| > You simply won't be able to understand what that means or why someone would say it as a literal translation. This is a supporting argument for my point: it’s the equivalent of an in-joke that I simply wouldn’t be able to understand. Lots of groups have in-jokes that I can’t understand. For example, 3/4ths of memes on gaming and sports subreddits. These are rich cultures I am not a part of and have no need to be a part of. I want there to be a single, unifying baseline language that we can all understand. When a concept is relevant to us, we’ll create words for it. When it’s a historical or cultural curiosity and not relevant to us, we’ll leave it to be explored by hobbyists, academics and people who have some historical connection to it. Not every in-joke in every culture needs to be preserved as a world heritage. At some point we need to say: here are the words to know and here’s how we use them to do math, science, politics, and to debate social issues… everything that involves people who aren’t in one’s personal in-group, in one’s tribe or on one’s team. Those words will evolve, but let them evolve globally, with off-shoots that are relevant to in-groups, but with a main branch that is relevant to everybody. |