2208
There is a interesting comment thread going on my One World post.
I closed my response to the comments by asking a question that I want to raise in a top-level post.
If we roll the clock forward 200 years, how do we think humanity will communicate quantitative information at a global level?
As a comp, take a quick look at what is going on in 1808.
I don’t consider this a science fiction exercise.
I consider it an exercise in brainstorming what we want the future to be like.
I am a fan of “The Long Now” and “The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Really smart people with reasonable funding can do just about anything that doesn’t violate too many of Newton’s Laws!”
(continuing from the previous conversation)
I think that in the future, human languages will remain divergent, possibly increasing in number even more, but they will borrow a lot from each other an a lot of concepts would be unified. Kind of like how languages like C#, Java..etc are taking from each other.
It’s stating to happen now, with the Western world increasingly using Arabic words like “intifada” when talking about the Middle East while the Arab world learns about terminology like “roadmap” or, for that matter, “Internet”.
Also, I think that in some areas prose will be used less in favor of specialized notations. I think that in 200 years programming would be as necessary/widespread as literacy now is. So phrases like “call stack” or “infinite loop” might be used in everyday conversation to describe traditional activities. Already happening for some of us
Mohamed Samy
29 Dec 08 at 13:40
Regarding “quantitative”, I completely coincidentally read this passage from Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s “Little Prince” to the kid the other night, and felt it was too good not to share:
BEGIN-QUOTE—-
If I’ve told you these details about Asteroid B-612 and if I’ve given you its number, it is on account of the grown-ups. Grown-ups like numbers.
When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: “What does his voice soun “What games does he like best?” “Does he collect butterflies?” They ask: “How old is he?” “How many brothers does he have?” “How-much does he weigh?” “How much money does his father make?” Only then do they think they know him. If you tell grown-ups, “I saw a beautiful red brick house, with geraniums at the windows and doves on the roof…” they won’t be able to imagine such a house. You have to tell them, “I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs.” Then they exclaim, “What a pretty house!” So if you tell them, “The proof of the little prince’s existence is that he was delightful, that he laughhed, and that he wanted a sheep. When someone wants a sheep, that proves he exists,” they shrug their shoulders and treat you like a child. But if you tell them, “The planet he came from is Asteroid B-612,” then they’ll be convinced, and they won’t bother you with their questions.
That’s the way they are. You must not hold it against them. Children should be very urnderstanding of grown-ups.
Joshua Allen
7 Jan 09 at 04:33