Dear colleagues, I did not read the rest of the message past what I quote below, becase it did not seem to me that the structure of the message would answer the question I pose. Therefore, I make a request: On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 01:08:29AM +0200, jefsey wrote:
However, the Internet MUST be supported by a network/human oriented universal semiotic system.
I would like a defence of that claim. Speaking entirely personally, I don't believe it. We shape our technology, but our technology also shapes us. There is nothing intrinsic about "green" meaning "go". There is nothing about the universe that causes time zones (which is different from saying "differences in the apparent time of dawn and dusk"). Yet we all, techno-literate that we are, take these bits of cultural dreck and make them true. Moreover, we adjust to them -- somehow finding it more convenient to say, "Darkness falls earlier," than to say, "The time on the clock is wrong." It is, in my personal opinion, completely foolish to imagine that Internet names -- which are, by their nature at the time of registration and lookup, even if not for the user, completely devoid of cultural context -- can ever be made completely user-centric. Users will have to learn some things, and some of those things will be "Internet names are a little different, & have strange restrictive rules." More importantly, while I am not one of those people in the thrall of the conceptual scheme (cf. Davidson), I think it is preposterous to suggest that we will come up with a universal semiotic system given the limitations of the DNS and the way that denoting works in different linguistic traditions. I believe we can come up with some useful conventions that will work most of the time, for most people. I believe that these will strain the rules of every writing system on the planet, in much the way that "ns1" strains English writing rules. I am incredulous at the suggestion that the Internet needs a "network/human oriented universal semiotic system," both because I don't believe it and because I believe that humans (and especially human language) are much more resilient than that. Best regards, Andrew -- Andrew Sullivan ajs@anvilwalrusden.com