Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

Re:Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve? by DanielBMarkham on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @07:01AM (#443101)

I believe that's called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis), which I generally agree with. A universal language would change the way people think about stuff -- it's a very interesting thought experiment.

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Re:Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve? by zack on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @11:58AM (#443441)

There is also a lot of evidence contradicting the Whorf hypothesis. In <The Language Instinct> by Steven Pinker, Pinker suggests that humans think with separate thought-modules and then only express the substance of thoughts through arbitrary languages.

That being said, I think there is something to be said for diversity of culture, and perhaps better more fluid translation services are the true solution.

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Re:Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve? by DanielBMarkham on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @12:06PM (#443456)

Notice I hedged my bets with "generally agree with"

The fact that the question is still open is why (in my opinion) the thought experiment is so interesting.

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Re:Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve? by ddemchuk on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @05:20PM (#443914)

That seems like an interesting concept that I would some day like to dive into...how do you rate the book overall?

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