Subject: [lojban] Re: spofu skami

From: Robert LeChevalier <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 17:52:12 -0500

At 01:42 PM 3/13/03 -0500, Invent Yourself wrote:
>On Thu, 13 Mar 2003, Robin Lee Powell wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 13, 2003 at 01:22:54PM -0500, Invent Yourself wrote:
> > > 'nirna' means things that neuron, or are neuron-like or that do what
> > > neurons do, which isn't restricted to Neurons. It seems that Neurons
> > > can go into nirna x1, but there are lo nirna that aren't Neurons.
> >
> > neuron:
> >
> > 1. Has dozens, sometimes hundreds of connections to other neurons.
> >
> > 2. Collates inbound data as an aggregate to decide whether to send
> > outbound data.
> >
> > 3. Has a wide range of physical shapes, but generally consists of a
> > bundle of goo attached to a long rod of goo with some feelers off the
> > end of the rod.
> >
> > 4. Conists mostly of carbon, with some nitrogen, oxygen, and other
> > trace elements.
> >
> > I believe those are all the major necessary and sufficient features of a
> > neuron.
> >
> > Not a *SINGLE* *ONE* of those points applies to an ethernet cable, a
> > fiber optice cable, a small number of networked computers, or a sigle
> > computer data switch.
> >
> > NONE OF THEM. NOT ONE.
>
>
>The gismu definition doesn't list these. How do you know they all pertain
>to nirna such that every lo nirna must have them?
>
>Instead of looking at the differences, you might look at the similarities.

Bearing in mind that the word "nerve" long predates our current 
understanding of the processing in a neural system, nirna would NOT be 
limited to such a scientific definition. Lojban gismu are generally 
defined as broadly as possible (for Jordan - the "metaphor" cues are an 
attempt to force breadth of meaning - not polysemy).

I think that a nerve/nirna is merely a relaying component of an information 
system which transmits signals from one or more sources to one or more 
destinations (possibly with conditions based on the signals received). It 
is not even clear that the directionality implied by "source" and 
"destination" is necessary.

Under this broader definition, a transformer, a tunnel diode, and a 
mechanical relay are also nirna.

There was a discussion a long time ago spearheaded by Colin Fine, which 
stressed the need to keep gismu as broad in meaning as possible, and in 
fact to USE those broad meanings when they are communicative, and not 
merely use lujvo instead to match the specificity of language that we are 
prone to using in our native language.

lojbab

-- 
lojbab [email-masked]
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org