That the keywords and symbols are Cree is trivial and not that much different than when someone does the same thing with Klingon or Swedish Chef but the concept of a programming language based on storytelling is interesting. It might never end up being a useful language for information infrastructure or corporate problem solving but I suspect that if it gains much traction with Cree students (or anyone with an interest) that they'll end up coming up with uses that we haven't thought of before with our programming languages tied so deeply to our cultural norms.
They certainly are tied to a certain mode of thinking rooted in Mathematical reasoning originating in the West, but certainly influenced by other cultures. The thing is that the underlying computer architecture uses this reasoning, so it's difficult to see how you could program a computer without relying on that reasoning at some level.
Well, the form of mathematical reasoning that's prevalent was actually first developed during the Islamic Golden Age. Most of Western math is actually imported from the East. Symbolic logic, also is of Islamic origin.
Mathematical reasoning doesn’t care who discovered it.
If there is anything to the claim that it is “western”, it is in the way that “western” people regard it (possibly compared to how others regard it).
I don’t see how the idea that mathematical reasoning is inherently “western” (as a property of mathematical thinking, as opposed to as a property of “western”) could possibly stand up to scrutiny.
Sure, the symbols being used may be due to particular cultures, as well as a number of conventions (e.g. infix notation vs whatever, some minor choices made in some definitions, etc.), but, these are not inherent to mathematical reasoning.
It’s not just the keywords though; in the interview, he explains how it’s the logic of storytelling that makes up the programs and what the language is expected to perform as well
