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Researchers: It takes 1.5 MB of data to store language information

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Re: Researchers: It takes 1.5 MB of data to store language information

#11
This describes how to summarize a language in a computer system.

I think the storage requirements for the semantics is in particular questionable. If you can refer to a particular concept somewhere in the brain you only need a pointer to it. However, single pointers might not be sufficient

The apparatus to learn a language might also not so easily distinguished from the structure to store the language or the structure to quickly recall the language. In that case taking about storage is like talking about compressing Plato's world of concepts.

Re: Researchers: It takes 1.5 MB of data to store language information

#13
post #10

Makes me want to write a retrocyberpunk setting featuring languages loaded off floppy disks.

Do it!

Preferably, the floppy disks should be the 5-1/4 inch 1.2 MiB high-density, double-sided type, 3-1/2 inch disks sounds good too ;-)

Re: Researchers: It takes 1.5 MB of data to store language information

#14
I haven't read the paper itself, but the article makes it sound like they simply counted the minimum number of bits required to represent the English language. It mentions no neuroscience-specific insights, so the "brain" part of the title is quite misleading.

Re: Researchers: It takes 1.5 MB of data to store language information

#15
post #8

So, all of it fits on a floppy? Nice.

Not quite. Considering the most common floppies stored a bit less than 1.44MB.

One feature of floppy disks is that the recording technology and the format is independent from the physical medium, the limitations are mostly imposed by the disk drive, the encoding and the file system, not the medium itself.

Well, this "feature" creates significant compatibility issues as all the vendors created their own proprietary formats, sometimes with patents. As a result, together with the economics of scale, often, the standard format is not the best design, a simpler design that serves as the lowest common denominator.

On the other hand, due to this feature, it was already possible to store 1,760 KB of data on a 3-1/2 inch HD floppy on a 1986 Amiga. And in 2000, it was possible to store 32 MiB of data on a standard 1.44 MB floppy disk, by using a SuperDisk LS-240 drive (although random write is sacrificed, the entire floppy must be rewritten if a change is needed, like CD-RWs).

I believe the advancements in magnetic recording technology in the past 20 years allows one to achieve even higher capacity on a standard floppy, and it can be as cheap as early floppy drives if mass produced, only that it doesn't make sense to do so.

Re: Researchers: It takes 1.5 MB of data to store language information

#18
post #9
post #4

How would it be possible that 40,000 words translates to 400,000 bits?! Am I missing something here?

Compression I suppose. Like storing the word "compression" is easier if you already know the familiar "com-" prefix as well as the noun "pression". Which is itself easier to remember if you know the verb "to press". I've been actively learning Portuguese and Russian lately, it's impressive how much faster I can pick up Portuguese vocabulary vs. Russian. And that's even for words that don't have an obvious cognate in…

"Compression" applies very much to grammatical variants of words. It's why the only bizarre irregular verbs in a language tend to be the ones that get used all the time - be, do, go etc - because for anything more obscure the brain just forgets the special case and applies the general rule.

Steven Pinker's book Words and Rules is a great layman-oriented read if this sort of thing interests you.

Re: Researchers: It takes 1.5 MB of data to store language information

#20
post #19

I believe it if they provide a program that can speak English in under 1.5MB total size.

What does it mean to "speak English"? Does a program that plays a recording of the word "I" count as a program that speaks English?
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