Who I Am

It would be foolish not to take recent technological developments into account with linguistics in the crosshairs. Indeed, scare articles abound on the internet, prognosticating the loss of jobs to machines on the order of 50% in the next thirty years. Can machines become conscious? Can we program a soul? One needs only to ask their favorite digital assistant a question to see how far we have come (and how far we have to go). We surely can program a computer to become a Chess Master, but can we program a machine to enjoy Shakespeare? It seems clear, though, that no matter how perfect machines become, the human experience remains paramount to understanding human experiences and, by extension, language.

Why German? German is a very precise language with complex grammatical structures. It also encompasses many great works of literature and, as a result of the later industrialization of the German-speaking countries compared to other Western countries, a more developed Romantic period. From poetry to operatic productions, Germanic culture embraced, and still does embrace, the arts at a very high level.

In my spare time, when I am not studying language, I enjoy radio communication as an amateur radio operator. Microwave electronics, in combination with the availability of high-powered computing systems to the public, make this a particularly exciting time to enjoy technology that allows exploration of extremely challenging and personally rewarding technical projects.