Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

April 1, 2013

On the Eight Day

Filed under: Marketing,Topic Maps — Patrick Durusau @ 7:45 pm

On the eight day of creation [language and time units are for the convenience of the reader. The celestial court exists outside of their strictures].

I started this post off as an April Fools Day gag but the keyboard ran away from me.

See what you think.

L = Lord

O = Other member(s) of the celestial court

L: The Tower of Babel is another example of bad PR from my own followers.

O: How so? Didn’t you confuse their languages to prevent an assault on Heaven?

L: Look around you. It is likely I would be fearful of someone piling up bricks to assault Heaven?

O: Well, now that you mention it, no, it doesn’t seem likely. (In an uncertain tone of voice.)

L: Would it help if I explained why humans invented the story of the Tower of Babel?

O: Nodding quickly.

L: Arrogance.

O: Arrogance?

L: Think about it. There are two types of people. One type thinks they know what and how everyone else should be thinking. The other type knows who should be telling others what and how to think.

The Tower of Babel story blames me for the competition to force others to a single way of thinking.

What’s ironic is their arrogance multiplies the number of languages and approaches to languages. Every generation denigrates what went before, for a new bumper crop of shiny “truths.”

Need an example?

Take their “when in the beginning there was FORTRAN….”

Now look at any listing of major programming languages, never mind the smaller ones.

No Tower of Babel story there.

O: What about the Tower of Babel as an explanation for different languages?

L: Glad you asked.

I’ll give you one guess who thinks they are entitled to an explanation for everything.

More listening to others and less whining about not being in charge would be a start towards less confusion of languages.

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