The Bureau of Linguistical Reality is an organisation with a curious goal: cataloguing new words for the growing and often complex feelings that arise from the reality of a warming world. Featuring words such as “blissonance” (the interruption of bliss by the understanding that climate change will permanently impact one’s place in the world), the bureau aims to make it easier for people to convey how they’re feeling. However, unlike similar projects, the bureau acknowledges that people can still feel feelings for which they don’t have a name yet. Read full article here
Research
Researcher uses AI to make texts that are thousands of years old readable
The Gilgamesh Epic, the oldest work of world literature, has been brought back to life by LMU researchers in the Electronic Babylonian Literature project. Using their new Fragmentarium tool, they have discovered hundreds of manuscripts, including the most recent tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic which dates from 130 BC – thousands of years after the earliest known version. This shows how highly valued the Epic was, even at a late period. With the public release of the Fragmentarium, anyone can now explore the thousands of cuneiform fragments and explore the ancient Babylonian literature. Read full article here
Merv
March 12, 2023
