We live in a world dominated by the machine.
For it's with machines that we can so powerfully manipulate the world around us—transforming what it even means to be human.
But our tumultuous success with machines has led us to so naively assume that all things must operate as machines do...
that one may understand something only after understanding how all its little bits and pieces work together.
This is how we tend to think of language.
"Words have fixed definitions."
"Language operates according to strict grammar rules."
"A sentence has a finite meaning."
But this is in error.
So much of the beauty of language is lost in our attempt to understand it as we would a machine.
When we seek to tame language in this way, we do so at the cost of its vitality.
The carpenter understands his own need for the hammer. The hammer sees only nails, and so think it must rule the world.
Tools and machines are incredibly valuable, when in the hands of those with the wisdom to use them.
It's no secret that tools can help us to learn a language.
The danger is in being fooled into believing that language too operates just like the tools we use to learn it.
I built Numinos to bring a sense of wonder and mystery back into the world of language learning.
A collection of tools to help you explore a language.
Not to understand it per se—but to make contact with it.
In many ways, I suppose Numinos is something like a life-philosophy disguised as a language-learning one.
It's about learning to sense when you are in the presence of something deep, without needing to understand it, or define it.
Numinos is about learning to loosen you grip on the world, for a chance at being present with it.
Not a re-presentation of the world.
But a presence with it.
And in this way, the world ceases to be all the things you only thought it were, and can go on to be all the things you never thought it could.
All the best,
— David Kennedy