Obsession with concepts

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For the past several years, my obsessions have been a series of far-reaching concepts that I cant get out of my head. They are, in order:

Evolution - Thinking about the mechanics of biological evolution thrills me. My interest eventually led me to apply the idea of evolution to nearly every aspect of life, from toothbrush designs to trends in comedy. I strongly believe that had somebody sat me down at a young age and forced me to understand evolution, the world would have been significantly easier to understand.

Efficiency - Thinking about evolution led me to the idea that every system has limited resources and requires efficiency. When confronted with this concept, I realized that efficiency is a goal worth striving for in all things. This is another concept I believe I could have used many years ago.

Minimalism - This goes hand-in-hand with efficiency, not just in the artistic world. Removing unnecessary things from a system now seems essential to me.

Language, particularly phonetics - Most recently, Ive applied the previous concepts to language. I ended up so frustrated with English spelling that I developed my own phonetic spelling system which I use in all of my personal writing. This has led me to realize a great deal about spoken language and, unfortunately, has led me to become very frustrated with people who say things "wrong". However, I do believe it has greatly improved my understanding of language.



This post seems so narcissistic, but I wrote it because I hope that somebody else identifies with the things that I cant get off my mind. Has anyone else thought about these concepts in depth? Do you think people, especially those on the autism spectrum, could benefit from studying them?

I do not have that specific list, but I suspect the phenomenon is not that different from places I have been [even from the place where I am].

BUT - long standing linguist professioonal with a heavy interest in writing systems - I would love to see your phonetic schema if you have it in transmissible form and feel like sharing.

I am also fascinated by these concepts.

If we were able to fully implement efficiency into our life, we'd be able to eliminate all the things that cause the world to be so full of pointless, and I think wasteful and destructive things.

There are so many possible areas to apply the concepts, it would take an entire lifetime of application to live by this concept fully. I share your wish that people could be taught these important concepts from an early age. If we were taught a complete system of efficiency or evolution from beginning of education, it would not take an entire lifetime to apply these concepts. I think our educational system is very flawed. I hope an evolutionary wave will come and improve our educational system.

at f'rst ii wqntid tu maak vaolz mor simp'l, xen ii maad sh'r xat evree let'r in xee alfubet reprizentid wun saond onlee. ii maad eksepshunz f'r sum let'r kqmbinaashunz liik "ao" in "saond/SOUND", "zy" in "aazyun/ASIAN", and "oy" in "oyl/OIL" and "boy/BOY". qlso, evree dub'l vaol haz u spisifik fungkshun. "oo" = "took/TOOK", "hood/HOOD", "foot/FOOT", "pool/PULL", "shood/SHOULD"... ii prif'r tuu uvoyd kapit'l let'rz beekuz ii disliik xu difrins bitween u kapit'l "I" and u lo'r kaas "L". xis sistum imbraasiz hqmunimz. ii xingk xu hqrdist pqrt iz eksepting xu rol uv "C", az in "wic/WHICH/WITCH", "caanj/CHANGE", ets.

xis maa look straanj at f'rst. evree let'r haz wun saond and so duu dub'l vaolz. wix ql xeez caanjiz, xree let'rz gqt nuu jqbz. "c" wuz left onlee wix xu "CH" saond and xee "H" beekaam yuuslis. "q" beekaam xu vaol xat fqlz bitween "a" and "o". "x" inherits box "th" saondz liik in "BREATHE" and "BREATH". upqstrufeez qr vaolz wixaot u saond liik in "k'rt'nz/CURTAINS", "peep'l/PEOPLE" and "sist'r/SISTER", but qr nev'r in w'rdz like "dont/DON'T" or "wont/WON'T". upqstrufeez qr qlso yuuzd tu sep'raat dub'l vaolz frum sing'l vaolz liik in "dii'ing", but xis kan qlso bee uvoydid bii yuuzing "diiying". "y" and "w" qr mqdifiirz xat ulao f'r int'resting ov'rlaps liik "aa" = "ey" and "ao" = "aw". xis maa look straanj at f'rst, but it maaks sens tu fokus qn xee ekspresiv paor uv saond insted uv rijid speling.

xee onlee xing ii havint rizqlvd iz xu difrins bitween "SINGER" and "FINGER". so fqr, ii hav bin yuuzing "NG" for box. ii stil wund'r if "NGG" wood bee upropreeit f'r "fingg'r/FINGER" and "langgwij/LANGUAGE", ets.

qlso, ii ignqlij xat mii sistum haz u biiyis f'r west'rn U.S. ENGLISH.

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At first I wanted to make vowels more simple, then I made sure that every letter in the alphabet represented one sound only. I made exceptions for some letter combinations like "ao" in "saond/SOUND", "zy" in "aazyun/ASIAN", and "oy" in "oyl/OIL" and "boy/BOY". Also, every double vowel has a specific function. "oo" = "took/TOOK", "hood/HOOD", "foot/FOOT", "pool/PULL", "shood/SHOULD"... I prefer to avoid capital letters because I dislike the difference between a capital "I" and a lowercase "L". This system embraces homonyms. I think the hardest part is accepting the role of "C", as in "wic/WHICH/WITCH", "caanj/CHANGE", etc.

This may look strange at first. Every letter has one sound and so do double vowels. With all these changes, three letters got new jobs. "c" was left only with the "CH" sound and the "H" became useless. "q" became the vowel that falls between "a" and "o". "x" inherits both "th" sounds like in "BREATHE" and "BREATH". Apostrophes are vowels without a sound like in "k'rt'nz/CURTAINS", "peep'l/PEOPLE" and "sist'r/SISTER", but are never in words like "dont/DON'T" or "wont/WON'T". Apostrophes are also used to separate double vowels from single vowels like in "dii'ing", but this can also be avoided by using "diiying". "y" and "w" are modifiers that allow for interesting overlaps like "aa" = "ey" and "ao" = "aw". This may look strange at first, but it makes sense to focus on the expressive power of sound instead of rigid spelling.

The only thing I haven't resolved is the difference betweeen "SINGER" and "FINGER". So far, I have been using "NG" for both. I still wonder if "NGG" would be appropriate for "fingg'r/FINGER", "langgwij/LANGUAGE" etc.

Also, I acknowledge that my system has a bias for Western U.S. English.

Last edited by jpfudgeworth on 27 Sep 2010, 12:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes! It almost makes me want to become a teacher.

I think the result of evolution is the minimum amount of efficiency needed to work in the context of the environment at the time. In other words, we and the living things around us are not optimized. We are just good enough to work reasonably...sometimes a little better than previously.



Unnecessary to whom and in what sense?



I hate phonetic spelling, however I can see it's appeal to those who had a difficult time with reading/writing. I excelled in this subject so pretty much instantly recognize a word when I see it, thus when a word is spelled phonetically it throws me off and slows me down.






This post seems so narcissistic, but I wrote it because I hope that somebody else identifies with the things that I cant get off my mind. Has anyone else thought about these concepts in depth? Do you think people, especially those on the autism spectrum, could benefit from studying them?[/quote]

I have the EXACT same obsession as you! And I also apply evolution to pretty much everything, especially behaviour. Like when I see women dressed up in skimpy clothes when clubbing I'm like "that's a sexual signal that is" and stuff. And I apply it to society, because I look at the social hierarchy in the way you'd look at other social animals because you get your alphas and your betas and alliances and so on.

I don't have those specific interests, but I do have obsessions with concepts that I apply endlessly to life.
I do have minimalising though. Also
~ Beauty
~minimalising/breaking into components
~emotions and emotional dynamics

and some others too

Yes, I enjoy reading postmodern novels and these traits always seem to be a trademark of PoMo novels but something about limiting the complexities of life leaves me unsatisfied. Of course, this isn't to say that these things are simplistic but sometimes it loses it's edge by classifying itself way too much.

So yes, I do think of the world in this way but I try not to worry too much about it like I used to. Maybe I'll worry about it in the future, who knows?

I've always been interested in efficiency. In fact, striving for or advocating efficiency has often gotten me ostracized by coworkers and sometimes even employers, who always seem to prefer doing things 'the old way'.

And I'm the rigid / inflexible / black and white thinker?

"mii sistum haz u biiyis f'r west'rn U.S. ENGLISH"

Obviously. An interesting system. I like that you are not simply stealing one of the existing revised spellings - the use of q as a vowel ios a nice touch.

Too right, differentiating the spelling of homonyms usually arbitrarily is pernicious, handicapping the learner and straining the user, but it is very common in the writing systems of the world.

Capitals as used in English [and more so in German] are a sometimes annoying redundancy - though the . is so small that the dextra flag of the capital letter helps the eye to pause. But the capitals can be useful within the system - as in one language where I use e for the sound in mate = maat and E for the sound in met = met. Which handles which sound of course depends on which is more common in the language.

Is this primarily for self-communication [like my note-taking languages and alphabe ts of long ago], or are there people you will write to using the system?

On a note related to Evolution, I'm absolutely fascinated with the concept of emergence. I love just thinking about it as well as observing examples of it in every day life.

Ive considered replacing the period with something larger, like a tilde, since the beginnings of sentences are a little harder to see without capitals~ I showed this system to my friends, most of them were interested but not so much that they started using it with me. One friend, an English major, objected to the whole thing. I try to throw in my own spelling whenever acceptable, and I frequently use it on anonymous chat rooms to test it. (most people cant stand that.) Other than my own personal notes, its also useful for poetry and lyrics, especially when writing words that dont actually exist.