Why are some societies more violent than others?

I developed a theory in high school about why some cultures are more warlike than others:

Around 200,000 years ago, our ancestors — Homo sapiens sapiens — emigrated from Africa. The first place they settled was the Middle East, then India, then China. This is why people first began to farm in Iraq around 8000 b.c., then India, and then China around 4000 b.c. (Spielvogel 4-6).

Those closest to where civilization began became the most warlike. I believe that this was due to overcrowding. Competition for resources led to unending war in the Middle East. There was less war in India, although that culture suffered invasions and settlement by more-warlike peoples, like the Aryans and Muslims (among others). Hinduism — India's traditional religion — advocates Ahimsa (nonviolence), but India still has a history of war and many of its sacred texts contain gory stories similar to our Old Testament. European culture was influenced greatly by cultures in the Middle East (especially by the Hebrews, but also others like the Babylonians — whence our "a tooth for a tooth"). So, the theory goes, European culture is a step away from that of the Middle East just like India's. The most-pacific culture of all these is China's, which stresses harmony (Taoism and Confucianism), and where Buddhism has been popular.

Of course, all societies practice war. But, this is more an indication of the wishes of a nation's rulers rather than its people. Mao Zedong, for example, was just a thug who rose to power largely on the basis of his military skills. He lacked basic respect for Chinese cultural institutions. His Cultural Revolution (1966-70) destroyed many Chinese cultural practices and artifacts. If China were a democracy, then I believe it would be more like Japan today, and I doubt it would have fought the Korean War. When Japan was ruled by military strongmen, it waged war endlessly, but today it is very peaceful. Less-warlike people overthrow their leaders because they are tired of war — e.g., the U.S. in the 1960s — whereas the most-warlike overthrow them because they want war — e.g., Syria after its defeat by Israel in 1948 (Longrigg).

Works consulted

Spielvogel, Jackson. Western Civilization (1997).

Brown, W. Norman. "Hinduism." Encyclopedia Americana. 2007. Grolier Online. http://ea.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0202530-00 [13 Apr. 2007]

Longrigg, Stephen H. "Syria >> 4. History and Government." Encyclopedia Americana. 2007. Grolier Online. http://ea.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0377350-04 [13 Apr. 2007]

Comparing programming language to human language

There are two types of language: natural and artificial. Natural languages, in large part, are products of evolution — steps taken beyond non-verbal communication by many people. Artificial languages, like Esperanto and BASIC, are in greater part designed consciously by a small group of people. One type of artificial language is computer language. There are two types: those that specify processes and those that specify results. Those that specify a process are instructions (programs). There are two kinds of languages that specify results: those that specify a format (e.g., HTML), and those that something sought (e.g., SQL). But, it is not certain that these are languages. They differ from natural languages in terms of their users, their evolution, and their scope.

Who users are depends on the language. The word language is from the Latin lingua, originally meaning “tongue.” The majority of languages were originally forms of speaking. In contrast, computer languages are not spoken. Many believe that communication with inanimate objects is not language. But in reality, these languages do not even communicate with computers. They first need to be translated to binary code. Computers cannot understand anything besides zeros and ones. This is another problem with the use of this word.

Like natural languages, computer languages are always changing. Many have dialects. For example, FORTRAN has gone through seven major generations since its introduction in 1956. The most recent is almost completely different from the FORTRAN of 1956. To display a message in the FORTRAN of 1956, you typed, PRINT *, 'Lorem ipsum', but today, you type <tabwrite (*,*) 'Lorem ipsum'. The rate of change is much greater than in natural languages because computers are changing much faster. Still, no matter how much they change, the grammar that produces statements in programming is always clear.

The scope of languages differs. One might say that computer language is a type of sub-language because its scope is more limited. They are not nearly as complex as our own. Our languages describe the world, whereas theirs describe their own. The only more-confined language is mathematics. Nevertheless, if any of them were to be expanded, they would be very similar to certain other a priori artificial languages like Lojban.¹ These can be used as natural languages, albeit with great difficulty.

In terms of their users, evolution, and scope, natural languages differ more than they resemble the language of computers. Computer languages are not languages much more than algebra. A more-appropriate name would be code, or as Edsger Dijkstra calls them, "notations."²

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1. There are two types of artificial languages: a priori and a posteriori. A priori languages like Lojban and FORTRAN are based on logic. A posteriori languages like Esperanto and Interlingua are derived from natural languages.

2. Many thanks to Goulo for letting me know about Lojban and the writings of Edsger Dijkstra.