The following passage is an excerpt from the book: “Learning in the Information Age“.
One fundamental aspect of human life that will be radically impacted by the “information revolution” is the language of human, although this great shift is only in its infancy.
One of the reasons that the multitude of languages evolved as such is the relative isolation of important human communities and the general lack of communication and exchange among these important centers of civilizations. Before the advent of the Information era, interactions among civilizations were conducted by selected representatives or proxies. As such, it was inevitable that languages formed for each major civilizations according to the need of their particular historical period and physical location.
The Internet, by providing means of communications and interactions that can transcend the limitations of distance, have provided the necessary physical prerequisite for large-scale interactions among members from different language groups. Economic forces will propel people to begin widespread mingling, despite the initial reticence. With enough interactions, over time, a global language will begin to emerge.
Information technologies are also driving this progress from another angle by means of machine interpretation of human languages. At present, this takes the forms of various automatic translation softwares and language analysis and learning performed by computers. As the power of computers develops further, their analysis and abstraction of natural human language might provide new insights to this little understood human phenomenon.
Automatic machine translation capability provides an alternative to a global language. Instead of all of humanity using one language, it is entirely possible that machines in the future becomes so powerful that it can interpret all human languages like a natural human, and instead of one global language, human might be able to interact through one global language interface, while retaining the use of their own native languages. This could also be a transitory phase before the eventual emergence of a global human language.
In a very distant future, though, it is also possible that the entire concept of “language” will be made irrelevant, as human develop other ways of communicating, or our life form and society structure evolve beyond the need for language as we know it as a tool for communication.
Existing languages will be challenged and impacted as the human society undergoes the process of the re-creation of a global language. Emerging transient semi-language such as emoticons and acronyms commonly used online will continue to impact the use of traditional language like sea waves upon the levee, and sooner or later, existing languages will have to adapt or risk being marginalized. Prominent languages like English and Chinese will evolve and survive, but will eventually be assimilated into the final global language, much akin to how English had assimilated Germanic, Celtic and Latin languages.
On the whole though, the evolution of language will lag behind the visible change in economic and social structure of the human society, as language is but a reflection and consequence of the changes in the material and social aspect of human life. It is, however, an important shift, and one we should actively anticipate and work toward.