SLUG / GNHLUG Durham - Mon 9 Oct - Lojban

[Fred]

On Monday 25 September 2006 00:04, Ben Scott uttered thusly:
> What : Lojban language
> Who  : Dave Montenegro
> Day  : Mon 9 Oct 2006
> Time : 7:00 PM
> Where: Room 301, Morse Hall, UNH, Durham, NH
>
>   This October, SLUG is proud to be hosting Dave Montenegro, who will be
> presenting on the Lojban constructed spoken language.
>
> What is This Lojban Thing?
> --------------------------
>
>   What if the language we speak affects how we think? If that's true, what
> if we spoke a language that had a basis in logic? Would it lead to more
> logical thought? "Lojban", a language based on predicate logic with an
> unambiguous grammar, is the second generation of a language conceived to
> answer those questions.

My 2 cents:

While I find it laudable that someone has gone through the trouble of 
creating an unambiguous language, we humans by nature are creatures of 
ambiguity. If such a language were to be actually used by those other than 
us geekoids, ambiguities would be deliberately introduced! And thus it would 
be even more confusing, because the expectation of all ambiguities having 
been eliminated!

Personally, I don't think that language defines how we think -- but it does 
play a large role on how we *express* what we think. But because I think 
mostly in abstract visual patterns that becomes mapped to words *after the 
fact*, I may have a view not consistent with the rest of the population. 
Conversations with a handful of others about thinking revealed that they had 
a hard time "thinking in pictures" and instead think more linguistically. 

So, an open question I would put forward among us "geek" types is whether or 
not we tend to think more visually than the normal population? Or just how 
does the "normal" population think anyway?

-Fred
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