Re: Internationalizing Linux

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
Sun, 13 Dec 1998 22:02:56 -0800 (PST)

> No the real problem is that: the second order predicative logic
> isn't complete. So there is no way to map it properly into any kind
> of formalized language... See: Tarski and Goedel :-). AI can't help
> since it can't exist, at least on the kind of silicon based
> computers we use those times, for the same reasons. However
> amazingly enought this had been well known since already the
> beginnings of this century... BTW. I'm quite happy with this
> situation since it's implying as well that programmers are not going
> to loose they jobs for a quite long time in the future ;-).
>
> Marcin
>

I consider that interpretation of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem to be
faulty. There is no credible evidence that humans need something
beyond the purely computational to decode language, and it is pretty
clear that humans are able to decode human language well; however,
sometimes inherent disambiguities in the language force us to request
clarification. Not perfect, but life goes on.

Human language just *isn't* perfectly logical: a lot of the
information is conveyed by choice of words, connotations, inflection
, context and innuendo. This part of the information contents is
mostly fuzzy and often ambiguous.

-hpa

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