It's Time for a Common Human Language

   Recently Google+ entered it's open beta phase and also released a new feature that allows you to share entire circles with your circles. The result has been an explosion of circling even among average users like me. With all this circling I noticed more and more different languages being used. I've seen at least six so far. I only speak english so a lot of what some people say will be lost without translating every post and comment, which would get old real fast. And this got me thinking about something I had thought about a few years ago. Why after all this time do we still not have a common human language?

   It's become commonplace in our day to day lives to talk to people from other ends of the world. But still it tends to be only people who speak our language. On web pages and documents it's easy to translate things but it's still no guarantee that the original piece of information won't get distorted or lose some of it's original meaning. When chatting or watching a movie or listening to music it becomes even more difficult. 

   With the rise of mobile web and with more and more people on the net, now seems like a great time to start building a standard human language. Why make an entire new language? To put it simply, ego. No one is going to want a standard language if it's simply taking one of the current languages and saying, "This is the default language". If it was english, every non english speaking person would be upset their own language wasn't chosen. To keep everyone happy, or at least civil, we should make a new one.

   I think the best way to go about it would be to follow the open source crowd surfed methods often used in creating computer programming languages. Representatives from different countries would participate and come up with the basic syntax and nuances. This would allow bits of everyone's culture to be woven into the language.

   Implementation of the language once it's created would be a matter of simply promoting it and using it alongside our other languages. I think the web would be critical in this aspect, simply build it out slowly from the open source project. As it gets more popular, people can start putting it into websites and applications. Even if it's just as an option like any other language pack. If we were able to get one of the big web companies's support it would help speed up the process.

   The end goal isn't to replace our original native languages, but to create a language that sits side by side to our native languages. I think it's important for something like this happen. Not only would it help the species communicate but it would help create an important bond that could cross national and cultural borders.

   This is just a rough idea that I wanted to get out. I'm curious to hear what other people think about it. I looked around the web a while ago but didn't find much on the subject, which really surprised me.

1.8 Arrives and the people rejoiced...well, some of em.

  Minecraft 1.8 has arrived and it's been one hell of a trip. Here's a quick recap. Everyone was happily playing 1.7.3 eagerly awaiting what was being hailed the adventure update. Out of nowhere a pre-release version hit the web. Mojang chose rather than fighting the leak to embrace it and use it to find more bugs. The pre-re led to a second pre-re fixes some of these bug and delaying the official release, but not for long. Two days later 1.8 officially hit the scene. Aside from the fact that Mojang had a beta of a beta this is all pretty standard stuff. Or at least it would be in any other community.
  Video game communities are well known for having rowdy members. All our bases are belong to them. Usually this manifests in aggression towards bad games, bad companies, outsiders, the web itself, and even the players themselves. Often the only thing that escapes this scrutiny is the the team behind the game. They get attacked of course, but not on the same level as the others. This tends to be especially true in the indie gaming scene. I hate the term indie btw, I prefer underground gaming but whatever.
  Indie game companies tend to be much closer to their player base. They actively communicate with them and even frequently request feedback on how to make the game better. Because of this intimacy, the gamers themselves tend to be more polite and respectful of the game and everyone involved. They tend to thank and encourage the coders. The coders in turn tend to work harder and with more passion. Everyone wins.
  The best community I've seen so far that exhibits this kind of relationship is dwarf fortress. The game is an underground classic and to those in the scene, it's the measuring stick all other games are measured with. It's complexity and depth is matched only by the wretched ugliness of it graphics and interface. The game is dense, difficult, incredibly fun and the community loves it. They embrace the fact that with such depth you sometimes get nasty bugs. They accept the fact that with games that live in beta things can get hairy. Not only do they embrace these things they actually use the bugs to their advantage and end up having even more fun. Yes both kinds!
  No matter how bad it gets, the community in general, loves ToadyOne and continue to embrace dwarf fortress. This community may be the best in my opinion but they certainly aren't alone. Another game called Cataclysm(not the WOW add on) has the same kind of community. It's much smaller but the respect for the coder is there and so is the understanding that games are not easy to make and take time.
  Which brings me back to Minecraft. Minecraft started out like all the rest, small indie game, tight player base and a coder who has no problem talking to his community. But something about minecraft was special and it suddenly exploded onto the mainstream gaming scene. Everyone seems to love this game and with good reason. It's a lot of fun, it's easy, and it can be played many different ways. Because of this, it's captured a very large player base even though it's still in beta, and as a result has made a lot of money.
  And yet for all that minecraft has going for it, it still has the worst community base I've ever seen. They're rude to each other, they have an unreal amount of trolls, and they're ungrateful. Before we continue, I should point out there are good members, you know who you are so don't get pissed. Now back to the douchebags.
  A large chunk of minecraft's base seems to think that since they paid 20 dollars for a game, they now own Notch(the coder) and have the right to basically act like a bunch of brats. They've decided minecraft should be a 24/7 job and that it should run flawlessly. No matter what notch does, it's not good enough. The players will scream for an update and get one, and then scream that the update sucks, notch should have waited. If he had waited they would have called him lazy. This time in particular it was Jeb's fault the update was late. Turns out jeb is married and his father in law was visiting. The selfish prick actually went an spent time with his wife's dad. The nerve of him. I guess no one told him that he was a slave to minecraft and as such is not entitled to family visits.
  I'm not suggesting the game is perfect or that the developers themselves are perfect. They've made mistakes and there are bugs but there's a difference between acting like an ungrateful prick and helping find bugs and working to help build a game. Everyone that has bought Minecraft knew they were buying an unfinished game. This was never kept a secret. In addition to that, Mojang has given the players free updates, little drm, and access to the finished game when it is done. They have been beyond generous in how they offer up their game.
  In spite of the communities attitude, Notch and Jeb continue to work hard at improving minecraft and they never seem to complain about it. Maybe they realize that the ones screaming the loudest and acting the rudest are just a small percentage of the true minecraft community. A large but silent group of people who love minecraft and appreciate the effort that goes into creating it.