changing my mind

[mellowtigger]

There has been some evidence in recent years that our language affects our thoughts.  I want to be pro-active in this matter, so I've decided to make a stronger push in my life to include 3 specific changes.

Comments

[bluebear2]

Yeah, the metric thing is way easier. It's fine if some country still uses their old measuring system for internal affairs but the people should be schooled in what the rest of the world uses or they'll be the oddballs when they travel. Americans can no longer rely on being dominant anymore to just strut into any country and have everyone conform to them. They're going to have to learn other ways and other languages. At least enough to get by for the length of their travel

[mellowtigger]

Efficiency vs. mileage. Interesting. Yes, it makes sense that people have a psychological affinity for "more" (distance traveled) rather than "less" (fuel consumed).

I intended a /zee/ pronunciation, but I may revise my resolution shortly. (See other comments below.)

[furr_a_bruin]

Just wondering if you considered Spivak pronouns - and if you did, what about them you found less desirable than the Xe set?

Of all the genderless pronoun sets I've looked at, ey/em/eir seems more "natural" to me, being derived from the plural pronouns. And because of that, I have an unsubstantiated feeling that if someone unaware of the concept ran across them... they'd be more understandable in context. I think someone unfamiliar with them would probably see them as an odd typo and get the intended meaning.

[mellowtigger]

Examining these issues dredges up all kinds of deeply buried associations and instincts. It's fascinating mental anthropology, of a sort

[litch]

there are quite a few places that are only partially metric (england, canada, hong kong, hell much of the old british empire/commonwealth), I think once the baby boom dies the generations who have grown up with it taught at a young age will be much less obstinate. If nothing else the multi-national corporations will demand it to ease their packaging and logistics.

So what kind of change in yourself are you trying to make by changing your language?

[mellowtigger]

Didn't NASA lose a space probe because of a metric/english conversion error? I can't remember which probe it was.

I don't have much of a notion where it might lead. If I knew what would come of it, I'd skip the intermediate step and go right for the goal. :) I'm sure I've read some review of national languages and gender equality, and it found some sort of correlation between the two. Maybe it was the gender-neutral languages which first promoted the equality concept? I can't remember. :(

I would hope that a year-system that makes some logical sense would help everyone to better think of our history on this planet in terms of changes and transitions (of languages, empires, religions, everything). Our non-zero-year with backward-positive-years calendar confuses me, if no one else.

[litch]

One of the mars landers, as I recall the issue was nasa uses metric and the contractor (lockheed?) use english.

Sounds like you are trying to use language to change other people rather than yourself, not sure that's a good idea. It at least raises issues of consentuality.

Ever heard of E-prime? The changes that it is supposed to evoke seem to be things I'd like to develop in myself.

[pi3832]

I've always found it odd that when I'm working as a chemist, much of what I do uses SI units, but I don't use them at all outside of work. And I can't really translate between the two. I know that you can't run a GC lower than about 35 C without some sort of coolant (CO2 or LN2), but if you tell me the current temperature outside in "C" I'll just give you a blank stare.

Besides, in general, units of measure are completely FUBAR. Yes, switching to SI would help, but it would hardly "make things easy." E.g., pipe "sizes" are determined by the inner diameter. Which is nice for being able to quickly estimate flow through a given piece of pipe, but it also means that the outer diameter for "half-inch pipe" varies quite a bit depending on the material of construction of the pipe. (Conversely, tubing--which is merely really tiny pipes--is named by the outer diameter.)

Then there's the land of IT, where one kilobyte is 1024 bits, and to convert from Mbps to KBps you multiple by 128 (or maybe 125, or perhaps 122--no, no, really, I've found

[mellowtigger]

Yeah, computer programmers really screwed themselves over by using decimal naming convention for a non-decimal computing system. *sigh

[bluebear2]

To me it's funny reading this discussion. Who uses fahrenheit anymore?

The one neat thing about fahrenheit though is that you can use the pun "Life begins at 40". It's said by refrigerator people because below 40ºF is where food should be stored. Above that it can go bad.

[bluebear2]

I remember some neo-pagan types who were using the year of the Goddess. Pretty well adding 10,000 years the Christian year as they say the Goddess worship in Europe started approximately that amount of time before.