Keynote: Language Games
summary
Argues that communication reduces to mapping Concepts to signifiers using concrete frameworks (Saussure, Wittgenstein, Grice) and claims talking to computers is often easier than to humans because programming languages, compilers and transpilers give inspectable translations. Shows Lego and household examples, evaluates ISO 21482 nuclear‑waste signage and a proposed glowing‑cat + song solution, contrasts code vs prompt engineering, and recommends domain driven design and cooperative maxims applied to code (validate assumptions, throw errors, prefer readability). Mentions using girkin tests and that aligning domain and code avoids rewrites.
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chapters (14)
- 0:00Communication in software
- 1:52Ideas to words
- 4:19Saussure’s gap
- 8:12Language as evolving system
- 11:02Wittgenstein’s games
- 15:27Context shapes meaning
- 17:35Communication across time
- 22:52Human communication guesses
- 26:46Talking to computers
- 31:21Cooperative principle for code
- 39:29Stakeholder ideas translation
- 43:48Domain driven design
- 44:31Why code feels magical
- 44:54Human communication importance
