Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 15:40:31 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199710212040.PAA29921@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Karl Andrews Sender: Lojban list From: Karl Andrews Organization: Intel Corporation Subject: APL & Lojban To: Lojban list X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 1557 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Oct 21 15:40:34 1997 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Andrew Sieber's response to Edward Cherlin's message (which I have yet to receive - ah, the vagaries of Email) seems to indicate both are familiar with APL. I am also semi-fluent in APL, and note that exposure to it causes one to look at problems in an entirely different way. (Would that be support for Sapir-Whorf?) Ordinary computer languages seem like pidgin in comparison, which I suppose they are. I originally became interested in Loglan and then Lojban as a means for sharpening my thinking in general, somewhat in the same manner that APL did for my math-oriented thinking. What jumped out at me was here are two other Lojban people who were familiar with APL. When I was active in the Seattle APL group, back in 1985 or so, there were two other people in that group who were familiar with Loglan. One was a professor of anthropology who was contributing familial relationship terms to the Loglan effort. It just seems statistically unlikely that such a small set of people as those familiar with APL and those familiar with Loglan/Lojban would have such a proportionately large intersection. Is there something else going on here, two aspects of a strange attractor, something in the nature of 'birds of a feather'? Another observation is that the Lojban Home Page is hosted from Finland. Finland was known around the world in the mid-80s as a hotbed of APL activity. Interesting coincidence? Veijo, are you familiar with APL? - Karl -- The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote. - Kosh Naranek, Babylon 5