[e2e] evolution of bandwidth as a term

grenville armitage garmitage at swin.edu.au
Thu Oct 2 16:22:29 PDT 2003


Loki Jorgenson wrote:
> 
> As an academic who has worked on the nature of language evolution, I
> would suggest that it is "natural" for meaning to evolve and for
> conservative forces to resist that change. 

For social chit-chat, sure. But it is not intrinsically desirable for
objective terms in scientific discourse to "evolve" descriptive ambiguity.
Those you seem to dismiss as "conservative forces" are the same people
who demand rigor in engineering and science and thus tend to ensure bridges
don't fall down, satellites (generally) make it into space (more often than
they otherwise would), and students don't get passes for sloppy thinking.

	[..]
> Regardless, I suggest that being judgemental and critical of the
> individuals on this list is counter-productive to the purpose of its
> existence.  Joining it should indicate subscription to its objectives, I
> would think.
> 
> Agreed?

I wouldn't agree in general. Without judgement and critique humanity would
make no progress. I suggest if you review the e2e list over time you'll find
judgement and critique are exactly inline with the e2e list's objectives.
(Whether critique == unfair "criticism" tends to depend on the thinness of
one's skin, context, etc, etc.....)

cheers,
gja
-- 
Grenville Armitage
http://caia.swin.edu.au
I come from a LAN downunder.




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