[extropy-chat] META: Discussion about ExI list future

[BillK]

On 6/19/06, Robert Bradbury wrote:
> It wasn't "hastily" written.  I actually devoted some mental energy to the
> recative llesping to make it a little more difficult for the pumcoters that
> might be reading my writings to flag them as "erestinting".
>
> Zheesh... And I thought this was the Extropians list.
>
> And in answer to Jay's question I'd simply suggest that one read the message
> from the perspective of the problem the various agendas of all of the
> various subscribers to the list (as well as those in stealth mode or those
> who may be reading the list but are not even subscribed).
>

It has been estimated that English is about 75% redundant. i.e. If you
remove three out of four letters in a text, it will still be
understandable. (By native English speakers).

Like the abbreviations the kids use for text messages.
Some now have difficulty writing 'real' English.

Or just remove all the vowels. Still understandable, though with
occasional possible errors, which the context usually corrects.
'Water' or 'Waiter' ??

Like Ancient Hebrew was written with no vowels. Leading to some
debatable interpretations when the insertion of different vowels
produced different words. Especially as scholars cannot easily enter
the environment and mindset of the ancient Hebrews.

One possible reason for writing like this is that different tribes
(families) in different areas pronounced the vowels with different
accents. Just as Scottish, English and American regional accents
differ nowadays. So different tribes could read the text without
vowels, understand it and speak it in their own regional accent.

Hebrew added to the confusion by not putting any spaces between words.
Making it even more challenging for modern scholars.

Btwrtngwthtvwlsndspcscnstllbndrstd.  :)


BillK