Thanks, Rich, for the interesting note. For another kind of completeness, I'll comment that I speak Esperanto.
In the period 1900-1905, approximately, there was a lot of interest among French intellectuals in the possible use of a constructed language for the purpose of international communications, with Esperanto the leading contender. This led to a conference of scientific groups that actually picked a language, Ido, which was a modified Esperanto which supposedly "fixed" perceived failings of Esperanto. Roughly speaking, Ido rejected the unusual non-European structure of Esperanto in favor of a more "naturalistic" scheme thought to appeal more to educated Europeans, and possibly easier for Europeans to read at sight (but likely to be more difficult to speak or write). The whole affair was a major schism which damaged the movement to adopt an easy-to-learn second language. Both Esperanto and Ido still exist in globally dispersed communities, but the Esperanto community has by far the largest number of speakers of all the constructed languages. It is difficult to get good numbers, but there are probably 50 to 100 thousand fluent speakers. I've even known a number of native speakers of Esperanto, born to parents who met in the Esperanto-speaking community and continued to speak the language at home. Few educated Americans have ever heard of Esperanto, and what they've heard is in my experience mostly incorrect. Google Esperanto for vast amounts of information, much of it accurate. An interesting math connection: Sometime around 1900 Peano, of mathematical fame, gave a talk in which he started in pure Latin, progressively during the talk introduced various simplifications, and by the end was speaking a much simplified Latin which he proposed for international use. Bruce On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 9:41 AM, Owen Densmore <o...@backspaces.net> wrote: > Wow, thanks Rich. And the follow-on conversation on the website is also > interesting. > I have to admit the Axiom of Choice has been puzzling to me, why its > importance, how it is applied and so on. > -- Owen > > On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 9:11 AM, Rich Murray <rmfor...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> "no one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created", >> Hugh Woodin's "ultimate L": Richard Elwes: Rich Murray 2011.08.18 >> >> >> http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128231.400-ultimate-logic-to-infinity-and-beyond.html?full=true >> >> Ultimate logic: To infinity and beyond >> >> 01 August 2011 by Richard Elwes >> Magazine issue 2823. >> >> The mysteries of infinity could lead us to a fantastic structure above >> and beyond mathematics as we know it >> >> WHEN David Hilbert left the podium at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, >> on 8 August 1900, few of the assembled delegates seemed overly >> impressed. According to one contemporary report, the discussion >> following his address to the second International Congress of >> Mathematicians was "rather desultory". Passions seem to have been more >> inflamed by a subsequent debate on whether Esperanto should be adopted >> as mathematics' working language. >> >> Yet Hilbert's address set the mathematical agenda for the 20th >> century. It crystallised into a list of 23 crucial unanswered >> questions, including how to pack spheres to make best use of the >> available space, and whether the Riemann hypothesis, which concerns >> how the prime numbers are distributed, is true. >> <snip> > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
