Efficient writing

The most adopted alphabets appear to be those that require less strokes.

History of writing

The first writing systems emerged from simplified pictograms. The image of a sun, the image of a man, the image of a bird. These are fairly self-explanatory, they mean what they show. But language syntax has some abstract modifiers that would require abstract symbols.

Drawing what you're trying to say all the time would be pretty inconvenient, so just as language became more uniform, the writing also became more uniform. Letters started to represent either voiced syllables or common words, and became more simplified over time.

Economy Psychology

As the writing and book-printing became more common, in part due for keeping track of finances and laws, the writing got pressured to get altered for more regular and faster use. As a tool, the alphabet got adjusted to the needs.

The same constraint is equally applied to writing and reading: the efficiency of encoding and decoding visual information. The simpler the figure is, the faster it is to physically replicate and to cognitively process. They key point is achieving something that requires low effort while retaining distinctiveness.

Even Chinese and Japanese calligraphy are simplified over time. Instead of each character meaning a specific word, whole new alphabets got standardized to encode words with a series of distinct characters.

Penstyle

A lift of a pen is a micro-pause and a motion that generates extra strain on the hand over time. Cursive minimizes lifts by making letters literally connected. However, despite the standardization, cursive is very stylized depending on who uses it. In place of it, a Typographic/Monospace font ensures each letter is unambiguous and isolated from others, while also composed of modular shapes (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curves), which helps in printing. One font is more efficient for handwriting and the other is for typing, and both keep getting minimized to minimize strokes.

Segmented LCD

The crystallized display is an extreme conclusion to the evolution of writing. Encoding a lot of symbols with just 7 lines requires much more abstract thinking and agreements on conventions.

The 0-9 digits were coincidentally the perfect example for machine readability. Even more arbitrary shapes of '4' and '7' remain recognizable on segmented display.

The Latin alphabet wasn't designed for a 7-segment display, but its core of simple geometric strokes allows a close fit with more detailed 14- or 16-segment displays, which adds diagonals and crossbars to resolve ambiguities.

A cursive, flowing script like Arabic or the stroke-dense blocks of Hanzi fundamentally created problems when their countries entered the digital age, as pixel-grid monitors required further simplicity.

The Future

While it's hard to imagine a convention to adopt a new alphabet, it is possible. If the new standard is set in place, what it would be? I imagine it would aim for letters that are "minimal strokes, easy to connect", and easy to memorize. Whatever the Monospace font would be adapted, there will likely be a "traditional" cursive version as wekk that would emphasize distinctiveness and flair.

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