Subject: [lojban] Re: Would anyone actually read this?

From: Brook Conner <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 00:32:27 -0500

On Friday, January 31, 2003, at 04:11 AM, Aaron Unger wrote:

> On Fri, 2003-01-31 at 00:45, Rob Speer wrote:
>> The only problem I see is that your audience will probably be limited
>> to
>> those who already are skilled in Lojban -

Tighter than that - those skilled in lojban *and* able to follow 
n-dimensional differential geometry (assuming it focuses on elliptic 
curve cryptography). Not everyone can wrap their brains around 
n-dimensional geometry with any sort of ease (at least, IME).

>> those who are marginally
>> interested in the language probably won't be persuaded to learn more
>> by
>> a cryptography book.

No, probably not, but I don't think the point of the crypto book is 
proselytizing lojban, except to the minor extent that you can say "look 
at the diverse topics lojban can handle!" There are some things that 
are well-nigh impossible to translate into lojban (puns come to mind - 
trying to translate a typical Spider Robinson novel into lojban strikes 
me as a frustrating endeavor). There are some things that are much more 
elegantly stated in lojban, too. I suspect that a academic text is one, 
where the preponderance of cross-references and complex sentence 
structures typical of academic writing might well be improved by 
lojban's clear rules on e.g., pronoun reference (not to say that lojban 
can't obfuscate simple ideas as well as the densest academe-ese).

> [....] So a book like this
> would be great, for me at least, since it's on an interesting subject,
> and would require me to expand my lojban knowledge while reading it.

Yeah, I'd agree with that one - though crypto in general is not one of 
my hot buttons, I do try and follow the details of it, because the 
stuff is important.

> And, even better, it would give me a foundation for other technical
> writing, like mathematical formulas, scientific papers, etc. which I am
> bound to want to write someday (in lojban).

My problem with technical writing in lojban is that I'm already good 
enough at technical writing that lojban doesn't gain *me* much in the 
writing process.

Again, not that I don't see the benefits - just that the cost to me of 
writing lojban is higher than English (fluency in lojban isn't really 
there yet for me :-). This means I want to focus my lojban efforts on 
things I *can't* write easily in another language.

> I'm probably the exceptional oddball, though, that likes languages AND
> crypto. Perhaps there are more like me... :-)

Yes, there are :-)

Brook
__________
So!
Come up to the lab!
And see what's on the slab!
I see you shiver with antici....
[Say it! SAY IT!]
pation!
[Now was that so hard?]