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The meaning of words change when the rest of humanity takes it for their own. Claiming "crypto are not crypto" will just leave you behind as the guy with his fi

by bdamm 9y ago

The meaning of words change when the rest of humanity takes it for their own. Claiming "crypto are not crypto" will just leave you behind as the guy with his fist in the air cursing the world. Nuclear. Hacker. Patriot. Rubber. The audience matters. Besides, I doubt that any cryptanalyst would mind writing out cryptography any more than they'd mind writing out TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256.

nailer 9y ago
I'm stating crypto is cryptography. There's not multiple cryptographies as far as I'm aware so 'crypto are' doesn't make sense. And yes, words change over time, but in that case I can just refer to (all) cryptocurrency as 'Bitcoin' since that's the common definition. In fact it's far more popular to refer to cryptocurrency as Bitcoin than it is to call that 'crypto'. Short version: this one isn't settled yet. How did nuclear, patriot and rubber change?
- owlninja 9y ago
  >this one isn't settled yet I feel like it almost is. Now even the non-technical crowd is amped up for cryptocurrency, and could really not care less about cryptography.
- godzillabrennus 9y ago
  Judging from the mad rush into investing in “cryptos” I disagree that this isn’t settled. You just may not like how it settled.
- Sargos 9y ago
  > this one isn't settled yet It pretty much is. Cryptography is a niche of computer science and used the word for a while but now that humanity has chosen to use the word for the entire field of distributed and trustless systems it will now and forever mean "cryptocurrencies". The larger group pretty much always wins and this case is no exception.
- bdamm 9y ago
  Nuclear was a branch of physics, then became a weapon, then became a US senate procedural change "going nuclear". Patriot was an anti-government rebel, then a pro-government supporter, then a missile, then an act to boost government and corporate controls within digital content, and sometimes an American football player. Rubber was a tree, then a commodity, then a condom. "A rubber".
  - nailer 9y ago
    Nuclear still means to do with nuclear energy: it being used as a simile doesn't change that meaning. 'patriot' means someone who stands for what is perceived to be American values. A missile being named after it doesn't change that. Rubber is more interesting and perhaps a better comparison 'are you wearing a rubber?' during sex or 'when the rubber hits the road' in a speech, or 'do you have a rubber' during an exam. So lets let's say someone says they 'specialise in rubber': it seems reasonable to believe they mean the material: they don't mean condoms or tyres or erasers.
  - camillomiller 9y ago
    Very bad examples. You’re just saying that a lot of common words have multiple meanings based on the context. None of those meanings is prevalent as in using crypto now for shortening cryptocurrency. I think that “Rubber” being used to indicate a condom is just a very plain synecdoche. All the other meanings are there, still. Plus, rubber’s main meaning is still referring to the material

by bdamm 9y ago

nailer 9y ago

I'm stating crypto is cryptography. There's not multiple cryptographies as far as I'm aware so 'crypto are' doesn't make sense. And yes, words change over time, but in that case I can just refer to (all) cryptocurrency as 'Bitcoin' since that's the common definition. In fact it's far more popular to refer to cryptocurrency as Bitcoin than it is to call that 'crypto'. Short version: this one isn't settled yet. How did nuclear, patriot and rubber change?

owlninja 9y ago
>this one isn't settled yet I feel like it almost is. Now even the non-technical crowd is amped up for cryptocurrency, and could really not care less about cryptography.
godzillabrennus 9y ago
Judging from the mad rush into investing in “cryptos” I disagree that this isn’t settled. You just may not like how it settled.
Sargos 9y ago
> this one isn't settled yet It pretty much is. Cryptography is a niche of computer science and used the word for a while but now that humanity has chosen to use the word for the entire field of distributed and trustless systems it will now and forever mean "cryptocurrencies". The larger group pretty much always wins and this case is no exception.
bdamm 9y ago
Nuclear was a branch of physics, then became a weapon, then became a US senate procedural change "going nuclear". Patriot was an anti-government rebel, then a pro-government supporter, then a missile, then an act to boost government and corporate controls within digital content, and sometimes an American football player. Rubber was a tree, then a commodity, then a condom. "A rubber".
- nailer 9y ago
  Nuclear still means to do with nuclear energy: it being used as a simile doesn't change that meaning. 'patriot' means someone who stands for what is perceived to be American values. A missile being named after it doesn't change that. Rubber is more interesting and perhaps a better comparison 'are you wearing a rubber?' during sex or 'when the rubber hits the road' in a speech, or 'do you have a rubber' during an exam. So lets let's say someone says they 'specialise in rubber': it seems reasonable to believe they mean the material: they don't mean condoms or tyres or erasers.
- camillomiller 9y ago
  Very bad examples. You’re just saying that a lot of common words have multiple meanings based on the context. None of those meanings is prevalent as in using crypto now for shortening cryptocurrency. I think that “Rubber” being used to indicate a condom is just a very plain synecdoche. All the other meanings are there, still. Plus, rubber’s main meaning is still referring to the material