xkcd #1904 Research Risks (10/18/17):
(#1
Linguistics fares pretty well, both on being used by supervillains for world domination and on the possibility of research subjects breaking free and threatening the environment. I note the absence of Artificial Intelligence in this graph.
And more recently, #1970 Name Dominoes (3/21/18):
(#2)
(This one will need to be embiggened.)
On this blog:
from 7/25/11 “Name chains”: portmanteau chains
from 3/15/18 “Name association chains”: more general associations
April 3, 2018 at 1:30 pm |
Surely the risk of linguistics being used by a supervillain for world domination is understated. Linguistics plays a significant role in efforts for world domination, both in fiction (e.g., 1984’s newspeak) and in real life (e.g., Stalin’s notable interest in linguistics).
Uncontrolled rampages by linguistic developments, however, seem as manageable a risk as XKCD implies.