How is AI affecting language? “To reduce language to information is to flatten out the miracle of understanding.” — George Steiner, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation (1975)
George Steiner, the translator and poet, argues that understanding is irreducible to data. What is understanding?
Just like food is not reducible to its constituent elements, so Language is not reducible to information.
If we break food into its constituent elements and then reassemble them like pieces of a puzzle, we will not get true food – we will get a simulation of food that doesn’t nourish. Real food that nourishes is whole.
If we break language into its constituent elements, and then reassemble them like pieces of a puzzle, we will not get true Language – we will get a simulation of Language that doesn’t connect. True Language that connects is always whole.
To get whole food, we must receive it as it grows from the earth.
To get whole Language, we must receive it as it proceeds from the mouth of a human being.
If we keep eating broken, synthetic food for too long, we will be malnourished.
If we keep using broken, synthetic Language for too long, we will be “malconnected” – alone, alienated, isolated, depressed.
As Tolkien said through the mouth of Gandalf:
“He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.” The Lord of the Rings
Humanity has been experimenting with broken, synthetic foods for over a century, only to find out that this “food” kills.
Humanity has just started experimenting with broken, synthetic language, and it will find out that it “disconnects.”
Humanity is slowly awakening to the miracle of “whole foods.”
Let’s hope it will awaken to the miracle of “Whole Language.”
Let’s connect and create something REAL!
