Words as Public Goods

Words as Public Goods / 公共財としての言葉

• Plurality Tokyo: "Glen in Japan" 2024-01-03 Event page: 【 #GleninJapan 】グレン・ウェイル来日トークイベント hosted by Plurality Tokyo · Luma

Slide PDF

• It is under CC-0, you can redistribute / translate / remix without any permission.

Links

• For Japanese speaker, visit 和訳フォーラム: /plurality-japanese/初めに読んでね
• For non-Japanese speaker, visit official README: https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality

Replay Video

• Words as Public Goods(Japanese Video)
• English Replay(Work in progress)
  • Words as Public Goods English Replay(WIP)
    • Maybe after something released, I'll reorganize it

This is truly one of my favorite presentation decks I've seen around all this --- Glen Weyl on Discord

Following are slides, drafts and reference links:

Cover

• 言葉は公共財
  • 公共財
  • Difference between Common Goods and Public Goods

• NISHIO Hirokazu
• Me: Researcher in Cybozu Labs.
  • Company: Cybozu
    • "selling productivity software" company
      • (quoted from Plural public media)
    • Cybozu's Purpose: Building a society brimming with teamwork
      • Vision｜Cybozu, Inc.
      • チームワークあふれる社会を創る
  • My Focus: Augmentation of intellectual productivity
    • 知的生産性の増強
    • 知的生産性の向上
      • 
      • エンジニアの知的生産術
  • Why?
    • Improving individual intellectual productivity leads to better teamwork.
    • 個人の知的生産性の向上がより良いチームワークをもたらす

• The "Plurality" Book
• 
• by 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" !
    • 協働的多様性のための技術... これは「チームワークあふれる社会を創る」 技術だ!
• Concept of "broad listening"
  • "people can hear the distilled essence of the distribution of opinion of their peers, empowering democratic deliberation at scale"
    • 人々が大勢の仲間の意見分布を把握する技術: 大規模で民主的な熟議を可能にする
  • Oh, this is a technology that augment the ability to understand the opinions of many other people. It is augmentation of intellectual productivity!
    • 「大勢の意見を理解する能力」の増強だ、知的生産性の向上だ!

• So I made Japanese Translation Forum
• 

• I forked that repository and implemented an automated translation flow using the GPT-3.5 API.
• Then, considering the need for a space where Japanese people could freely discuss the contents of this book in Japanese, I created a forum using Scrapbox.
• 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

• The translation is a distant goal
  • 翻訳は遠いゴール
  • The base text has not yet been finalized
  • まだ底本が確定していない
• Therefore, we are currently focused on translation of more compact finalized peripheral information
  • 周辺的情報をどんどん日本語にしていく
  • For example, talks in Plurality Seoul
  • Plurality Seoulとか
    • [/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)

How can a better understanding be created?

• To make good understanding
  • shared understanding
    • How?

Building Network of knowledge

• Example
  • 

• It links to a page:
  • 
  • [/plurality-japanese/Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations](https://scrapbox.io/plurality-japanese/Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations)

• And then you will see:
  • 

The process of tying two items together is the important thing. ... he builds a trail of his interest ... his trails do not fade. --- Vannevar Bush (1945)

Road:

• infrastructure for good understanding
• By storing "trails of interest" as links, roads are created. Then those roads help the understanding of those who come later.
• 理解のための道を引いてる
• 理解を助ける
• 知識の世界を開墾している
  • Homesteading the Noosphere
• 協力学習(Collaborative Leaning)

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
• 
  • 漢字 - Wikipedia

• 共通の表意文字が意味を伝える「道」になる
  • A common set of ideographic characters becomes the 'road' to convey meaning.
• 
  • This is what I want to show with this picture.
• Reference: The base of this picture comes from Gisele Chou's slide: /plurality-japanese/⿻

Example

• 
• 多元宇宙課！
• 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" helped 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.

• ある言語は他の言語よりも特定の考えを表現しやすい

• Speakers of languages with a vocabulary that describes a concept in greater detail can handle that concept more efficiently.
• ある概念をより詳細に説明する語彙を持つ言語の話者は、その概念をより効率的に扱うことができる
• 現実の解像度

  • 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 in one language have no corresponding word in the 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 納得(Nattoku) feelings as possible among a wide range of people."
    • 民主的プロセスとはなるべく多くの人の納得感を生み出すプロセスだ
  • I felt 納得 on the opinion.
  • But... how to translate 納得 into English?

• '納得' can be translated as 'agreement' or 'understanding' in English
• However, I feel that 'agreement' is more akin to '合意', and 'understanding' to '理解'.
• 納得
• 「納得」のニュアンス

• 「納得」は英語ではagreementやunderstandingと訳されるようです。しかし私は「agreement」は「合意」で、「understanding」は「理解」だと感じる

• There is a void in English.
• 異言語マッピング

• There is a void in English but it's not a problem unique to English.
• All languages are full of voids, and when we think in only one language, we fail to notice them.
• That's why we need to collaborate with speakers of different languages.
• 英語に限った話ではない
• すべての言語は穴だらけであり、単一の言語で考えているとそれに気付かない
• だから我々は異なる言語の話者と協働する必要がある

• Source: https://hbr.org/2017/07/being-the-boss-in-brussels-boston-and-beijing

• Highlight by me

• 空気が支配する日本ではブロードリスニングが重要

  • Erin Meyerの研究によれば日本は階層的で合意重視の極端な文化
    • 
      • To Lead Across Cultures, Focus on Hierarchy and Decision Making
      • 

• 我々は特殊な社会を構築しており、特殊な出来事を観察して、特殊な語彙を発達させている

  • We are building a unique society, observing unique phenomena, and developing a unique vocabulary.

• In my words, Japan is extremely hierarchical, but extremely focused on consensus, a kind of outlier.

• Many Japanese think the culture outdated in an era of global communication. I agree. We need to change our behavior and mindset.

• However, Japanese vocabulary may help understand the societal harmonics in higher resolution.

• (CUT)

  • 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 can help understand the world in higher resolution.

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

• Japanese speakers are minority
• 
• Think Words as Public Goods
• Speakers of minority languages can increase the world's public goods by exporting words.
• 「言葉は公共財」「言葉を輸出しよう」
• 日本語話者は世界の中ではマイノリティ Don't wait for the translation.
• 翻訳が終わるのを待っていてはいけない。 Let's participate in the plural thinking that are currently emerging.
• emerge　湧いて現れる　湧現
• いま湧き現れつつあるPlural Thinkingに参加しよう。 Your words can become common goods and help people around the world.
• あなたの言葉は公共財となり、世界中の人々を助けることができる

• 開門造車 你行你来
• Door is open. Let's join to create a car.
• Next event: [/plurality-japanese/1/20 Social Hack Day](https://scrapbox.io/plurality-japanese/1/20 Social Hack Day)

Related

• 言葉は人間増強の四要素