XiXiDu comments on Existential Risk - Less Wrong

28 Post author: lukeprog 15 November 2011 02:23PM

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Comment author: XiXiDu 11 December 2011 11:27:48AM 0 points [-]

Guess what: I agree! Quite a while ago, I pointed out that "the SIAI" was a non-native quirk introduced by XiXiDu (and for some reason picked up by certain native speakers).

Please correct me if I am wrong, I haven't read up on language evolution yet. But isn't it the case that natural language evolves? Unlike math, if enough people believe that a certain syntax is correct then it is correct. So if I start to write "the SIAI" at a time when people think that it sounds wrong but then gradually more and more people adapt that notation and start to perceive it to sound right, doesn't it become right?

If you like I will from now on use the syntax that you suggest simply because you seem to care strongly about it while I don't care at all.