Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Universal Language, Binary Code, Mathematics

For some, the prototype of a universal language has been Esperanto.  But, while the generality of it is empirically derived, i. e. it is a hybrid of given languages, the universality envisioned by Leibniz is formal.  For a binary code is constituted by the characteristic that is essential to any Language--two distinct elements.  Now, that those two elements are '1' and '0' is arbitrary, i. e. any other pair of symbols would suffice for the purpose, e. g. 'Yin' and 'Yang'.  Nor are the physical characteristics of the computer chip that currently ground the distinction unique--sonic 'dots' and 'dashes' have previously served the same purpose.  So, if, as some believe, a universal language is fundamentally Mathematical, it is not insofar as it is expressed as such by the symbols '1' and '0'.  Rather, it is insofar as such a language is essentially dyadic, i. e. its foundation is enumerably two.

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