Is a post-verbal high technology civilization possible, where most people don’t use language, and it’s a specialized skill like neurosurgery?
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Neal Stephenson's essay "In the beginning... was the command line" points in this direction, using the CLI -> GUI computing transition as an example of a word-based culture moving towards one that gives 'the gist' while hiding complexitypic.twitter.com/8MujPaz7gh
the japanese were, of course, deprived of their military after WWII, which i think goes some way towards explaining the cuteness pivot
