[Again, a brief comment - will forward in a few days to reason more pon this, that's assuming the cops haven't cracked my head open at the G20 demo]
If that's what you mean, sounds more like devolution than evolution... text message-ese... like Orwell's newspeak...
What I meant was that the letters I am typing now are descended from hieroglyph-type symbols that gradually changed from more literal to more symbolic representations of what they are intended to convey. Chinese or Arabic script looks more "hieroglyph"-like but has the same function as the letters I'm typing now. I don't see a big difference although you could argue that there is a different mindset involved in "viewing" things that directly symbolize what they refer to and "deciphering" more abstracted symbols thereof.