Tracking the Early History of Fluffspeak
“Wan pway?”
“Nu huwt fwuffy! Am onwy a widdwe babbeh huuhuu.”
“Fwuffy wuv daddeh! Can hab skettis?”
The above sentences have a polarizing effect of the people who encounter them. For some, it may elicit feelings of affection and care. For others, it may instigate rage and a desire to hurt a hapless being. Nonetheless, Fluffspeak remains to be one of the more controversial languages of the 22nd century, over a hundred years after its first description. This essay will, in brief, cover the early history of Fluffspeak, from in its initial creation, to its recognition as an official language by the mid-21st century.
This report will focus on the predominant version of Fluffspeak available in the contemporary world, which is the open-source language spoken by biotoy, replicant and human alike. It is not to be confused with Hasbio’s branded Fluffspeak. Despite Hasbio’s repeated attempts to copyright and limit the Fluffspeak lexicon, the majority of Fluffspeak used in the speaking world remains to be the open-source variant that is not copyrighted, nor controlled. This version of Fluffspeak has no formal regulator, and thus, has many variants. For the sake of this report, we will be working with English-based Fluffspeak, which remains to be the predominant form of this language.
Although most of the websites and information regarding the creation of Fluffspeak has been lost, it is generally agreed within academic circles that Fluffspeak has its origins as an AI-generated language, and that it is an amalgamation of three separate memetic languages. The first is Babbehspeak, which is the common language used by adults on mainstream social medial sites in the early 21st century such as Instagram, Facebook and tumblr. Babbehspeak is characterized as an adult attempt to mimic what a child of an age range between a toddler to kindergartener would sound like. The second is uWu language, which grew in popularity among researchers in the history of Japanese animation. uWu language has its own entry within this book but can be understood as a form of speech spoken by super-deformed, or chibi characters in certain Japanese animations, based on the idea that such language is seen as cute. The third influence was from children themselves as mispronunciations and grammatical spellings from them affected searches on engines such as Goggle. A shared trait between all three origins is the idea of what a young child might sound like, or how such a young child might view the world.
The most important element of Fluffspeak, and the least understood, is the use of ‘fluffy’, or ‘fwuffy’ as a replacement of the first-person pronouns such as “I”, me” and “myself”. Various theories have tried to explain the origin of this linguistic peculiarity. The dominant theory within academia is that ‘fluffy’ is the pronoun of choice by the fluffy pony biotoys, who see the world in their terms, and thus, understand and relates it in terms of their individual selves and similar-minded fluffies. For instance, a statement like “fwuffy onwy wan huggies and wub”, or “I want love and hugs”, can be understood as a statement that can be said by any given fluffy. In some cases, a particularly intelligent fluffy may use their own name as a first-person pronoun, to reflect their individuality. While this theory holds water, recent research has shown that human usage of the word ‘fluffy’ as a personal pronoun had predated the fluffy pony usage of this core trait. An alternative explanation, given by those familiar with ‘uWu’ language, is that ‘fwuffy’ is a corruption of the Japanese onomatopoeia of ‘fuwa fuwa’, which itself means ‘fluffy’. A third explanation, given by Hassenfeld themselves, is that ‘fluffy’ came about from people wanting to identify themselves as characters from their “My Little Fluffy” line-up, but this third hypothesis is generally rejected.
The existence of Fluffspeak was first acknowledged when content farms on Youtube started putting out videos in this AI-generated language. Videos such as “Baby shark” and “Five Finger Family”, which once written and broadcast in Simple English, were reuploaded in the earliest form of Fluffspeak to generate the most reception for the sake of ad-based revenue. This influx of content had an adverse effect on young children, especially those suffering from middle to low-functioning autism. It was during this period that the first instances of what is now characterized as “Fluffspeak Syndrome” started to occur. Fluffspeak syndrome can be understood as an autistic, or mentally handicapped individual, being unable to speak normal English, and only in the manner of basic Fluffspeak. It is generally agreed that the over-abundance of content farm videos filmed and viewed in Fluffspeak resulted in the alarming rise of Fluffspeak syndrome.
However, this discovery of the basic form of Fluffspeak on the internet was of interest to academics in linguistics, computer science and neurology. As one of the first AI-generated languages, there was an interest to see if this language could be fine-tuned away from the algorithm and made into a more concrete and comprehensive language. This was first suggested by the noted linguist from MIT, Professor Syme Minsky. Minsky, together with Professor Alexis S. Calvin, an expert in data learning, started the Fluffspeak Research page, hosted by MIT. The website saw many contributors, as one of the goals of the site was to re-interpret known human media in Fluffspeak, as well as generate new content in this language. The effort attracted other individuals, including noted neurologist Professor David Lanning and the psychologist Professor Yutani Takane.
In the year that the Fluffspeak Research page was active, researchers had made great strides in nothing how language from the internet affected early language development amongst childhood, especially those suffering from Fluffspeak syndrome. Another interesting discovery made was how the human brain could adapt to Fluffspeak, to the extent that people suffering from its syndrome may find it hard to talk in normal English after a while. The discovery caused a minor alarm in Education departments and ministries, and it was during this time that primary and elementary schools throughout the world started placing tighter regulations on the use of internet, to diminish the exposure of children to this growing language.
About a decade earlier, the popular children’s entertainment conglomerate Hassenfeld created the biotech subsidiary known as Hasbio. The creation of Hasbio was based on a vision by then-CEO Moreau Faust to genetically engineer animals based off their properties, such as My Little Fluffy, The Fluffiest Pet Store and PoundDogs. These animals were to be marketed as biotoys, and were an evolution of their earlier products, which functioned with a limited amount of artificial intelligence. The move towards biotoys was based on the understanding that their clientele preferred a realistic animal as a pet over a mere stuffed toy. The difficulty, however, was getting their biotoys to speak a human language. Early attempts included placing a computer chip within the biotoys to process and speak the language, but this method had limited results.
The discovery of Fluffspeak was as a breakthrough for Hasbio. The findings from Lanning and Yutani’s work in the reception of Fluffspeak by the human brain were applied by Hasbio in the development of their biotoys, resulting in the first generation of biotoys that were capable of learning Fluffspeak as their first spoken language. The much televised first appearance of a fluffy pony based off the MLF character of Lightning Fast was one of the first public demonstrations of a fluffy foal speaking rudimentary Fluffspeak.
However, there were concerns. In the year that Fluffspeak Research was created, there were already reports of violence occurring against people suffering from Fluffspeak Syndrome. A much-publicised case from the period was of the murder of the 10 year-old Ben Wilkins in the US. Wilkins, who was suffering from Fluffspeak Syndrome, was murdered by his mother’s boyfriend. The case was one of the first to highlight the growing injustice that targeted speakers of this new language.
It is perhaps this rise in violence that may explain Hassenfeld’s intent to copyright and control Fluffspeak as a language. Prior to Hassenfeld’s involvement, Fluffspeak was not copyrighted and seen as an open-source language that, ideally, anyone could contribute to. However, contributions and interaction on Fluffspeak Research started seeing users who started to get violent, and portrayed violence and abuse against Fluffspeakers, or submitted comments that depicted abuse, torture, rape and graphic death in Fluffspeak. Hassenfeld, perhaps motivated out of wanting to maintain a clean image for the eventual release of their biotoy products, attempted to market the use of Fluffspeak as a Hassenfeld property, as well as limit its lexicon and vocabulary to only applicable to scenarios that occurred in their properties.
The reaction to this was mixed. Both Minsky and Calvin agreed that Fluffspeak, being common amongst the youth, should be a controlled language and not have words or ideas related to adult language and concepts, especially those related to sex and violence. Minsky joined Hassenfeld earlier out of interest in developing Fluffspeak for use by the fluffy pony biotoys, while Calvin joined later, as she was still finishing her doctorate thesis in computer sciences.
However, there was a growing movement within the Fluffspeak Research page that a culture and identity was forming within Fluffspeakers. Though seen as absurd, the wealth of content generated in Fluffspeak, as well as the existence of people who conversed primarily in Fluffspeak, was seen by some as the basis for an emerging counterculture revolving around this new language. Thus, when Hassenfeld attempted to copyright Fluffspeak, this move was abhorred by those who wanted to keep Fluffspeak as a free language. It was this reaction that led to the first creation of the Fluffspeak Nation webpage, which sought to maintain and preserve Fluffspeak’s status as an independent language, free of Hassenfeld’s control. Calvin was initially a moderator on Fluffspeak Nation but did so as her work in Fluffspeak was related to her thesis. In her autobiography, Calvin noted that she made an agreement with Minksy: that Minksy would join Hasbio first, to help develop Fluffspeak for the fluffy pony biotoy, while Calvin would join later, to see how Fluffspeak would develop independent of MIT control.
Upon finishing her thesis, Calvin formally joined Hasbio, and it is during this time that Hassenfeld attempted to lock down Fluffspeak Nation. In addition, Hasbio started mandating on their genetic engineers to limit the learning capacities of their biotoys, such that they would only be capable of learning the Fluffspeak language, as well as be nonviolent and nonthreatening. These methods were to be achieved by re-engineering the brains of their newer products to be less developed, and for the older products to be lobotomized.
However, the news of this mandate had reached the “People for Ethical Treatment of Animals” (PETA) association through a whistleblower. The issue was debated by members within PETA. While the mandate was considered unethical, PETA had other pressing concerns related to animal abuse at the time. Thus, the eventual terrorist raid by PETA on Hasbio facilities in 202X remains to be a controversial topic. To this day, PETA denies involvement nor approval of the actions of the rogue PETA members who broke in and released the fluffy bioproducts. The raid is significant in the development of Fluffspeak, as this generation of biotoys were speaking the ‘uncontrolled’ form of Fluffspeak. In addition, this generation had capability to learn other languages, which influenced later development of languages of fluffies in the wild.
There was also a growing element within the Fluffspeak community that called for emancipation for both Fluffspeakers, and the fluffy pony biotoys. The argument for the former was that some of the Fluffspeakers had Fluffspeak Syndrome, and thus were incapable of learning another language other than Fluffspeak. Additionally, some creatives who contributed to the Fluffspeak community saw Fluffspeak as their identity and were willing for the right to be recognized and function in society as a “Fluffspeaker”. The argument for latter was because, and despite their characterization and status as a ‘biotoy’ and thus not a ‘legal’ animal, fluffy ponies were considered sentient and thus capable of thought and actions far beyond that of typical animals. This group of people that sought for emancipation for Fluffspeaker and fluffy alike became collectively known as the ‘Hugboxers’, named after the ‘hug machine’ or ‘hugbox’ used in therapy for autistic children.
It was through the efforts of the Hugboxers that Fluffspeak Nation was maintained, despite the efforts of Hassenfeld. Since the site existed on the Dark Web, Hassenfeld attempted to have the dark web version of the site characterized as an “illegal” website, much like the infamous Silk Road, and have it taken down. However, the Hugboxers were able to maintain the website from an undisclosed location. One theory was that this location was in the Maldives, while the other had it that the sanctuary was in French Polynesia. What is agreed, though, was that an undisclosed private entity managed to fund the efforts of the Hugboxers and provided them refuge in a location beyond the reach of Hassenfeld or any government. It was in this sanctuary that development of Fluffspeak as a language flourished, as it provided a haven for both Fluffspeakers and the early released fluffy pony biotoys.
Undeterred by both the PETA raid and the efforts of the Hugboxers, Hasbio continued development of the Fluffy Pony biotoy, and eventually, fluffy pony biotoys were commercially released to the public. The final development of the biotoys was marked by the further tragedy of Minsky’s death by suicide, but Calvin continued Minsky’s work in refining Fluffspeak, as well as limiting the language of the products. Calvin was also behind the development of FluffTV, which utilized the algorithm to generate content for fluffy ponies to watch. Although content on FluffTV was filmed live, algorithms were used to determine and generate the content that could be easily received by the first commercial release of fluffy ponies, and yet, remain within Hasbio’s mandate of a biotoy incapable of violence or hostility. In addition, Hassenfeld outlined that official use of Fluffspeak was to be limited to FluffTV, which could only be accessed by special televisions provided by Hassenfeld themselves. This was considered an act of corporate responsibility, as Hassenfeld was working with governments worldwide to minimize the proliferation of Fluffspeakers, both freely and among sufferers of Fluffspeak syndrome.
A word should be mentioned on the involvement of other companies in the development of Fluffspeak. Hassenfeld oversaw the initial commercial release of fluffy pony biotoys in 203X but, and although their controlled Fluffspeak was considered unique to them, there was an existent Fluffspeak that was still in practice at large. It is this Fluffspeak that was used by competing companies such as Genecco, Soulcai and Samsung in the development of their respective fluffy pony biotoys. For instance, Samsung successfully sought for their legal right to preserve their own corporate use and development of Fluffspeak in Korea, independent of Hassenfeld’s influence.
Another factor beyond Hassenfeld’s control were later generations of fluffy ponies that were exposed the wild. Although the first commercial fluffies and their subsequent generations were theoretically incapable of defending themselves due to their lack of hostility and violence, the fact remained that that they were by technical definition, an animal with genetics. In addition, these later fluffies were capable of interbreeding with the earlier escaped fluffies. Thus, and despite constant efforts to cull or reduce their numbers, fluffies continued to flourish in the wild and, addition, maintain their use of fluffspeak. The later generation of fluffies that were abandoned or escaped into the wild usually brought newer words to the older vocabularies that the older generation of ferals had, resulting in further developments of the unique fluffspeak among feral fluffy populations.
Other unsavoury elements started to appear once fluffy ponies were commercially released. As fluffy ponies were speaking a language that had come to be considered undesirable, a growing community of fluffy pony abusers was formed, who publicly abused and tortured the biotoys. As fluffies were initially marketed as and not considered ‘proper’ animals, these abusers argued that they were not animal abusers and thus were using the products as a form of stress relief.
The existence of Fluffspeak as a form of speech amongst the youth led to a disturbing trend in sexual fetishism revolving around ageplay and even illegal pornography. In a study published by Ipsos in 203X, one of the notable forms of sexual fetishism was “fluffy pet play”, where one or more participants would roleplay as a fluffy pony, and may pretend to be fluffies mating, or simulate a bestial act through fluffies. In addition, and amongst the dark web, there was an increase in illegal sexual activity that had minor engaged in a similar act to this, including those suffering from Fluffspeak syndrome.
The public outcry from these growing evils led to the eventual recognition of Fluffspeak as an official language by 204X in most countries. This move paved the way for eventual declaration of fluffy ponies as legal animal by 204X throughout the world. By 204X+1, the first Fluffspeak newspaper, FluffNews was published. Sponspored by the efforts of the Hugboxers, FluffNews worked as a source of information for the fluffspeaking community, independent of Hassenfeld’s influence, and helped spread interest in furthering the Fluffspeaking cause. By 205X, Fluffspeak communes started appearing worldwide, where both Fluffspeaker and fluffy pony could function in a society made for them.
~ excerpt taken from “Languages of the 22nd century~
