Not saying the original poster is guilty of anything... but this reminds me of a story.
A while back I pointed to a car I was trailing and told my girlfriend (insert joke here) "that guys gonna get cut off. you watch". The truck was in the left lane when he should have in the right, so it was just a matter of time before he moved over. The car in the right lane had spent at least the last 5 miles in his blind spot for no reason whatsoever. Guess what? Mr. truck driver has no clue you are there. Since he hasn't seen anything in five minutes as far as he's concerned the lane is clear. Sure enough the semi signaled and immediately changed lanes, forcing the car onto the shoulder. Pretty scary. What followed was honking, finger salutes, racing up to the truck and general screaming idiocy. Yet it was totally the car's fault.
I'm always either behind a truck or blasting past it, unless traffic is very heavy, but in that case there's at least one car blocking a lane change thats not in the blind spot so I know I'm cool. If there isn't I'm braking to let the truck over or accelerating out of the blind spot, whether he's signaled a lane change or not.
Yes, it is good that people can communicate as we move towards a one-world language. It breaks down a powerful barrier to understanding, as language is deeply intertwined with culture, history, and worldview.
So thats good, practically speaking.
Unfortunately, since language is so powerful in molding minds, we lose a lot when a language dies. We lose profound knowledge about a culture and the way it sees the world. To an anthropologist or linguist, this loss is irreplacable, which is why there are projects about whose goal is to record native languages before thier last speaker dies. Piecing together the natural history of humanity becomes that much harder when language dies.
Like everything else, you take the good with the bad.
Slashdot Mirror
Not saying the original poster is guilty of anything... but this reminds me of a story.
A while back I pointed to a car I was trailing and told my girlfriend (insert joke here) "that guys gonna get cut off. you watch". The truck was in the left lane when he should have in the right, so it was just a matter of time before he moved over. The car in the right lane had spent at least the last 5 miles in his blind spot for no reason whatsoever. Guess what? Mr. truck driver has no clue you are there. Since he hasn't seen anything in five minutes as far as he's concerned the lane is clear. Sure enough the semi signaled and immediately changed lanes, forcing the car onto the shoulder. Pretty scary. What followed was honking, finger salutes, racing up to the truck and general screaming idiocy. Yet it was totally the car's fault.
I'm always either behind a truck or blasting past it, unless traffic is very heavy, but in that case there's at least one car blocking a lane change thats not in the blind spot so I know I'm cool. If there isn't I'm braking to let the truck over or accelerating out of the blind spot, whether he's signaled a lane change or not.
Yes, it is good that people can communicate as we move towards a one-world language. It breaks down a powerful barrier to understanding, as language is deeply intertwined with culture, history, and worldview.
So thats good, practically speaking.
Unfortunately, since language is so powerful in molding minds, we lose a lot when a language dies. We lose profound knowledge about a culture and the way it sees the world. To an anthropologist or linguist, this loss is irreplacable, which is why there are projects about whose goal is to record native languages before thier last speaker dies. Piecing together the natural history of humanity becomes that much harder when language dies.
Like everything else, you take the good with the bad.