3 ms·

Just like human civilization itself.

• contingencies 11y ago
  Precisely. On that note, allow me to offer a fun set of mental tangents. Lambda (uppercase Λ, lowercase λ) and the Chinese character for human (人) are not visually dissimilar. Lambda is asserted to have derived from early semitic forms, which influenced Pstalter and Soghdian, each of which allegedly reached the western limits of Chinese empire and existed circa 400BCE.[1] Written Chinese has been around for about 2500 years. It also has another similar character - 入 - which in classical or ancient Chinese can mean 'to join' or 'to become a member of'. They say humans are social creatures, and social structures are built on identification. However, lambda in the programming sense means an 'anonymous' function. Unlike Indo-European languages, ancient Chinese in particular defaults to anonymity (operating on a higher level of abstraction by default - ie. less specific, more poetic, more applicable) due to an absence of enforced conjugation. OK, back to your regularly scheduled HN. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abjad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abjad