Gregory's Server
@baltauger In linguistics, the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis, also known as the Linguistic Relativity hypothesis, argues that language constrains thought. This was the idea behind Orwell's Newspeak. The strong variant argues that you cannot think an idea that your language cannot express (the goal of Newspeak), the weak variant argues that language guides thought. The strong variant is largely discredited because it turns out that humans are really good at just making up new language for new concepts. The weak variant is supported to varying degrees.
I keep trying to persuade linguists to study it in the context of programming languages, where humans are limited in the things that they can extend because a compiler / interpreter also needs to understand the language. I think there are some very interesting research results to be found there.
@david_chisnall @baltauger I've considered this. The answer, really, is that a programming language is just a technology for a mind to use to alter the state of a machine, and not a subjective reality. Once the instructions are in the machine they dictate its operation. A human can try to imagine how the machine will operate under constraints but not be required to limit their own reality (if that were even possible) to that of the machine.