rejecting corruptive language

Much has been said about the way we tend to lose the meaning of things by obfuscating their names, but part of the problem is that it's a relatively hard thing to undo. I may think that "AI" is a misleading and destructive way of categorizing the recent bubble, but if I use any other term for it nobody is going to know what I'm talking about. Participating in public discourse generally requires accepting the definitions everyone uses in said discourse.

Luckily for me, this blog is the perfect place for me to be the exception to that "generally".

In that spirit, moving forward I'm going to be replacing words and phrases I think shouldn't have ever been adopted with alternatives that better represent their meaning. I'm also going to at some point make a page on my website where I keep track of these (maybe I should have a page of general literary standards and practices of mine, but I digress), but for now let me just give a few examples:

• Pattern Engine instead of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (they aren't intelligent and they don't learn)
• Science-Fantasy instead of Science-Fiction (this one is only going to be selectively applied, since the idea is to distinguish stuff like Star Wars from stuff like Interstellar)
• Installing Apps instead of Sideloading (sideloading is still fine for transferring data from one device to another, but trying to differentiate installing official vs unofficial apps as if the process itself were different is misleading)
• Homebrewing instead of Hacking (when used in the context of unlocking your own hardware you bought and payed for, hacking is still a thing otherwise)
• For a sort of inverse, I'm not going to use Nazi or Fascist for people I disagree with but who don't match the literal definition of those terms. Heck, Fascist I'm going to avoid using in general simply because it's an ideology with far too nebulous a definition to be useful to begin with. Carefully applied hyperbole is fine, but reckless hyperbole guarantees that important terms lose all meaning.
• This is only tangentially related, but I am going to do my very best to avoid committing the "Appeal to Ridicule" fallacy whenever engaging with positions I disagree with.

I'm sure I'll find others as time goes on, but for now these are a decent start. Be sure to email in if you have any examples that you think should be added to the list!