Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!jarthur!usc!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!UVVM.BITNET!GLOBALCP From: GLOBALCP@UVVM.BITNET (Melcir) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Re: ENGLISH/LINGUA FRANCA - GLOBAL E-MAIL COMMUNICATIONS Message-ID: <90Mar20.232900est.57460@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca> Date: 20 Mar 90 23:01:52 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 32 For the record, I am not advocating necessarily a single language for all humanity - just the need for everyone to be able to speak to one another in a single language! My point was that there are just so many languages on this planet that it would not be economically feasible to set up a voice-translating computer or any other sort to link them all together, since some of the smallest language groups are also the most impoverished. Just because some countries have endless budgets for research and general use of computers online, does not mean that it's readily available in all countries. Try travelling to some of the poorer countries and you will begin to think in their terms. This is why you don't seem to find any 3rd world country citizens arguing FOR multi-language mosaics for global communication. It is economically feasible only for them to tap into one resource that's been created, not to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. If we really want to democratize the planet, then we have to stop being paternalistic and realize that they are prepared to make the sacrifices which we get so huffy about letting them make. The important point to this argument is not in protecting them against us, it's in letting them get into this conversation in the firsst place! If the money and time we spend in trying to think for 3rd world people, was spent in genuinely doing something to bring them online, we would soon find out what they would like ... not what we THINK they want! MELCIR ERSKINE-RICHMOND, CO-ORDINATOR - GLOBALCP C% U.VIC. CHAPTER - WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY, University of Victoria, S. U. Bldg., P.O. Box 1700 VICTORIA, B.C., V8W 2Y2, Canada Fax: Canada + 604 + 721-8653 Bitnet: globalcp@uvvm Arpa/Earn/Janet: globalcp@uvvm.UVic.ca Unix: globalcp@uvcw.UVic.ca We need to plan now for a future we want to enjoy! - Study Futurism. Acknowledge-To: