Re: forward masking (was: Re: Hugos)

From: KPJ (kpj@sics.se)
Date: Tue Dec 19 2000 - 05:53:36 MST


It appears as if Michael M. Butler <butler@comp-lib.org> wrote:

|My prediction, the first time I re-read that story ("Gulf") after
|acquainting myself with Claude Shannon's work on information theory, was
|that you'd better be in a damned good environment, or you'd *have* to
|switch back to something more redundant like English. Even wind noise in
|your ears on a beach might drop your recognition rate off a cliff. And
|forget about a cocktail party. Or so I suspect.

Yes, unless the statements give enough context. Even the writers of English
can occasionally communicate even though they do not have the more elaborate
inflection system of the German language.

I have noted that humans speaking one of the Chinese languages sometimes sign
the character to define the phoneme meaning. Speedtalk'ers can use this battle
language as well: increase bits per second but keep the old baud rate.

Loglan, anybody?

______________________________________________________________________________
Q: How may BORGs does it take to replace a lightbulb?
A1: None. The BORG does not assimilate inferior technology.
A2: None. The BORG have excellent night vision.



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