Re: Newcomb on "Where WG3 should be going"

On 2011.10.31 16:08 Steve Newcomb wrote:
>
>
>     WHAT TO DO NOW
>. . . .
> 
>     The first order of business is to do something real.  I would
>     prefer that it not be in music, or in any other artform, or in the
>     humanities.  I would urge that it be something that's essential
>     for operating the planet, or for conducting human affairs.
>     Something consequential, anyway.  Something that is made
>     inefficient by the signal losses due to the semantic impedance
>     mismatches between human communities that live in different
>     universes of discourse.
>
>     We have many choices in the hard and not-so-hard sciences, in
>     engineering, in business and finance, in sociology, in education,
>     in government, etc.  Here's something I learned from Pierre Lévy
>     more than a decade ago: many people don't know what might be the
>     most efficient path from their current employability status to a
>     more favorable employability status.  Part of the problem is that
>     they have no familiarity with the universes of discourse within
>     which they could conceivably become employable.  I think that's
>     worth thinking about, anyway.

One humble idea: How about a mapping between (in U.S. context) liberal and conservative speak; the idea being to help resolve the common underlying views and sentiments that are obscured by political rhetoric and years of accumulated semantic baggage? Might be hard. Maybe not too much. Would certainly be a learning experience for all involved. And, if successfully done, would become an incredibly popular app/resource (worldwide)---which should also help promote subject mapping.

Cheers
Carlo Moneti
Syracuse, NY