Words as Common Goods

Language as a public good

Cover

self-introduction

• Company: Cybozu
  • Purpose: Building a society brimming with teamwork
  • "selling productivity software"
    • (see Plural public media)
• Me: Researcher in Cybozu Labs.
  • Focus: Augmentation of intellectual productivity
    • Increased intellectual productivity
      • - [The Intellectual Production of Engineers](/en/The%20Intellectual%20Production%20of%20Engineers)
  • Why: Improving individual intellectual productivity leads to better teamwork.
    • Increased individual intellectual productivity leads to better teamwork
• (unexplored junior) do you want to talk about it?

The "Plurality" Book

• 
• Glen Weyl and Audrey Tang
• Plurality: Technology for Collaborative Diversity and Democracy
  • Technology
  • Collaborative Diversity
  • Oh, it's about Technology to "Build a society brimming with teamwork" !
• Concept of "broad listening"
  • "people can hear the distilled essence of the distribution of opinion of their peers, empowering democratic deliberation at scale"
  • Oh, this is a technology that augment the ability to understand the opinions of many other people. It is augmentation of intellectual productivity!

Japanese Translation Community

• Source: https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality
• Japanese Translation: https://github.com/nishio/plurality-japanese/
• Forum for free discussion:
  • /plurality-japanese

Good undestanding is the foundation of good translation

• Translation is a distant goal
  • The bottom line has yet to be determined.
• More and more peripheral information is being translated into Japanese.
  • Plurality Seoul, for example.
    • [/plurality-japanese/Access in Plurality](https://scrapbox.io/plurality-japanese/Access in Plurality) (by Gisele Chou)
    • [/plurality-japanese/Audrey Tang Remarks in Plurality Seoul](https://scrapbox.io/plurality-japanese/Audrey Tang Remarks in Plurality Seoul)
• To make good understanding
  • shared understanding
    • How?

Building Network of knowledge

• Example

  • 

• It links to:

  • 

• And then:

  • 

• By storing associations as links, roads are created. Then those roads help the understanding of those who come later.

• I'm leading the way to understanding.

• Help me understand.

• Common goods

  • road
  • infrastructure

• Cultivating a world of knowledge.

  • Homesteading the Noosphere

• Words are public property.

• The words The Four Elements of Human Enhancement.

Two languages

• 
• I noticed something interesting during the translation process.
  • Often, translating from Mandarin into Japanese results in more natural Japanese than translating from English.
  • 

Mandarin and Japanese have common characters

• 

  • Kanji - Wikipedia

• Common ideograms become "paths" that convey meaning.

  • A common set of ideographic characters becomes the 'road' to convey meaning.

• 

• ([/plurality-japanese/the way of hwabun](https://scrapbox.io/plurality-japanese/the way of hwabun))

• (Linguistic Plurality)

• Multiverse Division!
  • Japanese can understand the meaning!

Glen's "Why I Am a Pluralist"(2022) Mandarin version: 為何 我 是 ### 多元宇宙人

• When I first saw this poem in English, I didn't quite understand it.
• It became clearer to me after seeing the Mandarin version.
• "Plural languages" help my understanding!

Whether one subscribes to versions of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, according to which some thoughts are unthinkable in some languages, or softer accounts, clearly some languages are better adapted to expressing certain thoughts than are others, so these linguistic differences matter in some ways and reflect the conditions of the societies that host them.

• Resolution of reality

• Unlike English, Russian makes an obligatory distinction between lighter blues (“goluboy”) and darker blues (“siniy”)... Russian speakers were faster to discriminate two colors when they fell into different linguistic categories in Russian...

Sometimes a word one language have no corresponding word in thr other language Example:

• In a discussion on democratic processes at Code for Japan, a participant expressed the opinion:

  • "Democratic process is a process that generates as much Nattoku-kan as possible among a wide range of people." - A democratic process is a process that creates consensus among as many people as possible.
  • I felt convinced on the opinion.
  • But... How to translate conviction into English?

• understanding

• The nuance of "convinced."

"understanding" seems to be translated as agreement or understanding in English. But I think "agreement" is "agreement" and "understanding" is "understanding"

There is a void in English.

• Broad Listening is Important in Japan, Where Air Rules
• Erin Meyer found that Japan is a hierarchical, consensus-oriented culture of extremes.
  • 
    • To Lead Across Cultures, Focus on Hierarchy and Decision Making

We are building a special society, observing special events, and developing a special vocabulary. "We are building a unique society, observing unique phenomena, and developing a unique vocabulary."

Our traditional (or outdated) culture

Many Japanese consider this culture outdated in an era of global communication with people from diverse backgrounds. I agree. We need to change our behavior and mindset. However, the vocabulary we've created in the past can help understand the world in higher resolution.

some languages are better adapted to expressing certain thoughts than are others

Let's stop waiting for the translation. Let's participate in the thoughts that are currently emerging. Your words can become common goods and help people around the world.

Cooperative Learning Experience Human Interaction Open the gate and build a car. You'll come to me. Door is open. Let's join to create a car.

This page is auto-translated from [/nishio/Words as Common Goods](https://scrapbox.io/nishio/Words as Common Goods) using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I'm very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.