[ExI] language

[Anders Sandberg]

William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com> , 26/4/2014 5:27 PM:
In my far future book the people use two languages:  one is extremely objective - no synonyms, no homonyms, nothing to confuse - designed for conveying strictly factual information with little to no room for misunderstanding.  The second language is meant for nuance:  prose and poetry, puns and word play, rich in adjectives and adverbs, etc.
 
Aside from mathematics and computer languages, what more is needed?  

Language is used not just for conveying information, but also socially (signalling that you are around, creating certain moods, conveying status or opinions) and as an action: when I promise to do X, I perform a speech act that creates a moral obligation for me to do X. Speech acts are pretty important for a society.
I wonder if your people behave according to the Aumann agreement theorem. If they are rational and tell each other what they believe, they will immediately come to reach the same conclusion: they *cannot* agree to disagree. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aumann's_agreement_theorem


Anders Sandberg, Future of Humanity Institute Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University
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