The era of rapid technological advancements is marked by a peculiar irony: as we conceive ourselves increasingly powerful tools, our control over them seems to be slipping through our fingers. Consequently, developments that are meant to benefit our society often seem to have the opposite effect. Social media platforms like Facebook, once intended to make us more connected with other people, are increasingly associated with the ills of our society, seen as a fuel of polarisation rather than a source of greater compassion. Despite being more connected, it feels as though we are struggling to find a common language. But social media is only a part of the story of how new technologies transform the way we communicate. With the growing popularity of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, people have begun to fear what might come next. In April 2023, Yuval Noah Harari, in an article for The Economist, stated that ‘AI has hacked the operating system of human civilisation,’ pointing towards language as an integral part of our species. A few years before that, in 2020, Elon Musk anticipated that in ten years words would be replaced with brain-to-brain communication. While his prediction seems unreachable, there is no doubt that technology will continue to alter our means of communication, thereby having an enormous effect on human civilisation.
In The Future of Language: How Technology, Politics and Utopianism are Transforming the Way we Communicate, linguist Phillip Seargeant attempts to unravel the intricacies of what lies ahead in human communication. In his analysis, the author distinguishes four crucial domains of the future of language. First, Seargeant considers the idea of universal language, originating from a utopian vision of a perfectly harmonious society. Secondly, he examines the influences of technology on human communication and thereby its impacts on our species, for which sophisticated communication skills are defining. Third, he wonders whether our language is decaying, addressing a widespread concern about the loss in quality of our language skills. Finally, he explores how language can be subjected to control and manipulation, providing certain groups with powerful new tools. Throughout this extensive investigation, Seargeant prompts readers to reflect on what language entails, a necessary condition for anticipating what is yet to come. This attempt is not only fascinating but also essential, particularly because, as the author demonstrates repeatedly throughout the book, ‘changes in the way we communicate have knock-on effects for society as a whole.’
As he emphasizes, the converse is also true—changes within our society influence language. Exposure to diverse contexts, facilitated by global events or social movements, prompts people to adopt variations in their language, ranging from the emergence of new words to subtle alterations in spelling, such as capitalization of a single letter. A notable example, as presented by Seargeant in his book, is the use of gender pronouns. The practice of specifying pronouns across different platforms ‘has become emblematic of your cultural politics and approach to questions about the nature of sex and gender.’ Thus, as people and their interpretations of the world evolve, language continues to change, making it nearly impossible to predict its future trajectory.
Furthermore, apart from the cultural changes that are continuously reflected in our language, there are new technologies emerging at a growing speed and shaping our interactions. In Seargeant’s words, ‘technology is altering the way we interact with each other; and when we alter the way we interact, we also alter the nature of the society in which we live.’ Whether we send someone a carefully crafted message or ‘directly’ transfer our thoughts to another person through brain-to-brain communication makes a substantial difference and will have novel effects on our relationships with others.
Understanding this intimate connection between language and society, various thinkers throughout history have been drawn to a particular vision: the existence of a universal language as an ultimate antidote to misunderstandings around the world. The Future of Language presents multiple cases where people believed that removing communication barriers would create a shared experience between individuals and thereby bring peace and harmony. This includes Esperanto, a constructed international auxiliary language, whose creator, Ludwik Zamenhof, was guided by an underlying conviction that much of the world’s violence stemmed from irrational fear and animosity between different cultural groups that lacked the means to communicate with each other. Rooted in the story of the Tower of Babel in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, the idea of perfecting our communication has been a driving force for innovation. In fact, this motivation closely aligns with Mark Zuckerberg’s vision. Following scandals like Cambridge Analytica—in which people discovered their data had been collected without their consent for political advertising—it is difficult to perceive Facebook as anything other than an infringement of privacy. But according to its creator, the platform was originally conceived as a platform to bridge global divides, fostering mutual understanding among its users.
If the original aim of social media was harmony and peace, it is now obvious that they have fallen short. According to Seargeant, this is a consequence of our skewed idea of what language is and is ought to be. In the end, language is so much more than just a collection of words used to express our needs. Rather, it embodies our identity and cultural heritage; it defines our species and its exceptionalism. As Seargeant puts it, ‘history, politics and culture are, in fact, all intrinsic parts of human language … viewing language from this perspective, rather than simply in narrow “communication” terms, has important implications for how we understand its possible future.’ Assuming that language is merely a communication tool that can be unified overlooks its deep integration within our culture and fails to acknowledge its inherently contextual nature.
Even so, the efforts to perfect our communication continue, with increasingly advanced technological tools. Brain-computer interface (or BCI) technology, often mentioned throughout Seargeant’s book, offers many opportunities in surpassing communication barriers. As Seargeant stresses, technology again here presents itself as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, BCI has undeniable potential in the medical field. Allowing people to ‘execute simple tasks using nothing more than the power of thought’ is groundbreaking for the patients with locked-in syndrome, such as those suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. On the other hand, the idea of instantly translating our thoughts into text presents a range of dystopian scenarios, immediately prompting questions about privacy and control. As Seargeant notes, a technology that interacts with our brain’s neuron signals could potentially be utilized in a workplace to track employees’ concentration levels. Ultimately, Seargeant’s conclusion about these new technologies seems to lack a clear direction. Instead, it emphasizes the uncertainty surrounding the future, particularly in the context of transformative technologies like BCI, which challenge our existing understandings of what human communication entails. One thing is certain, however – every invention comes at a cost, and almost any technology that one can think of is at least somewhat disruptive.
While technology may present itself as a double-edged sword, the human response to it is equally conflicting. Despite many fearing the implications of big data on our privacy, how many of us can with full confidence deny having an intimate connection to our smartphones for the sake of convenience? Our relationship with technology extends beyond language and permeates all aspects of our lives that we seek to automate for efficiency. Seargeant highlights several historical examples, such as Charles Babbage’s creation of the Analytical Engine, regarded as the first computer, driven by frustration over human errors in mathematical calculations. Aside from the enormous profits it generates for some, an engine of technological advance is the persistent strive for improvement in every possible way: a never-ending quest for utopia.
This strive for perfection has been central to techno-utopianism, the idea of ‘repairing’ our society with greater advancements. But language challenges this technological determinism. In spite of its occasionally alarming tone about how various technologies can undermine freedom of speech, The Future of Language sends a positive and comforting message by calling our attention to the ‘inherent creativity’ of language and the resilience of human expression—as seen, for instance, in the case of the Chinese citizens who have successfully circumvented censorship. Despite long-standing efforts to unify language, its resistance to technological control ultimately serves as one of its greatest strengths.
This article was originally published in OPR’s Issue 12: Utopia.
Luiza Świerzawska is a master’s student of Applied Data Science at Utrecht University. She holds an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). Throughout her academic journey, Luiza has been exploring the intersection of ethics, politics and governance of technology.