Sanskrit: The New Binary

If I ask you what comes to your mind when you hear the word “Sanskrit” what would you say? Ancient Indian literature, Vedas, poems, Kalidasa or maybe Maharshi Ved Vyasa? What if I say it makes me think of computers? Sure you won’t take my word for it which is where I bring in NASA. According to a research by Rick Briggs, a NASA scientist, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer programming. Indians might have lost touch with the riches of this tongue under the guise of colonization, yet here we are turning the millennia old wheel. It is, however, the Americans showing us the way back to the mother of all languages. According to this recent report, past efforts seeking middle ground between artificial and natural languages have been in vain since the latter, “…are clearly cumbersome and ambiguous in their function as vehicles for the transmission of logical data.” One of the oldest languages with a considerable literature of its own, Sanskrit is also the most phonetically sound language in which the words are written exactly in the manner they are spoken or thought of. It is this aspect of the language which has led the scientists at NASA, deem it to be “the most scientific language.” Rick Briggs in his report titled “Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence” prominently asserts that, “among the accomplishments of the grammarians can be reckoned a method for paraphrasing Sanskrit in a manner that is identical not only in essence but in form with current work in Artificial Intelligence.” From being the language of the sages, the new age now paves way for Sanskrit to be the tongue of technology.