that originates from the sound that you make when you
> do it...

But BillK, there are so many different sounds that are 
possible while one sucks, for you do not specify precisely
what actual activity one is doing when one sucks.

Suddenly it occurred to me that we have achieved Orwell's 
vision of Newspeak.  In 1984, Language evolves by devolving: 
it is simplified by eliminating so many synonyms.  If Readers
Digest were published in Newspeak, it might contain such
features as "Toward Less Picturesque Speech" and "It Pays
to Decrease Your Word Power".  

In Orwell's totalitarian nightmare "1984" O'Brien (who was 
strikingly prescient of the Dilbert character Wally) suggests 
that the plethora of words denoting shades of good and bad, 
for instance, could all be replaced with a combination of the 
simple unambiguous terms good, ungood, double, and plus.
We now do the same with "suck", "doesn't suck" and "waay", 
with the number of "a"s denoting degree or extent.  Example:

1984:  Orwell is double plus good.
2005:  Orwell waaaay doesn't suck. 

Everyone here, pleeeeeease read Orwell's 1984.  Its a short
book.  Is that on the extropians reading list?  Can we add
it if not?

spike