
Emergency Dialect - prismatic
http://reallifemag.com/emergency-dialect/
======
dark_star
From the article: "No right-thinking or peace-loving alien species would
choose us, humans, for alliance. The heptapods chose us because we, like them,
are consummate destroyers, so skilled at war we wage it from a distance,
almost invisibly, speaking softly about co-existence."

It seems like the author has a lot of shame about being human.

~~~
Sukotto
# You want a human #

Humans quickly get a reputation among the interplanetary alliance and the
reputation is this: when going somewhere dangerous, take a human.

Humans are tough. Humans can last days without food. Humans heal so fast they
pierce holes in themselves or inject ink for fun. Humans will walk for days on
broken bones in order to make it to safety. Humans will literally cut off bits
of themselves if trapped by a disaster.

You would be amazed what humans will do to survive. Or to ensure the survival
of others they feel responsible for.

That’s the other thing. Humans pack-bond, and they spill their pack-bonding
instincts everywhere. Sure it’s weird when they talk sympathetically to broken
spaceships or try to pet every lifeform that scans as non-toxic. It’s even a
little weird that just existing in the same place as them for long enough
seems to make them care about you. But if you’re hurt, if you’re trapped, if
you need someone to fetch help?

You _really_ want a human.

source: [http://iztarshi.tumblr.com/post/145107805571/inspired-by-
var...](http://iztarshi.tumblr.com/post/145107805571/inspired-by-various-
tumblr-posts-humans-quickly)

...

I'll also link this here because I found it simultaneously hilarious, and
troublingly insightful: [http://www.tor.com/2016/10/17/the-answer-to-why-
humans-are-s...](http://www.tor.com/2016/10/17/the-answer-to-why-humans-are-
so-central-in-star-trek/)

...

And also this:
[http://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/57702943181/mikhailvladimir...](http://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/57702943181/mikhailvladimirovich-
bogleech-its-funny-how)

------
YeGoblynQueenne
>> Over the decades, the list of features posited as universal to human
grammar has been laboriously reduced to an almost catchy formulation: human
linguistic expressions are linearized, recursive hierarchical structure, with
differences in structure associated with differences in interpretation, and,
in principle, no limit on the depth of hierarchical structure.

What the article is describing (in very broad terms, probably to suit a
diverse audience) is knonw as "merge". It, along with a discussion on the
evolution of language, is discussed in the paper below:

[https://chomsky.info/20140826/](https://chomsky.info/20140826/)

------
gaius
Contemporary linguistics is to Chomsky as psychology is to Freud.

~~~
omginternets
Care to elaborate?

~~~
extra88
My guess is both elevated and popularized their fields and are the only
practitioner most people can name. However, almost none of their theories have
held up over time.

~~~
omginternets
Clearly. I'm interested in how the field has evolved relative to Chomsky.

------
jawarner
I'm not convinced that a "logical form" can exist. It suggests there is a one
true universal language of description which does not rely on context. But I'd
argue that any language reduces the objects it describes to symbols, and there
is no way to agree on such a reduction without some base agreed contextual
understanding.

