Professor Marcus was passionate about writing and, in particular, about handwriting. He had over 50 hand-written notebooks in which he collected citations of his works and those of his collaborators, ideas, interesting, useful, or wrong facts, etc. We had the privilege of looking into and using some of these notebooks. He always carried small pieces of paper on which he wrote short sentences for presentations, reminders, and things that would be later transcribed in the notebooks.
He never used a typewriter: the Institute of Mathematics, where he was a researcher, had secretaries capable of typing mathematics texts (for many years, the mathematical formulae had to be added in handwriting). Only after age 70 did he start using a computer during his visit to the University of Auckland in New Zealand, hence learning to type. He continued to write on small proverbial pieces of paper and used his laptop until his last days.
Would he have been interested in giving a talk about handwriting? Most probably, yes. He would have been willing to give different talks for kids, students, and general and professional audiences. We asked ChapGPT to imagine such a fictional talk – Solomon Marcus giving a speech on handwriting at a symposium about language, technology, and the future of communication, and here is the result.
The Forgotten Touch: Handwriting in the Digital Age
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished scholars,
Allow me to take you on a brief journey, one that begins not in the world of algorithms or formal grammars, but in something far more personal: the art of handwriting. Yes, art. I use that word intentionally because, in a time dominated by digital precision, handwriting is a powerful reminder that language is not only an abstract system of symbols but also a deeply human act.
You see, handwriting is more than a simple means of recording language. It is a bridge between thought and action, between the mind and the body. It is the moment when cognition takes physical form, where the abstract becomes tangible. The movement of the hand across the page is a dance—sometimes hesitant, sometimes flowing—one that carries with it the hesitations, the intentions, and even the emotional states of the writer.
The Semiotic Power of the Handwritten Word
Every handwritten text is unique. Each curve and stroke, every deviation from standard form, speaks volumes about the person who wrote it. It is a semiotic system layered with meaning: not only the meaning of the words themselves but the added meanings of personality, style, and even the moment of writing. What digital text conveys in precision, handwriting conveys in nuance and individuality.
In my studies of linguistics and semiotics, I have always been fascinated by how signs evolve and adapt. Handwriting is no exception. It has adapted to centuries of change—first from the hand-copied manuscripts of medieval monks to the standardized scripts of the modern classroom, and now into something we risk losing in the digital age.
But here lies the paradox: in our quest for efficiency, we may be abandoning something irreplaceable. The tactile, sensory experience of handwriting contributes to cognitive processes in ways we are only beginning to understand. When we write by hand, our minds engage with language differently. We internalize it more deeply, we think more slowly and deliberately—qualities that are increasingly rare in an age of instant communication.
Handwriting as a Space for Freedom
Handwriting is a space of freedom within the constraints of language. Think about that for a moment. The forms we write—whether letters or numbers—are governed by rules, yet the execution of those forms is entirely personal. No two handwritten words are the same. The variations, the imperfections, the unexpected twists of the pen—these are marks of our humanity.
In a world that often demands conformity, handwriting reminds us that language can remain personal and intimate. It resists being flattened into mere function. It retains its connection to time and place. A handwritten letter, for instance, is a physical artifact—an object that carries the weight of presence. Digital text may travel faster, but it leaves no fingerprints.
Looking Forward
I do not speak today to romanticize the past or reject the innovations that shape our future. On the contrary, I celebrate our technological advancements. But I also urge caution. If we forget the value of handwriting, we risk losing a crucial part of what makes us human—our ability to leave traces, to express ourselves in ways that are not entirely replicable by machines.
So, I ask you: What is the cost of abandoning the handwritten word? And how might we preserve it as a complement to the digital tools we so eagerly embrace?
For perhaps the greatest gift of handwriting is that it reminds us of the beautiful tension at the heart of human existence—the tension between structure and freedom, between language as a formal system and language as a deeply personal act of expression. Let us not lose that.
Thank you.
Would Professor Marcus have been interested in reading the above text? We believe that the answer is affirmative. Indeed, he would have been interested in LLMs because he adopted and expanded the slogan “linguistics as a pilot science”[1] (proposed by the American linguist J. H. Greenberg in the article with the same title[2]) to create a research program in mathematical linguistics, poetics, and formal language theory.
Is the fictional piece generated by ChatGPT credible? We agree with the comments that “language is not only an abstract system of symbols but also a deeply human act” and “handwriting … is a bridge between thought and action, between the mind and the body”, and with the general analysis.
However, there are at least two missing parts in the ChatGPT text: a) the lack of references to support and explain its claims, and b) the observation that handwriting and typing are complementary in advantages and disadvantages, so they are both valuable and necessary in different contexts, and a remark: he wouldn’t use “You see,…”.
Indeed, a steady stream of research suggests that taking notes the traditional way—with pen and paper or stylus and tablet—is still the best way to learn, especially for young children[3].
A study by A. van der Meer and R. van der Weel, Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom[4], based on monitoring of the brain activity in students taking notes, found that those writing by hand had higher levels of electrical activity across a wide range of interconnected brain regions responsible for movement, vision, sensory processing, and memory. Why? Because when taking notes by hand, you don’t write everything down: you have to actively pay attention to the incoming information and process it, consolidate it, and try to connect it to things you have learned before; building on existing knowledge makes it easier to stay engaged and grasp new concepts.
Boosting memory by relating to something tangible has been well studied by psychologists and educators: experimental research has found that when people are asked to write, draw, or act on something that they’re reading, they have to focus more on what they are doing with the (passive) received information.
Dr. Paula Diaconescu, Professor Marcus’s wife, was a distinguished linguistics professor at the University of Bucharest with interests also in writing. But is linguistics concerned with writing? The answer is affirmative. Two branches of linguistics study writing (both handwriting and typing): graphemics studies writing systems and their basic components, i.e., graphemes, and graphetics is concerned with analyzing the physical properties of shapes used in writing.[5]
Not all disciplines use handwriting and typing in the same ways. Writing in linguistics is done in both ways; in mathematics, this is different, as most mathematicians use handwriting for the creative, exploratory stages of mathematical thinking, while typing is for the final, polished presentation of their works; and in computer science, writing code is always typed.
Will both handwriting and typing disappear? Handwriting won’t completely disappear because it is helpful for memory and learning, is useful for personal touch matters (letters, cards, journals), calligraphy, sketching, and handwritten typography is part of art and creative expression.
Typing is unlikely to disappear entirely in the foreseeable future, too, but its role is already evolving because of various factors at play. First, typing will persist because of precision, control, privacy, legacy, and habit. Second, typing will change because of voice recognition, AI-powered writing, virtual and augmented reality, and thought-to-text. The last reason needs an explanation: still in the experimental phase, the ultimate alternative consists of brain-computer interfaces[6] that allow for text input directly from a person’s thoughts.
The future will likely be a hybrid environment where one seamlessly switches between typing, speaking, and other input methods, depending on the context and needs.
[1]. S. Marcus, Linguistics as a pilot science, Current trends in linguistics, 12 (1974), 2871-2887. Interestingly, the most citations of the paper were in 2020 followed by equally in 2009, 2012 and 2015.
[2]. Themes in Linguistics: The 1970s, edited by Eric P. Hamp, Berlin, De Gruyter Mouton, 1973, pp. 45-60. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110869477-006.
[3]. Scientific American, February 2024, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/.
[4]. Frontiers in Psychology, January 2024, https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219945/full.
[5]. D. Crystal, Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. The Language Library (5th ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003.
[6]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain–computer_interface.