The Future of Language
How Technology, Politics and Utopianism Are Transforming the Way We Communicate
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The Future of Language
Narrated by:
Esh Alladi
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Narrated by:
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Esh Alladi
About this listen
Will language as we know it cease to exist? What could this mean for the way we live our lives?
Shining a light on the technology currently being developed to revolutionise communication, The Future of Language distinguishes myth from reality and superstition from scientifically-based prediction as it plots out the importance of language and raises questions about its future.
From the rise of artificial intelligence and speaking robots, to brain implants and
computer-facilitated telepathy, language and communications expert Philip Seargeant surveys the development of new digital ‘languages’, such as emojis, animated gifs and memes, and investigates how conventions of spoken and written language are being modified by new trends in communication.
From George Orwell’s fictional predictions in Nineteen Eighty-Four to the very real warnings of climate activist Greta Thunberg, Seargeant explores language through time, traversing politics, religion, philosophy, literature, and of course technology, in the process. Tracing how previous eras have imagined the future of language, from the Bible to the works H. G. Wells, and from Star Wars to Star Trek, the book reveals how perfecting language and communication has always been a vital component of utopian dreams of the future.
Questioning the potential ramifications of recent and future developments in communication on society and its ideals, The Future of Language is a no holds barred investigation into the state of civilisation and the impact that changes in language could have on our lives.©2023 Philip Seargeant (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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Critic Reviews
I've never read a book on language with such a breadth of vision, explored in such a wide range of technological and social settings, bringing together the worlds of linguistic science and science fiction to provide an insightful, cautionary account of current trends and their future consequences. (David Crystal, University of Bangor, UK)
You leave this book … with a renewed belief in language as “inherently creative”, offering what Noam Chomsky called "infinite expression by finite means”, and still our best way of expressing the sensory infinitude of being alive. (Peter Williams)
In his scholarly, must-read book, Seargeant makes us think about the underpinnings of these convenient tools and what they portend for language, one of the cornerstones of human identity. (Vijaysree Venkatraman)
It is certain that our use of language is going to change in the near, mid- and long-term future. In this thought-provoking and sometimes rather alarming book, the implications for the human race are considered. Philip Seargeant raises issues that no one can afford to ignore. (Steve Buckledee, University of Cagliari, Italy)
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