UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
Words can be more powerful than weapons. Instead of the endless,
half-hearted international disarmament negotiations, what we really
need is a
universal language. The dumb network we called the Internet would
then come alive. People world over can exchange words faster than
politicians can swap bombs. The world would assume a collective
conscience.
This conscience would demand that we reverse our present course to
destroy ourselves.
For a starter, such a universal language should consist 1000
simplified English words and 100 traditional Chinese
characters. Being aphabetical, English gears toward
abstract and analytical thinking. It is suitable for interacting
with
machines. Being pictorial, Chinese characters paint the affairs
of
human cultural development. The selected 100 most
culturally-oriented
characters should adequately describe the current state of
humanity. Specifically, they will be built-in reminders of our
moral priorities.
Remember how meticulously our parents choose a name of us. For
the Chinese, the meanings of the words are everything. Well, this
100 characters set is the name of our people.
To date, the 1000 English words have pretty much been selected.
They are simply the vocabulary appearing on the monitor screen of a
software automation computing environment called ROBACUS, which stands
for robotic abacus. ROBACUS performs every
aspect of computing with plain English, from software programmings to
complex analyses. It has been successfully applied to
applications ranging from the analysis of a ping pong match to the
design of nuclear space reactors. These 1000 words would take two
weeks to learn. What this means is that, in two weeks time,
any person
can become a versatile computer user.
As to the 100 Chinese characters, it's nothing to be treated
lightly. This is equivalent to writing a Constitution for the
Planet Earth. A steering committee needs to be set up, to not
only
select
the words, but also arrange them in exact order of behavioral
priorities. One big hurdle is in reverting back to the
traditional full-body Chinese character set. The picture that
each character represents must still be the master piece handed down to
us
over thousands years of refinements, rather than the current hollowed
character
expediently simplified for ease of
use. In effect, each word would be like an amendment to our
natural instinct. But this time, such a manual for proper
behavior resides in each and
everyone's own memory, rather than in law books that we normally find
out
when it's too late.
Thus, finally the impossible dream of all
parents and teachers comes true. Morality would be taught in the
form of an art appreciation class for the Chinese characters.
Now, we have the computer, the brain of all machines, to teach us how
to interact with the physical world. And we have the cumulated
wisdom of past sages to tell us how to interact with each others.
The two parts of the universal language complement each other, as well
as serve as a check and balance. We simply take advantage of
each's merits and avoid their pitfalls. While the directness of Chinese
can reach the hearts and souls of humans, it has difficulty relate to
machines. And the same flexibility offered by English in
communicating with machines also provide rooms for lying to humans.
The 1000 English words will make us useful. The 100
Chinese characters will make us good persons.
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/exhibition/605/page31.html
better access to Korea's
cultural heritage as reasons for including more Chinese characters
To the Japanese today, the Japanese language is not simply
the way they talk and write. For them, it has assumed the dimensions of
a national myth of vast proportions (Miller 1982:4-5).
I v been browsing on liquistic purism and primodialists. It
almost appears people would go to wars to
defend their sacred languages. Unless we come up with an Earth
language quick, the Earth is
not safe.