Language is Change
In order to make any real change in this world, we all need to start speaking the same language. And no I am not referring to the absurd idea that everyone in the world should speak English. Instead I am speaking of a precise and universal means of conveying knowledge. Our current language of communication is simply ill equipped, often containing ambiguity and uncertainty when important issues are involved.
The world lacks a unified, definitively stated direction. Our policies and goals are fragmented and contradictory. Democrats cannot communicate effectively with Republicans. The Israelis oppose the Arabs. The Irish Catholics clash with Irish Protestants. The Serbs are in constant conflict with Muslims. And worst of all, Paula and Simon are always fighting on American Idol. Everywhere there is interracial and interpersonal disharmony, an inability of parents to communicate with children, labor and management strife, communists differing with capitalists, etc…
Ambiguity may help lawyers, preachers, and politicians, but it doesn’t help with building houses, engineering planes, or performing surgery. For these activities we need the language of science. For communication to improve, we need a language that correlates highly with the environment and human needs. And we have this language in the scientific and technological communities. It is the nearest thing to a universal language that we have. Take this example, if you made a blueprint for a car to several technologically advanced nations in the world, the finished product would be the same in each situation regardless of their political or religious beliefs.
In other words, it is already possible to use a coherent means of communication without ambivalence. If we apply the same methods used in the physical sciences to psychology, sociology, and the humanities, a lot of unnecessary conflict could be resolved. The language of science is relatively free of ambiguities and the conflicts prevalent in our everyday, emotionally-driven language. It is deliberately designed – as opposed to evolving haphazardly through centuries of cultural change – to state problems in terms that are verifiable and readily understood by most.
Without this common descriptive language, we would have been unable to prevent disease, increase crop yields, or create the magical piece of technologically that you are currently using to read this post. Unfortunately the same is not true of conversational language. Attempts to discuss or evaluate newer concepts in social design are greatly limited by our habit of comparing newer concepts to existing systems and beliefs.
In conclusion: I should have listened to my parents when they told me that I must either become an engineer or a doctor. :0)
