Transparent language is a formal, indeed, a purely machinic, operational language that harbors no ambivalence. Wilhelm von Humboldt already pointed to the fundamental intransparency that inhabits human language: Nobody means by a word precisely and exactly what his neighbour does, and the difference, be it ever so small, vibrates, like a ripple in water, throughout the entire language. Thus all understanding is always at the same time a not-understanding, all concurrence in thought and feeling at the same time a divergence. A world consisting only of information, where communication meant circulation without interference, would amount to a machine. The society of positivity is dominated by the “transparency and obscenity of … Continue reading Byung-Chul Han (Transparency Society)