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Writeable

by Breck Yunits

November 2, 2024

If you could see everything across space and time, we would not need to read and write.

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You would not need words to tell someone how blue the Pacific can be because they could just see it.

You would not need words to learn when your grandfather decided your grandmother was the one because you could just see everything he saw.

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But we can't see everything.

We can only see what's in front of us at this moment.

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This is not optimal for our health.

Our Universe is mostly mystery, but at least we know there are patterns.

And if you can learn these patterns, you can have a better time.

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To learn a pattern you first must see it.

Our ancestors could only see with their eyes.

Some lucky descendants evolved the ability to imagine things that weren't there.

Language requires imagination.

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Once we could imagine, symbols could evolve.

A discoloring on a surface.

A mark to communicate a pattern.

What was the first mark?

What was the first symbol?

Let's imagine.

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A man sees a cave.

It is cold and getting dark.

He approaches, but then lurches back.

He sees a bear!

He holds his spear and prepares for battle.

But the bear does not move.

He looks closely.

It is not a bear, but simply charcoal discoloring the wall.

He remembers the shadows his companions make around the campfire to communicate they saw a bear.

He thinks perhaps one of them rubbed charcoal to make a permanent shadow.

He finds a different cave.

In the future, when he sees bears, he grabs some charcoal and repeats the symbol.

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Perhaps it was something like this that kickstarted writing.

Pictures at first, then pictographs and eventually phonetic alphabets where infinite patterns could be composed and communicated.

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Tens of thousands of years later, here we are with huge numbers of people who spend their days drawing charcoal bears.

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Our tribe now uses writing (or at least, pretends to use writing) to set the rules.

These include rules about writing.

What should the rules on writing be?

What is writing good for?

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Is it the author of the symbols that is most important, the symbols that are most important, or is it the user of the symbols that is most important?

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Authors have clear incentive to create symbols since that very first symbol: symbols save lives.

Even if it's not your own life, or your child's life, even if it's a complete stranger's life, we have learned that a civilization of strangers cooperating peacefully create a better world for all.

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The symbols themselves, without humans, are literally meaningless. So it can't be that.

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It is clear the most important thing is that the rules around symbols should benefit the users of symbols.

What can we do to equip users with the best symbols possible?

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What if bears learned to write?

We might not be here.

Our ancestors might have seen an idyllic image of a cozy cave and walked right into a bear's mouth.

Lies kill.

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Can we protect ourselves from writing bears, from lies?

How do we make the most from symbols?

The trick is to make symbols as honest as possible.

And how do we do that?

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Bears want nothing more than to outlaw writeability.

Bears do not want you to spread the truth about their cave.

They don't want you to know what's really inside.

And so to do that, not only do they lie about what's inside, but they make their wall unwriteable.

They do not allow edits. They do not allow transformations.

Bears make symbols to serve themselves, and themselves alone.

And by doing that, they lead people to slaughter.

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All symbols should be writeable.

Do not trust anyone who wants to restrict your rights to write.




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