3 ms·

I dislike when people like RMS get semantic and gatekeep words like "free software", but this is the end product of a world without gatekeepers. People just use

I dislike when people like RMS get semantic and gatekeep words like "free software", but this is the end product of a world without gatekeepers. People just use words in a way that's convenient to them.

zimpenfish 2y ago
> People just use words in a way that's convenient to them. Literally how language has always worked and evolved, though.
- mplanchard 2y ago
  Language has always been a push and pull between evolving (descriptivist) and correct (prescriptivist) usage. Neither side is going anywhere.
  - zimpenfish 2y ago
    > correct (prescriptivist) usage Oof, I know there's a bunch of linguists and grammarians who are going to mock you for that bracket.
    - mplanchard 2y ago
      Why? Prescriptivist/prescriptivism is afaik the usual term. Proscriptivist is the other, but quite rare, so rare that my phone dictionary says it’s a misspelling.
      - zimpenfish 2y ago
        > Prescriptivist/prescriptivism is afaik the usual term. It is but it was the "correct" part attached to prescriptivism they'd be mocking because that is not how linguists and grammarians work (they are descriptivists and fond of making fun of prescriptivists.)
        mplanchard 2y ago
        Oh yeah lol I should have put it in quotes, but by the time I thought about it I was past the edit window! C'est la vie, I'll take the mockery.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
- iszomer 2y ago
  We often see semantic drift over a long period of time. It's just that the overarching topic of AI is being played significantly faster than what we would normally have observed in other fields.
fragmede 2y ago
Or maybe some gatekeeping is actually good, and we just have to use more of our braincells and figure if a particular gatekeeper is good or bad. It's a good thing that being a pilot for an airline is gatekept to qualified pilots that know how to fly a plane. It's a bad thing that I need a hair cutting license to buy hair dye to dye my own hair at home.
- beeflet 2y ago
  You have to be careful with that, start giving out hair cutting licenses with reckless abandon a ton of innocent people could dye.

zimpenfish 2y ago

> People just use words in a way that's convenient to them. Literally how language has always worked and evolved, though.

mplanchard 2y ago
Language has always been a push and pull between evolving (descriptivist) and correct (prescriptivist) usage. Neither side is going anywhere.
- zimpenfish 2y ago
  > correct (prescriptivist) usage Oof, I know there's a bunch of linguists and grammarians who are going to mock you for that bracket.
  - mplanchard 2y ago
    Why? Prescriptivist/prescriptivism is afaik the usual term. Proscriptivist is the other, but quite rare, so rare that my phone dictionary says it’s a misspelling.
    - zimpenfish 2y ago
      > Prescriptivist/prescriptivism is afaik the usual term. It is but it was the "correct" part attached to prescriptivism they'd be mocking because that is not how linguists and grammarians work (they are descriptivists and fond of making fun of prescriptivists.)
      - mplanchard 2y ago
        Oh yeah lol I should have put it in quotes, but by the time I thought about it I was past the edit window! C'est la vie, I'll take the mockery.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
iszomer 2y ago
We often see semantic drift over a long period of time. It's just that the overarching topic of AI is being played significantly faster than what we would normally have observed in other fields.

fragmede 2y ago

Or maybe some gatekeeping is actually good, and we just have to use more of our braincells and figure if a particular gatekeeper is good or bad. It's a good thing that being a pilot for an airline is gatekept to qualified pilots that know how to fly a plane. It's a bad thing that I need a hair cutting license to buy hair dye to dye my own hair at home.

beeflet 2y ago
You have to be careful with that, start giving out hair cutting licenses with reckless abandon a ton of innocent people could dye.