Economics of Language (1965)

Abstract

A group of engineers were designing the communication system of a small fighter plane. They were told to keep the communication equipment as light as possible so as not to impair the plane’s speed and maneuverability, or the load of fuel and ammunition it can carry. Every pound saved on communication hardware would improve the plane’s performance. The different messages that the pilot may have to exchange with his gunner or with other planes or with the ground, and that provide for all the contingencies of navigation and fighting, are not numerous. No need for verbal messages, a telephone. A small set of dials and off-on signals would do.

A contribution to Orbis Scriptus: Dmitry Tschižewskij zum 70. Geburtstag (W. Weintraub et al. (eds.), Eidos Verlag, Munchen), revised for this journal with the permission of the volume’s publisher. It is a part of a research project on Individual and Organized Decision Making, carried out at the Western Management Science Institute, University of California at Los Angeles, and supported in part by the Office of Naval Research (Contract No. 233–75) and the Ford Foundation. The author was greatly stimulated by discussions at the Conference on Speech, Language, and Communication sponsored in November, 1963 by the Brain Research Institute, U.C.L.A., and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He owes much to the contributions of P. Garvin, H. Hoijer, S. M. Lamb, and F. A. Lounsbury.