Re: Origin and function of language

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Thomas Clarke wrote:
> For an entertaining version see Robert Heinlein's _Stranger in a Strange
> Land_ wherein a human who learns the Martian language aquires extraordinary
> powers over reality.

Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. The language gave the symbols
required to learn the discipline required to have the powers over reality.
A bit like saying that learning the language of electronic engineering is
one of the steps of becoming an electronic engineer, but that simply knowing
the language does not give you the ability to construct a circuite chip.
It's really quite different from certain mystic traditions where you only
need to know the word or true name for a thing to have control over it.

-- 

The preceding are my opinions alone and have nothing

whatever to do with my employer.  I don't even know what my

employer thinks. I'm not even real sure who the CEO is.

Dan Evens

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