STOP is such an important function — danger // alert — that it has to be everyone’s favorite as primal.

It’s SO important that we incorporate it into machine logic, digital logic and signals logic.

{ ie kill switches — every moving assembly line has to have them.

{ Every military op has a ‘beat retreat’ // return to base // run like hell signal.

{ All which are subsets of “No” and “Oh, no….! ”

{ The primacy of the emergency “No” is so great that it is still invoked within Hollywood plots.

{eg: Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

That “no” has so many ‘subtended’ meanings — extensions — modifiers — is yet another ‘tell’ that it’s hyper-ancient.

It’s even made its way to Boolean logic — the logical Not ~ “no.”

In all these instances, “no” functions as a fundamental ‘quark’ of speech.

That “no” had a decisive impact on human events — from the crib to the hunting party — scarcely needs emphasis.

It’s a life-or-death utterance.

ALL other words carry LESS import.

One might also note: gals STILL love to say “no.”

And suitors are STILL, like Sisyphus, rolling their pitch up hill to her decision point.

This saga is even replayed in pr0n scripts — with a fair amount of wit — as the decision point was long passed when the cameras started rolling.

Assent, female co-operation, has always been front and center.

Meaning that “no” has a direct impact on the propagation of our DNA.

“Mama” and “Dada” can’t come close; BTW, the former is far more ancient than the latter.

Thanks for the tip.

But I’ll bet that creep in 4B is.

Just to be precise.

Next time don’t call me a liar or in willful denial, okay? I might misunderstand and think you were being insulting.

Western culture is certainly changing, in many ways I don’t like. It is not becoming less precise or thinking more clouded, or anything like that, however. We like to believe that in the good old days people knew what logic was and thinking was more rigorous, but that is entirely due to selection bias. The best thinkers remain in play, but they were not representative of their age. People were not smarter in 1916 or 1816. They were less literate, less numerate, less informed – if you read the primary source material of even the educated – diaries, letters, public records – it will jump out at you. Schools were worse.

Blert – Gell-Mann is only a side player in the Santa Fe Institute’s linguistics branch. He was concerned with developing an institute that crossed academic boundaries. He is speculating on the basis of the research of the highly-controversial linguists there (pals of his, certainly), such as Merritt Ruhlen and the late Sergei Starotsin. Those are the lads you want to read up on. Morris Swadesh, too. Ruhlen’s list of oldest words still discernible from the proposed Proto-Human language does not have vulva/vagina in first place, but tenth (penis is 14th, I recall). To be fair about that, the ranking is more a measure of confidence than of age. As for some negation being the first word, that is plausible, but extremely speculative. Mama and Dada remain more likely. But pick up Ruhlen’s 1994 book on the subject from the library: The Origin of Language. Quite excellent.

So now we have people lazy in using the language and right terms even though there are professionals which make me wonder about the level of their professional service.

Vagina is a Latin word and it means sheath. Strange that the part of the “kit and kaboodle” that is there to receive the penis, has become the politically correct word.

I sometimes wonder if it might not be a bad idea for universities to appoint a body of faculty to encourage young women and perhaps some young men to address how society views women. We could call it the department of Women’s Studies.

You can take the boy from the wrong side of the track, but it takes a long time to take the wrong side out of the boy. (I spent the war years on the other side because Dad was gone, and Mother had to make do.)

Waidmann