More than 60 years ago, the idea of Loglan – a unique and carefully constructed artificial language – started to take form in the mind of James Cooke Brown as an experiment in linguistics and logic. With the introduction of Lojban (“A realization of Loglan”) in 1987 by initiative of Bob “lojbab” LeChevalier, the experiment took a new life, becoming a focal point able to attract the curiosity of intellectuals, academics, computer scientists and language nerds. Lojban grew bigger and bigger, gaining expressivity and nuances to a level rarely seen in constructed lanugages, as testimonied by the publication of the 500-page book The Complete Lojban Language in 1997. With the emphasis shifting from the physical world to the Internet, a community of enthusiasts distributed around the world continues to interact in and about Lojban using the resources of the net, shaping the evolution of the language to this day.

With the Relojban language, presented in this book, the result of this evolution spanning more than half a century is repackaged to be brough back to an imaginary “open laboratory” where further ideas and future directions can be explored. The core vision is to bring to a full realization the idea of a machine-parseable, fully-specified constructed language, to see which kind of opportunities arise for such language in a world of ubiquitous software and sprawling artificial intelligence.

In undertaking this work, we are standing on the shoulder of giants: these are the Loglanists and Lojbanists that with their passion and dedication have defined the language in amazing detail, and most importantly that have made it “real” by using it for communicating ideas, tell stories, create art, and sometimes fight each other. An acknowledgemnt is necessary for some of these pioneers, knowing full well that this does not do justice to many others whose role was equally fundamental. Beyond James Cooke Brown and Bob LeChevalier, we cite here Nora Tansky, John Parks-Clifford, John Cowan, Athelstan, Nick Nicholas, Jorge Llambias, Pierre Abbat, And Rosta, Robin Lee Powell, Arnt Johansen, Timo Paulssen, Miles Forster, Guskant, Gleki.

To all of them (the ones cited as well as the ones not cited) goes our gratitude.