Project: Improve ourselves, not only machines.
THE AUXILIARY LANGUAGE FOR MASTERING
THE INFORMATION FLOOD
We are living in a period flooding us by information. So-called information flood or information explosion caused by rapid development of science and technique makes fear, first of all, to specialists who are unable to follow and to read every new thing, published in their field of interest. They can do anything else than to learn a technique of rapid reading in spite of currently computer technique as a helper. Computers are speeding up only the manipulation with information, but they do not actually accelerate receiving the information by a man. A man has to read the information from the display, just like the paper.
Our eyes, focused on a word in a printed text, can sharply see within the circle area of a diameter approximately 10 mm. (Diameter depends on a distance between the eye and the text as the solid angle of foveal vision field is of a magnitude 1.5 - 2 degrees. The foveal vision field is a central zone of sharp, detailed vision.)
If we draw in an arbitrary row of the text, which is printed in Roman writing, one centrally placed circle of a diameter 10 mm, we see that only a small portion of the area within this circle is filled by the letters of a randomly chosen word.
This shows us, how a text, printed in alphabetic writing, inefficient makes use of a sharp vision field. Moreover to this field also interferes a line over and under reading line what makes for sure an operation of a brain during reading more difficult. The field utilizing inefficiency in the area where reading occurs rises with enlarging its diameter. However, the enlargement of a diameter of this field is necessary needed for an acceleration of reading. So there is rising a paradox whose successful solution by our brain challenges us to stare with astonishment over its operation.
Accelerating of the speed of reading as a result of the widening of the area where the reception of text part occurs - by one single look or one fixing the eye to the line - can be cleared as follows: Seen word or words we percept as graphics units, complicated signs, unintentionally created ideograms. Their shape and meaning we have fixed ourselves during a previous reading.
We come back to reading one sound or syllables after another by words we meet for the first time.
(We neglect the fact that, according to some messages, one page can be read on two fixations of the eye to text, because yet not explained psychical mechanisms connected with "photographic" memory or "magic" computational performances comes more into play here. We may omit this fact without reproaches because these mechanisms are equally well utilizable for the proposed project too.)
Perhaps it already came to your minds that Chinese ideographic writing, used also by Japanese, is more suitable for reading then sound (for instance Roman) or syllable (for instance Hindu) scripture. If we draw mentioned circle into Chinese texts, we find out that Chinese symbols better cover its area and two or three symbols fit in it. So, in Chinese or Japanese text, it is possible to read on one single fixation of the eye two or three words even by "unskilled" visual field.
This advantage of the ideographic writing is demonstrated by the average speed of about 600 symbols per minute at school learned silent reading, as given by Japanese sources, whereas European sources say of about 300 words per minute (under the same competitions ).
However Chinese symbols have a lot of disadvantages for instance in the inability of spelling or in multiformity what creates great troubles with machine written or printed texts.
Let us imagine now, we have at disposition a language having at least first 2000 most frequently used words (representing around 80 to 90 % of all words used in various texts) of short type - AB, BA, ABA and mostly BAB.
Let us imagine further that we shall write the words of this language not in the line
B
but in the column, one letter under another - A ( see also figure ).
B
This small column of Roman capital letters will be considered (after some slight modifications) as ideogram compounded by many times repeatable parts - letters of sounds.
So we came to ideograms (or logograms) capable of spelling and which multiformity is already easily technically masterable.
If we put these small columns - logograms in line, one beside another, we shall obtain a text where it will be possible or it is possible to read 3 to 4 words in one single "untrained" fixation of the eye (in the commonly used size of capital Roman letters).
On the figure, we can see how the area of sharp vision is effectively used out in this mentioned project of an auxiliary language.
For these reasons in this language, it is possible to read simultaneously from one "line" such amount of information which, in European languages, is contained at least in three lines of a text.
Improving yourselves in reading the texts of proposed language it is possible to reach a reading of complete sentences in one "trained" fixation with the widened visual field of sharp vision.
This can be achieved at the same level of training and with the same effort which, in the case of European languages, is necessary for reading several words simultaneously.
After taking into account various conditions it is possible to claim that reading speed of printed texts in designed graphic form should be, at least, five times greater.
Where to take convenient concrete words for this new graphics notice of information connecting advantages of logographic and alphabetic writings?
To some extent, the suitable candidate for this purpose may be found also among natural languages. Such candidate is, for instance, Chinese, Japanese or also Vietnamese. All these three languages could be printed in a proposed graphics system. In Chinese and Japanese, however, there exists one great difficulty consisting of a considerable homonymy that forces these languages to persist on the Chinese type of script. This type of script has been abandoned by the Vietnamese, which turned to Roman writing.
Among 900 already existing projects of artificial languages can be found suitable ones, too, for instance, a language Monling.
The investigation, however, shows that existing languages posses various faults preventing more or less full application of drawn project.
Compared to European script systems proposed graphic text system possesses such advantages which represent for reading the same as for a counting represents replacing Roman numbers by Arabic ones. Therefore, it would be very reasonable and progressive for a future auxiliary international language to possess the proposed graphical shape.
As it is shown on the figure, the author of this article makes an attempt to culminate his graphics system of "quick readable" auxiliary language into the concrete form of universal language. He tries to create the language whose properties would correspond to today's level of knowledge - the language synthesizing all the best which has been created by nations and individuals in the field of language. The principal sources of his project are English, Interlingua, Basic English, Russian, Esperanto, and other languages.
The author: Ing. Metod Jozefko
