[qrios]

Also not abstract. To be ‘abstract’, a language must combine several objects ‘under one umbrella’. Depicting different things in the same notation is the opposite of abstract. YACCANL (Yet Another Cargo-Cult Abstraction Non-Markup Language).

[ctenb]

Abstract is an abstract word. Your interpretation is just one of the possible meanings. You could argue that this language is abstract because the data has no intrinsic meaning.

[miningape]

Yeah but then the argument dissolves into the sea of absurdity. We can (and should) assume at some level there's another intelligent being on the other end that we're communicating to.

[ctenb]

No? Intelligence is not telepathy. You can't just assume that your initial interpretation is the correct one, even more so if you interpretation doesn't make sense. Like in this case, where the parents interpretation of "abstract" is literally not applicable to this configuration language.