Apparently, several centuries ago, William Shakespeare invented some new words. [1] Of course these words are less new now … some of them might even be considered rather ordinary or regular (or whatever). In contrast to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s supposition about how languages seem to limit what humans are capable of expressing, good ole Bill simply expanded the language to suit his needs — he simply routed around, not paying attention to any limits any governing body might feign to enforce.
Natural language is more or less obviously a natural phenomenon. That might sound simple and straightforward, but it does get a little tricky when someone attempts to nail down exactly what ought to be considered “natural language” (or not). I will leave this definition problem as an exercise for ambitious readers.
What people use to communicate with each other is probably one of the most fundamentally anarchic choices made by so-called users of information technology. The fundamental freedoms of open source technologies are very much analogous to the freedom of choices made by users of natural language (including not only William Shakespeare but also ordinary folks like you or me). [2]
We are all free to route around anything — be that a government, a mainstream media channel, fossil fuels, a military industrial complex, … or whatever.
I have a hunch that some people with establishment positions (here’s looking at you, kids 😉 [3] ) may very well feel that such extreme notions of freedom (and anarchy) might be dangerous … to someone, or something, or some way of life, … or whatever.
Socio Business blog 