Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!honeysuckle!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!portc02.blue.aol.com!howland.erols.net!ix.netcom.com!i17
From: i17@netcom.com (Vivian Waugh)
Subject: Logos and Experience
Message-ID: <i17EEB4K2.H1x@netcom.com>
Organization: Hippo UniCampus
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 1997 22:16:50 GMT
Lines: 56
Sender: i17@netcom9.netcom.com


Someone in that PATTERN thread (the IBMi guy I believe) said that
words do NOT first appear and then develop a connexioma of 'meanings',
these derived from experience, and at higher levels from pattern-ing.

The gnostics say that LOGOS, the word, was indeed primal, even before
a 69 yingyang causeffect feedaround makes the Hole Point moot.

In other words, WORDS ARE NEGATIVE, like dropping a little black hole
into the mind, and then watching the connexioma it forms.  And indeed,
from the word's perspective it is quite central and 'first' in all that.

But I wish to stress further the bizarre power of neologisms which "sound 
good".  A joke of my mind's internal banter is "SOUNDS GOOD, WHAT IS IT?"

There is a certain magic to creating "science fiction jargon".  William
Gibson and William S. Burroughs tend to create un-euphonious future-slang,
and so maybe their effect on the future might be more of vaccination than
prediction.  Iain M. Banks and Ursula K. LeGuin are excellent at naming
stuff which conjures instantly full-blown senses of "Hey, I know EXACTLY
what he's talking about."  

Off course, most use of neologism is to create nexus points which provide
'stepping stones' into regions of thought which are bottlenecked or 
under-pathed and thus difficult to 'flesh out' or 'see into'.  And the more
common person is usually given permission to use certain standard prefixes
and suffixes and hyphenations in order to tread (temporarily) in areas where 
he has no masterful vocabulary in his standardized dictionary/thesaurus.

In closing I am interested in rhyme.
I think that a very fun piece of software would collect a connectsus of
rhyming syllables and then construct rhythmic raps and doggerel which 
would be quite entertaining to hear spoken, perhaps again by machine.

Leave the meaning to the Listener,
keep the meter running steady.
When dead-ends invoke the Christener
the result sounds like Tom Petty!

Sometimes words just have *no* meaning-frame:
viz "Fiat Luxifor" on Day Zero.
Some Programmer with a Secret Name
just wanted to be a Hero.

Playing 'electric violin' to flaming
fans on drugs, much Higher than Nero,
something "Six Cubed" takes the blaming
for inventing stuff like KERO-
(-sene.)

17. 15:15 2august97. 55lines. "And I didn't mention NUMBERS even ONCE! Oops!"
-- 
*                                                                           *
*  'Technology' is indistinguishable from sufficiently low forms of Magic.  *
*                                                                           *
*                   -- ACCelery Q. Een to his pal Niner Triple Zero         *
*                                                                           *
