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From: a.amir@bton.ac.uk (aharon)
Subject: Re: Math as pornography
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Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 09:53:15 GMT
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In article <4lltk7$k4t@news.nyu.edu>
gans@scholar.chem.nyu.edu (Paul J. Gans) writes:

> Michael L. Siemon (mls@panix.com) wrote:
> : In article <4lkcvd$g52@news.xmission.com>, ogdenc@xmission.com wrote:
> 
> : +mls@panix.com (Michael L. Siemon) wrote:
> 
> : +This is clearly not true.  Yeats' _Kinsella's Lament for his 14k Baud
> : +Modem_ is, and, I'm sure, has been, translated into ASCII code, which
> : +is, of course, just a bunch of mathematical numbers that can be
> : +operated upon by mathematical principles in a computer processor.
> 
> : I think it is obviously hopeless to discuss language with a fool who
> : says that an encoding is a translation.  I suppose you think you are
> : being clever.  'Bye.
> 
> Don't leave yet.  We haven't ruffled the "postmodernists"
> enough yet.  Before we're done they will have extended the
> concept of language to include essentially EVERYTHING.  And,
> of course, they will not realize that this makes the term
> "language" useless.
> 
> Since perhaps some of them are reading this, answer this:  what
> is NOT language.  Be careful how you answer...
> 
>      ----- Paul J. Gans  [gans@scholar.chem.nyu.edu]
> 


RECONTEXTUALISED
