Veracity

After the global disaster of the former guy's POTUS administration, I started thinking that the world needs a new constructed language (ConLang): VeraSpeak.

The defining characteristic of VeraSpeak will be veracity: conformity to facts; accuracy. I envision VeraSpeak as a language that's simple, like Canadian linguist and translator Sonja Lang's Toki Pona (first published online in 02001 as a draft and with only 14 letters and 120 words, the world's smallest language), and constructed in such a way that it will be impossible to write a falsehood in VeraSpeak.

I'm not yet sure how to do this or even if it's possible, but I'm gonna try (as little Mumble Happy Feet said: "I'll try pa.", to which his pa said: "You bet you will. The word 'Triumph' starts with 'Try.' And it ends with 'Umph.' A great big 'Umph!'").

If you have ideas on how to do this, I hope you'll share them with me via tweet on Twitter. I wonder if blockchain technology could help. Or perhaps some kind of overlay on top of Twitter's infrastructure.

Written Only; Not Spoken

As of now, I'm thinking that VeraSpeak must be a language that is constrained to writing; that is, VeraSpeak will not have a spoken component. Spoken language is ephemeral, evanescent, fleeting, transitory. Part of what makes deliberate deception so common is this very aspect of a language. When statements are memorialized as in writing, they can become permanent, subject to scrutiny, verification, and easier exposure as deliberately deceptive. The same is not true for spoken statements. Spoken language is the preferred medium of all liars for this reason.

Zero Ambiguity

Another important aspect of VeraSpeak must be for there to be zero ambiguity in all its statements. Computer programming languages are constrained to writing and are created so as to make every properly constructed statement entirely unambiguous. Perhaps VeraSpeak will need a compiler to check for proper syntax and construction.

Stop History Repeating Itself

Human history keeps repeating itself to everyone's long-term detriment, and I think the main reason is deliberate deception. VeraSpeak has been rattling around inside the mind of Kevin Ford The Submariner since 02018 September 23, but was instantiated as a "thing" on 02021 April 26, inspired in part by Sonja Lang's Toki Pona. VeraSpeak language draft to follow eventually...

The Evolution of Humans & Language

If a certain threshold number of humans become fluent in VeraSpeak and use it consistently to collaborate, then I think natural selection will eventually make it the language of choice for all collaborative human efforts. Because if deliberate deception is impossible to any member of a group, then I think such groups are more likely to thrive than groups where deliberate deception is possible.

With estimates of ~100,000 active speakers, Esperanto is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language, and its use is growing. Here is one Esperanto usage trend for websites.

Recurrent, Convergent Evolution of Deliberate Deception

Over millions of years, deliberate deception has repeatedly and independently evolved in many species (Recurrent, convergent evolution is the recurring, independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last common ancestor of those groups.) so I think deliberate deception will continue to plague (it truly is a Dawkins-meme-based, viral plague) all human groups as long as it remains possible to us.

Engineered Languages

This is where engineering may surpass evolution in moving beyond a particularly challenging obstacle like spaceflight or the trustworthiness of individuals in a population. See Engineered Languages for more.

Some ConLangs

Esperanto (01887), Quenya (01910), Klingon (01979), and Toki Pona (02001) are just a handful of existing ConLangs. If even the purely-for-fun language of the fictional Klingon species can go from naught to incorporation into Duolingo (over 300 million registered users across the world as of 02021 March) in less than 40 years (01979–02018), then perhaps truth-seeking people throughout the world can do as well or better with VeraSpeak, which seeks to dramatically improve the lot of humanity by eliminating deliberate deception.

Seeking contributors and collaborators! Connect with me via tweet on Twitter for more. GitHub repo here.