Entropy, the Indus Script, and Language: A Reply to R. Sproat

In a recent LastWords column (Sproat 2010), Richard Sproat laments the reviewing practices of “general science journals” after dismissing our work and that of Lee, Jonathan, and Ziman (2010) as “useless” and “trivially and demonstrably wrong.” Although we expect such categorical statements to have already raised some red flags in the minds of readers, we take this opportunity to present a more accurate description of our work, point out the straw man argument used in Sproat (2010), and provide a more complete characterization of the Indus script debate. A separate response by Lee and colleagues in this issue provides clarification of issues not covered here.