New Blog

I'm quite lazy... and to keep this blog clean, I decided to create a now one solely dedicated to security and programming. Please check it out: dakhma.net

Oh by the way, a dakhma is construction for the purification of dead bodies in Zarathustrian religion, i.e. the bodies get cleaned by birds.


Last notice: I hope to post more language/linguistic related news soon. Though I'm currently working on quite a lot of projects.

Recap

This is going to be a very boring semester. Java is really interesting but also complicated for a beginner. Compared to Python, it feels like a mature language and you have to think (more) about what you're doing. Formal Syntax is complex and time-consuming, especially for me, since I'm not into Syntax. I'm more interested in semantics and therefore Logic is quite fancy - although sometimes it's as boring as Math. Acoustic phonetics hasn't started yet and Artificial Intelligence is fun but often too superficial - we aren't concerned with Natural Language Processing. Hence I plan to do a small pragmatic series on AI and to recap what I'll learn in the course. I also took two courses in English: Translation into German (boring as hell) and English to the 1700 century (boring lecturer), but they aren't worth to mention.

Finally, there's no post in my blogroll which could wake my interest. Except - well, in a not so positive way - for a news on Eureka Alert. This is one of the cases which I'd entitle 'the most unspectacular findings - that are no findings because everybody already knows - in science'. The study says that music is culturally independent when it comes to convey (certain) emotions. Well, everyone who's listened to a song in another language knows this. The study goes one step further and investigates the influence of music from fundamentally different cultures: Language of music really is universal, study finds

Crying

Vacation! Last semester was very intense, no time for anything. Gosh, and now I'm trying to learn Java... It's far more complicated than imagined. Python was neat and easy - in comparison - but Java is far more potent, so they say. I don't quite understand why I've to write code which seems to be obsolete - at least for a beginner like me , e.g.

public class HelloWorld
{
 public static void main(String argv[])
 {
  System.out.println("Hello World!");
 }
}

is equivalent to

print "Hello World!"

in Python.

And next semester I'm going to die for sure... Here're my courses:

Formal Syntax: I'm more the Morphology, Phonology, Semantics type. Actually Syntax is the only thing which gives me problems.
Java: Well, it's going to be hard I'd say.
Logic: I like formal logic, really.
Artificial Intelligence: Very very interesting. Inference, neuronal networks, genetic algorithms and that stuff - you know...
Acoustic Phonetics: This sounds good: Reading spectrograms and get in touch with VoiceXML.

Art of the State

Currently I'm very busy in learning the formal foundations of linguistics (Set Theory, Relations), programming (Python) and computational linguistics (Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Context Free Grammars).

I got an e-mail. Really. From a reader. By the way, it's my first; that's why I'm quite enthusiastic. He suggested to introduce my readers (do I have any?) to his blog Neuropolitics. Well, well, I read the first sentences and decided to mention it in this post. Form your own opinion.

Perhaps I'm going to write about the foundations of Natural Language Processing or upload some Python code which could be used to play with strings. Mostly harmless, not really meaningful code. I don't think that I'll have time for something else anyway.

Time's running, running out

Unfortunately, I don't have time to blog for the time being. I study natural language processing, which is very intense. So give me a week or two and I'll come back.

Resistance is futile

Soon I'll be one of them, i.e. accepted for computational linguistics at Heidelberg - hooray!

Lachender Mann

Wer ist eigentlich dieser Laughing Man?

Um das zu erfahren, muss man in die Untiefen des menschlichen Ekels steigen und sich selbst hinterfragen, denn es ist die tiefste Schwärze, welche auf einen wartet. Brennende Asche und Vernichtung selbst ist das Saatgut der Seele, welche hier schreibt.

Nun, so schlimm ist es noch nicht, aber man merkt schon, dass ich einen leichten Hang zu poetischer Übertreibung habe.

Ich studiere noch Anglistik und Germanistik auf Lehramt an der Universität in Heidelberg. Wie man meinen unzähligen Hasstiraden entnehmen kann, bin ich damit nicht ganz so zufrieden. Ich würde viel lieber in einem dunklen Zimmer mit meiner Nickelbrille sitzen und obskure Theorien entwerfen, so wie Chomsky, anstatt mit all den groovy (sagt man das noch?) Lehrämtlern abzufeiern.
Ich bin ein Linguistik und Computer Geek und interessiere mich für all die netten kleinen Randerscheidungen der Wissenschaft. Je mehr variablen und griechische Buchstaben eine Theorie hat, desto cooler muss sie sein, oder anders gesagt:

∑ Φ ↵ ξ ∴Ω ⊃ Δ = ♥

Ja, ich neige zum Sarkasmus. Und deswegen - also wegen der griechischen Buchstaben, nicht wegen des Sarkasmus - werde ich wohl, ab dem Wintersemester, Computerlinguistik studieren. Ich hoffe, dass ich dabei meine beiden Lieben miteinander verbinden kann. Informatik - ich habe Monkey Island gespielt als es rauskam, bin ich ein Nerd oder bin ich ein Nerd? Und ja, Monkey Island spielen macht mich zum Informatikexperten - und eben Linguistik. Allerdings steht noch die Frage offen wo ich das ganze studieren werde. Es steht folgendes zur Auswahl:


Computerlinguistik Heidelberg: Der Vorteil wäre zunächst einmal, dass ich schon 2-3 Jahre in Heidelberg studiert habe und mich dementsprechend auskenne, ausserdem könnte ich mir Teile meines Anglistik Studiums anrechnen lassen, da ich - im Nebenfach - englische Sprachwissenschaft studieren würde. Ausserdem scheinen mir die Dozenten ganz entspannt und nett zu sein, allerdings gibt es mal wieder eine Eignungsprüfung.

Computerlinguistik Saarbrücken: Das Saarland ist nun nicht so meine Vorstellung, aber der Abschluss ist immerhin B.Sc. und die Computerlinguistik in Saarbrücken scheint einen guten Ruf zu haben.

Kognitive Linguistik Frankfurt am Main: Man kann sich dort den Schwerpunkt Computerlinguistik aussuchen. Ich denke, dass der Anteil an allgemeiner Sprachwissenschaft sehr groß sein dürfte, aber kognitive Linguistik ist schon ein sehr interessantes Gebiet. Ausserdem wäre das Nebenfach wahrscheinlich auch nicht mein Fall und Lehrämtlern dürfen soweit ich weiß mitstudieren.

Cognitive Science Osnabrück: Eigentlich nicht mein Ziel, da eine akademische Karriere wohl vorgezeichnet ist und ich gerne in der Industrie arbeiten möchte. Ausserdem besteht der Studiengang aus vielen anderen Fächern, wie Neurobiologie, was ich alles in allem zwar toll finde, aber das wäre mir dann doch zu wenig Linguistik.

Komplekz 'daeptif sistehmz

You may be wondering what this blog is all about and I think it is time to lift the veil of mystery and to embrace the cleansing light of enlightenment. No this blog isn't about cheap puns; it's about Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS):

System: A system is a set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming an integrated whole. (Source)

Complex System: A complex system is a system composed of interconnected parts that as a whole exhibit one or more properties (behavior among the possible properties) not obvious from the properties of the individual parts. (Source)

Complex Adaptive System: Complex adaptive systems are special cases of complex systems. They are complex in that they are diverse and made up of multiple interconnected elements and adaptive in that they have the capacity to change and learn from experience. (Source)

It's an interdisciplinary field of study which includes for example "the stock market, social insect and ant colonies, the biosphere and the ecosystem, the brain and the immune system, the cell and the developing embryo, manufacturing businesses and any human social group-based endeavour in a cultural and social system such as political parties or communities." (ibid.)
You see it contains almost everything; but this is not a mad scientist's blog about CAS. I use this phrase in a metaphorical way. You, dear reader, are a CAS. You are complex, at least I hope so, and you can act and re-act; so this blog is about everything you can think of (and which interests me), especially humans and their language.
I was inspired by the essay "Are you there God? It's me, a Complex-Adaptive System" by Arshiya Bose, which Michael (Shared Symbolic Storage) showed me in my first or second semester at university. By the way, he's the person guilty of throwing me in the depths of linguistic perversion, i. e. waking the interest for interdisciplinary-linguistic study. Therefore I will write about things nobody is interested an - at least not normal people - like Neuroscience, Language, German Language, Germany, Anime, Manga, Japan, Cognitive Science, Computational Science, Linguistics, Poetry, Zen, Buddhism, Artificial Intelligence, Roleplay, Politics, University and Personal Stuff.

Please be aware that I recommend to install the language packs for your operating system since I'll make extensive use of the Japanese writing system, IPA letters and other various uncommon writing systems like ancient Greek. This blog will contain English as well as German texts, so please ensure that you'll be able to see "Umlaute" like ä, ö, ü and ß (Ä, Ö, Ü) and not silly squares.

I'm not a native speaker of the English language. Therefore my utterances might be confusing or just plainly wrong. Nevertheless, you may send hate mails to:

WorteWieWind(at)gmail(dot)com