Reader!  Think not that
technical information
ought not be called speech;

think not diagrams,
schematics, tables, numbers,
formulae -- like the

terrifying and
uniquely moving, though cliche,
Einstein equation

"Energy is just
the same as matter, but for
a little factor,

speed of light by speed
of light, and we are ourselves
frozen energy."

Einstein's formula
to convert from joules into
kilogram-meters

squared per second squared,
for all its power, uses
just five characters.

But Einstein wrote to
physicists: formal, concise,
specific, detailed.

And sometimes we write
to machines to teach them how
tasks are carried out:

and sometimes we write
to our friends to show a way
tasks are carried out.

We write precisely
since such is our habit in
talking to machines;

we say exactly
how to do a thing or how
every detail works.

The poet has choice
of words and order, symbols,
imagery, and use

of metaphor.  She
can allude, suggest, permit
ambiguities.

She need not say just
what she means, for readers can
always interpret.

Poets too, despite
their famous "license" sometimes
are constrained by rules:

How often have we
heard that some strange twist of plot
or phrase was simply

"Metri causa", for
the meter's sake, solely done
"to fit the meter"?

Programmers' art as
that of natural scientists
is to be precise,

complete in every
detail of description, not
leaving things to chance.

Reader, see how yet
technical communicants
deserve free speech rights;

see how numbers, rules,
patterns, languages you don't
yourself speak yet,

still should in law be
protected from suppression,
called valuable speech!