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Jacob Billings

Linguist and software engineer focusing on artificial intelligence methods within linguistics

Religion

What does it mean to know something?

By Jacob Billings on Monday, March 13, 2023

In Aristotle’s view of epistemology, to know something meant understanding something in preferably four different ways. Aristotle wrote that “we do not have knowledge of a thing until we have grasped its why, that is to say, its cause.” It meant understanding the following causes There are often many times that people want to only focus …

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Liberty Linguistics Politics

What is the most important word of the constitution?

By Jacob Billings on Wednesday, March 8, 2023

I often pose this question to people that ask me about the constitution and more specifically the Bill of Rights, what is the most important word in that document? The answer…” the.” This determiner, or more specifically, this definite article changes the entire meaning of the Bill of Rights and expresses in a beautiful way …

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Personal

Our life in Guatemala: that time my wife nearly incited a riot in Mexico

By Jacob Billings on Wednesday, March 8, 2023

As many of you know when we moved down to Guatemala we drove down and have subsequently made that drive three times since. It’s a pleasant drive for the most part. In 2018 we were making the trip back for my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary and decided to take 10 days and see some sites …

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Living with Cartels in Guatemala
Personal

Our life in Guatemala: Living beside drug cartel members

By Jacob Billings on Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Yes, we lived beside cartel members. In the fall of 2015, we moved from Layton, UT to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. After making the necessary preparations for our Jeep we set out for the 3000-mile journey to Guatemala. It took us seven days to arrive. We stayed in Guatemala City with Wendy’s parents for a month while …

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Liberty Politics

Books to understand political theory

By Jacob Billings on Tuesday, January 10, 2023

It’s our unfortunate situation in the USA in that very few people, including our elected officials, really understand the basis of our system of government. They fail to understand basic principles such as natural law, the social contract, morality, and even basic economics. This is something I have studied since I was a child. It’s …

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Ancient History Religion

My reading list this year for New Testament study (2023)

By Jacob Billings on Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Up until now, my religious academic studies have focused mostly on the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon. I study the New Testament but up until this year have not spent a lot of time on it critically. I have mostly studied the theology. So I have decided that while I am waiting out …

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Liberty Politics

Can you yell “fire” in a crowded theater?

By Jacob Billings on Tuesday, December 27, 2022

In debates surrounding free speech, the analogy is often used that yelling “fire” in a crowded theater is not protected speech. This is false. The legality of this action depends on the circumstances, however, the it is not inherently illegal to do so. Let me explain why. The act of shouting fire when there are …

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Religion

3 Questions that led me to believe in the restoration of the Gospel.

By Jacob Billings on Sunday, December 18, 2022

For the past couple of weeks, I have contemplated the idea of restoring the church. As a member of the Church of Jesus of Latter-Day Saints, I believe a restoration of the church was needed. here are the three questions that led me to that conclusion These questions were fundamental for me to understand in …

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Ancient History

New adventures for the Billings Family

By Jacob Billings on Sunday, September 25, 2022

We were waiting to announce this to everybody until everything was settled but the paperwork is going to take a couple of months so I will announce it now… I have been accepted into a doctorate program in Madrid, Spain, and my family and I will be moving to Spain in May or June. My …

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Ancient History Linguistics

A Brief History of the Lost Ten Tribes in Mesoamerica

By Jacob Billings on Thursday, July 14, 2022

The question of the influence of Christianity on Spanish Colonial texts has been a topic of debate for centuries. There is no mistaking that Christianity shaped New Spain in many ways. Nowhere is this more pronounced than the idea of the lost ten tribes in Mesoamerica. By the time the Popol Wuj was translated in …

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About Me

I am a software engineer and a linguist.  I hold a bachelors degree in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Utah, a Master’s degree in linguistics from Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala City and working on a double doctorate degree in Archaeology and Mathematics.

My research focuses on four areas: 

  • Artificial intelligence algorithms within historical linguistics and epigraphy.
  • Morphosyntax in Mesoamerican and Mesopotamian languages.
  • Linguistics of the Book of Mormon and early members within the LDS faith movement in the 19th century.
  • Linguistics and liberty. How language affects perceptions of liberty.

If you would like to help my research you may make a contribution by following this link.

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