Computers speak machine language," Hiro says. "It's written in ones and zeroes
-- binary code. At the lowest level, all computers are programmed with strings
of ones and zeroes. When you program in machine language, you are controlling
the computer at its brainstem, the root of its existence. It's the tongue of
Eden. But it's very difficult to work in machine language because you go crazy
after a while, working at such a minute level. So a whole Babel of computer
languages has been created for programmers: FORTRAN, BASIC, COBOL, LISP, Pascal,
C, PROLOG, FORTH. You talk to the computer in one of these languages, and a
piece of software called a compiler converts it into machine language. But you
never can tell exactly what the compiler is doing. It doesn't always come out
the way you want. Like a dusty pane or warped mirror. A really advanced hacker
comes to understand the true inner workings of the machine -- he sees through
the language he's working in and glimpses the secret functioning of the binary
code -- becomes a Ba'al Shem of sorts."
"Lagos believed that the legends about the tongue of Eden were exaggerated
versions of true events," the Librarian says. "These legends reflected
nostalgia for a time when people spoke Sumerian, a tongue that was superior to
anything that came afterward."
"Is Sumerian really that good?"
"Not as far as modern-day linguists can tell," the Librarian says. "As I
mentioned, it is largely impossible for us to grasp. Lagos suspected that words
worked differently in those days. If one's native tongue influences the
physical structure of the developing brain, then it is fair to say that the
Sumerians -- who spoke a language radically different from anything in existence
today -- had fundamentally different brains from yours. Lagos believed that for
this reason, Sumerian was a language ideally suited to the creation and
propagation of viruses. That a virus, once released into Sumer, would spread
rapidly and virulently, until it had infected everyone."
"Maybe Enki knew that also," Hiro says. "Maybe the nam-shub of Enki wasn't such
a bad thing. Maybe Babel was the best thing that ever happened to us.
-- binary code. At the lowest level, all computers are programmed with strings
of ones and zeroes. When you program in machine language, you are controlling
the computer at its brainstem, the root of its existence. It's the tongue of
Eden. But it's very difficult to work in machine language because you go crazy
after a while, working at such a minute level. So a whole Babel of computer
languages has been created for programmers: FORTRAN, BASIC, COBOL, LISP, Pascal,
C, PROLOG, FORTH. You talk to the computer in one of these languages, and a
piece of software called a compiler converts it into machine language. But you
never can tell exactly what the compiler is doing. It doesn't always come out
the way you want. Like a dusty pane or warped mirror. A really advanced hacker
comes to understand the true inner workings of the machine -- he sees through
the language he's working in and glimpses the secret functioning of the binary
code -- becomes a Ba'al Shem of sorts."
"Lagos believed that the legends about the tongue of Eden were exaggerated
versions of true events," the Librarian says. "These legends reflected
nostalgia for a time when people spoke Sumerian, a tongue that was superior to
anything that came afterward."
"Is Sumerian really that good?"
"Not as far as modern-day linguists can tell," the Librarian says. "As I
mentioned, it is largely impossible for us to grasp. Lagos suspected that words
worked differently in those days. If one's native tongue influences the
physical structure of the developing brain, then it is fair to say that the
Sumerians -- who spoke a language radically different from anything in existence
today -- had fundamentally different brains from yours. Lagos believed that for
this reason, Sumerian was a language ideally suited to the creation and
propagation of viruses. That a virus, once released into Sumer, would spread
rapidly and virulently, until it had infected everyone."
"Maybe Enki knew that also," Hiro says. "Maybe the nam-shub of Enki wasn't such
a bad thing. Maybe Babel was the best thing that ever happened to us.
( Neal Stephenson )
[ Snow Crash ]
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