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English is currently one of the dominant languages on the planet due to the spread of the US and UK empires in the last century. With the rise of technology English may be made redundant with the advent of automatic language translation.
Just waiting for made up languages to become the norm (e.g. Esperanto), or hyper language learning.
Now ponder, as Douglas Hofstadter did, translating Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky from English into French, German, and Russian (Cyrillic .GIF) or (ASCII transliteration).
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English is King but Technology May Trump All
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It's not reality that's important, but how you perceive things.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday January 27 2019, @09:15PM (13 children)
Get two people with brain implants and dual hearing aids (eye implant/smartglasses optional).
Brain implant recognizes intended complete sentences before they are spoken, transmits to the other person's brain implant, and allows for real-time translation with minimal delay. The noise-canceling ear pieces will play the translation as the other person is speaking, and could even use the other person's vocal signature to make the translation sound like the other person. Software will attempt to handle instances in which a person is speaking haltingly, i.e. they start speaking, halt mid-sentence, and say something different.
People won't use brain implants? Don't worry, the post-millennial generations will be fully brainwashed by Emperor Zuck.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:08PM (4 children)
And then you have to trust the translation.
Any two real-time translators willl not agree, as a substanital part of communication is non-verbal or tonal (hence the need for /sarcasm tags, and the problems with "flat" statements being mis-interpreted, even when the "common" language is English", we can see from SN how this works between the UK, USA and Australia)
Want to start war? Hack a brain brain translator!
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday January 28 2019, @04:06AM
Lobotomies A Real Estate Developer!
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday January 28 2019, @12:56PM (2 children)
It's really called the babelfish. Ever heard of it [wikipedia.org]? Everybody trusts the babelfish. And to the contrary, it even makes the Vogons mellow (make war, not love).
(Score: 3, Informative) by kazzie on Monday January 28 2019, @04:36PM (1 child)
But the Vogons don't make love or war, they make paperwork.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @01:46PM
What? Seriously? You don't consider Vogon poetry warfare?
Pah. What sector are you from anyway?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:29PM (1 child)
You can put that brain implant into my head when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:35PM
"Your proposal is acceptable."
-Zuckbie
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28 2019, @12:13AM
Excellent! All we need then are to install some vinculums to regulate the emergent netwo((^%$*;;GGZzzQ%$#*
WE ARE THE BORG. LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND SURRENDER YOUR SHIPS. WE WILL ADD YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS TO OUR OWN. YOUR CULTURE WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 28 2019, @04:44AM (1 child)
Then get another implant that makes intelligent, witty, insightful comments in your voice while triggering the muscles in your jaw. You can be the best conversationalist* in the room even when asleep.
*Other people may also use AmazingConvo implants and be equal conversationalists. Implants known to the state of California to cause cancer. Offer void where prohibited.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 28 2019, @04:49AM
I don't think what you've proposed is impossible.
Using an advanced brain implant could be like having hours to think about each moment in a conversation. Or it could just scrape up things people have already said, string it together in a coherent fashion, and have you spit it out.
Neural lace ftw.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday January 28 2019, @07:51AM
Many moons ago, at school, a friend and I joked that it would be easier to stop trying to explain things with words, and just fit a laplink cable between our heads to do it that way.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ewk on Monday January 28 2019, @10:56AM (1 child)
"Brain implant recognizes intended complete sentences before they are spoken, transmits to the other person's brain implant, "
Really? You want my unfettered, uncensored thoughts to be spewed out before some other part of my brain at least attempts to filtered out or convert the worst to something decent?
I didn't think so :-)
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 5, Funny) by kazzie on Monday January 28 2019, @04:37PM
If we wanted that kind of content, we'd just browse at -1.