[ExI] Linguistic shifts

[Tom Nowell]

Darren wrote: "I dated a linguist once. His big claim-to-fame was speaking and writing  Tolkien's elvish. He introduced me to the concept of post-scriptivisim vs. descriptivism. Those who would have new words officially monitored and approved for usage by academics, and those who would have a more organic growth based on popular usage alone. I've been a descriptivist ever since. I can't imagine a transhumanist who wasn't."

Neither could FM-2030 - in his book "Are You a Transhuman?: Monitoring and Stimulating Your Personal Rate of Growth in a Rapidly Changing World" he included quizzes for a variety of things, and Chapter 1 is "how updated is your vocabulary?"

(wikipedia directed me to a copy at 
http://fm-2030.narod.ru/ARE_YOU_A_TRANSHUMAN.pdf - interesting, but I don't know how many would respond to that format these days)

Tom