3 ms·
> > With time, assuming the language is used by a significant > > number of people, it will acquire such a history. > > This will of course never happen.
by gnosis 17y ago
> > With time, assuming the language is used by a significant
> > number of people, it will acquire such a history.
>
> This will of course never happen.
"Man flying? Impossible!" "A man walking on the moon? Preposterous!" "Slavery/segregation is the natural state of man and will never change." "The Third Reich will last a thousand years." "The Soviet Union will never collapse in our lifetime."
History is full of surprises.
Sure, today Lojban is a fringe language with a few thousand speakers, tops. And there's no indication of any kind of widespread movement to adopt it. But that could change with time. The language is really in its infancy.
Of course, it's not likely it'll ever be as popular as any of the major natural languages are today, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people speaking it (or a future offspring of it) one day.
- Towle_ 17y agoEvery one of your listed false predictions held within it an inherently great value to prove wrong, a value so enormous and ungodly that anywhere from thousands to billions of spirited men and women pushed everything else in their lives aside for that one cause. They made that choice to give their lives singular purpose because the importance of the goals they pursued necessitated nothing less, and what they knew to be potentially massive benefit to all mankind outweighed everything else in their lives. This goal of millions of speakers of Lojban would require that same monumental level of collective human effort and perseverance, but it does not necessitate anything of that kind to anyone, nor will it ever, because the potential benefit to mankind is just that marginal.