blog.wired.com — For all the talk about memes acting like genes and cultures evolving like organisms, no theory of non-biological evolution exists -- but that could change. In a study published today, linguists observed an artificial language evolve from random to ordered, naturally adapting in ways that assured its reproduction.
Jul 28, 2008 View in Crawl 4
cuchanuJul 29, 2008
I already "figured" all this out when I was high and going to college. I also mapped out human evolution from the first organism on earth (I figured it didn't start on the ocean floor but rather a meteorite) all the way to when we had to leave earth to avoid the sun exploding. Although from the modern time I couldn't figure out how we would evolve in a physical way, just technologically.Oh yeah I also figured out how to see in the past. Off topic; I'm sorry, the article just reminded me.
voidvectorJul 29, 2008
The Chinese in the picture says "The green green grass is afraid of your feet." P.S. It's a "don't step on the grass" sign.
taiyoryuJul 29, 2008
I'm not surprised that language and especially English is an evolved language, given the amount of vocabulary adopted from other languages, it's irregular forms and spellings of words, and its many grammar exceptions. It's especially evident when you hear different English dialects (American versus British or Australian) to see where the language has diverged slightly, or when you hear a non-native, non-fluent speakers and see what grammar or spelling did they apply because it made sense to them even though it's incorrect. At what point does a word become a compound (web site and website) or lose its hyphen (e-mail and email)? I'm sure those who speak other languages have similar observations like in colloquial Japanese how ????? (Makudonaru) became ??? (Makudo) or simply ?? (Maku), the American English equivalent of MickeyDs and McDs.
m0lluskJul 29, 2008
SVO order rules--woo!
darkmaninperthAug 14, 2008
I got one!