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I've always loved the mysticism around the Names of things. It shows up in fantasy magic systems, it shows up in religious texts, it shows up in political discourse, it shows up in just about any decent programming text. Because we recognize, as creatures of language, that names have real, true power. There is something so magical and cool about the act of assigning a name to anything, it shapes the way we think about that thing. In some of my favorite stories, finding somethings "True Name" gives you some form of power over it. That combination of sounds and syllables that lets you grasp something's essence, understand it, hold a whole abstraction in your mind at once - of course that would be something of great power! I also love the correspondence to mathematics. Think of Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism for an example, or the long quest for a "Unified Theory of Physics". Maybe names need not be words, exactly. Maybe names can be equations, or snippets of music, or any other lossless compression of some deep concept - where, by knowing the name, you gain an understanding of the whole of something without losing anything in the reduction. Anyway, spiritual mystical hokey pokey mumbo jumbo, I know - but certainly fun to think about! |
Edit: but you seem like you did.