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posted by martyb on Sunday January 27 2019, @08:50PM   Printer-friendly
from the You-will-be-assimilated dept.

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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  • (Score: 2) by bart9h on Sunday January 27 2019, @09:31PM (6 children)

    by bart9h (767) on Sunday January 27 2019, @09:31PM (#792746)

    Also, automatic translation still sucks. big time.

    These changes occur due primarily due to economic forces.

    Cultural forces are more important than economic ones.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @09:43PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @09:43PM (#792751)

    Military forces are more powerful than cultural ones.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:49PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @10:49PM (#792767)

    "Cultural forces are more important than economic ones."

    -

    The above is so naive it is tragic.

    You need to do more traveling and see the world.

    As of today you don't have a clue what the real world is about.

    Economic activity is what drives the world.

    Culture is along for the ride, only if it can make money. And that's how the real world works, son.

    • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday January 28 2019, @04:09AM (3 children)

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Monday January 28 2019, @04:09AM (#792865) Homepage Journal

      There’s a book whose author and title I’ve sadly forgotten as I’ve wanted to read it for years

      It’s about how Coffee, Tea, Cacao, Opium and Coca changed the world

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
      • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday January 28 2019, @04:49AM (2 children)

        by deimtee (3272) on Monday January 28 2019, @04:49AM (#792882) Journal

        Could it be "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" by Tom Standage ?

        I would also recommend "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond as an interesting read.

        --
        If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
        • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday January 28 2019, @04:23PM (1 child)

          by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Monday January 28 2019, @04:23PM (#793064) Homepage Journal

          From my army doctor grandfather

          But I’ll never read it as it’s all about how wars are won or lost by public health problems. Consider that not Cortez but smallpox that conquered the Aztecs.

          --
          Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @01:28PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @01:28PM (#793526)

            This is very true. Up until the 19th century the biggest threat to a large army was disease. There are stories about how WW1 and WW2 were so different due to supply lines and better insect repellent soaked cloth.

            In order for an empire to spread it has to win wars.