Language, Thought and Reality
Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf
The pioneering linguist Benjamin Whorf (1897–1941) grasped the relationship between human language and human thinking: how language can shape our innermost thoughts. His basic thesis is that our perception of the world and our ways of thinking about it are deeply influenced by the structure of the languages we speak.
@appassionato@bookstodon I mean, we interpret the world around us based on an internal model. So HOW that model is build and maintained will always impact out interpretation.
Some of that is linguistic. Of course, not entirely. But our language model will impact our world model, to an extent.
Ever dreamed of spending a vacation surrounded by books? Gladstone's Library may be your dream destination. It's the U.K.'s only residential library and has 26 bedrooms, 150,000 books, and several book-lined reading rooms with desks and armchairs where you can read, study and write (in the past decade, more than 300 books have been worked on there). Emily Monaco wrote about staying there for BBC Travel.
Now that Monday has been cast out, here are 2 books to help exorcise other evils. One supposes that "demons" are really aliens and we should seek to communicate, rather than expel them. The other seems to presume that only women can be demon-possessed. Maybe that's why Stephen King's famous fictional Fury was "Christine", instead of Carson.
Currently reading an inspector Harry Hole novel, by #jonesbo. It's the third I read in a row.
Speaking of this... Do you binge read books till you finish the entire series or you'd rather read other things in between? #bookstodon@bookstodon
@orionkidder@azforeman@bookstodon He is. I mean I love books - because I love reading them. Because i love learning from them, or having my imagination stretched. Or just having new ideas.
It is not an erotic relationship. It is a deply emotional relationship.
And one that (for me) needs the physical books around, to hold the key to the memories. If you take a book away, you are taking a part of me away.
Do you know there's a #fediverse alternative to Amazon-owned #Goodreads? #BookWyrm is a social network for tracking your reading, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next. You can follow and interact with users on different #BookWyrm instances and on #Mastodon. You can import from a Goodreads CSV export. You can create private shelves and curated lists. Join us at https://ramblingreaders.org or choose one of the other instances available #books#reading#bookstodon@bookstodon
There are usually restrictions on usage - I write proprietary software, and there are sometimes conditions that mean any usage has to be open source too - which is a pain.
But you have the source, so you can change it - but probably not then claim it is the original.
There was a poll that stated—Rowling’s opening line in the HP series is one of best in the world. Someone posted about how there are a bunch of other opening statements that are better.
Here’s one of my personal favorites, from Gabriel Garcia Marquez (English translated):
“It is inevitable. The scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”
If you recently learned that your book (or books) were used without your knowledge or consent to train AI, here's what you can do next, according to the Authors Guild (which has already filed a class action suit against OpenAI, representing more than a dozen writers).
I am very aware of it when I use online tools and put pieces of the company code into them for checking/comparing/whatever. I try to ensure that I am not actually leaking company IP.
And I know many people don't concern themselves with this! But I do.
That whole process works when there is a person who is taking the responsibility (and claiming - by referencing - to have read the original). When it is a database, to correct that, to even challenge that, is much harder.