Precise Language as Technology
January 6, 2022
In SPQR, the author talks about how Rome was innovative on building on Hammurabi's code of laws. But one thing she mentions is that law in the ancient world was very imprecise. Statements included "He should bring him to the chamber for a trial" and "If he does not show up he shall get one to get him". What do these even mean? Is it really even a law if citizens have 0% clue what it is even trying to say?
Legal scholars today talk a lot about the interpretation of law, and they spend a lot of time scrutinizing words to figure out (and potentially twist) their meaning. This is something we just take for granted, but this was not always the case. The writing down of precise laws was enough of a breakthrough for it to be lauded in our history books; refining how we use words to describe the rules and processes that govern us is an important technological breakthrough that we do not hail often enough.
It is interesting to think of writing as a technology in this way. It is something that we can improve and refine. We can craft new phrases, structures, even words to communicate things more effectively. In law this is for the aim of making sure you can precisely convey what you want to. Obama talked about this when he derided the "Defund the Police" slogan. He said that if you actually want to re-allocate resources of the police to unarmed officers and demilitarize city police forces, then you should say that. Saying "defund the police" gets across the wrong message. You are being imprecise here; your words can be interpreted in a way that you do not want; your movement will lose steam because you failed to invoke a feeling you thought you would bring about.
This precision of language is something that we all need to harness. Now we have tools that can help us harness this in different ways. We can send gifs, videos, links (to people who explain things better than we can), and more. We should use all of these tools to properly construct and convey our thoughts as precisely as possible. I have no doubt that one day the ability for us to express emotions through emojis and gifs will be heralded in the history books just like precise language was during Roman times.