Language learning will never become obsolete

Deep Dish

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I once found a comment somewhere on the Internet from 20 years ago where someone said that in 20 years that learning a foreign language would be obsolete because people would have an app to instantly translate. They were correct about apps, but not about obsolescence. Using an app on your phone to translate is okay in a pinch, but that's two people awkwardly fiddling around with their phones and not a fluid conversation, plus the inaccuracies of nuanced translations. By choosing technology, you also miss out on the cognitive health and social cultural life benefits of bilingualism, and the satisfaction of accomplishing a learning challenge along a joyous journey.

Elon Musk takes things up a magnitude of delusional stupidity by suggesting his neuralink brain implants will make spoken language obsolete, because telepathic communication would be faster and more precise, with speaking reserved only for sentimental.reasons. While his brain implants are currently focused on helping people with brain injuries, he has said that later iterations could in principle be used by.everyone.

To quote: "I think you would, in principle, you would be able to communicate very quickly and with far more precision… language. I’m not sure what would happen to language but in a situation like this though, it’d be kind of like The Matrix. You want to speak a different language, no problem, just download the program."

Would you put an implant into your brain if you're healthy? Yeah, no, I didn't think so.

Plus, from a biological perspective,.science doesn't know nearly enough about the brain to interface with it. AI can infer your inner monologue of thoughts from MRI brain scans, but that is distant from interfering with your neurons and changing your language.

A science study found the speed of communication of every language is the same at a bitrate of 39 bits per second, regardless of the spoken speed and complexity of the language, with simpler languages being spoken slower, and there is no substantive need to speed up the bitrate.

Language isn't a "problem" to be solved with technology.
 

AmsterdamAssassin

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Elon Musk is a nutcase.

I'm Dutch, so I already learned my native language plus English, German, and French back in school. My command of English is even better than my native Dutch (bigger vocabulary from reading mostly English), my German was polished by watching German television when I was young, and I lived in Paris for a while (so my French has both a Parisian and an African accent) and I spent a lot of time abroad getting close to the locals, so I apart from those four languages I have some knowledge of seven other languages.

I'd say learning foreign languages will work miracles for your mental health and social aptitude. No way I would get an implant to talk telepathically. As a writer I have enough character voices in my head to not want to receive telepathic conversations....
 

BackInTheGame78

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What's cool is they now have apps where both people can talk and if they both have apps they can set it up so it automatically translates what the person is saying to their language.

So I could speak English and another person could speak French and we can carry on a conversation and it will translate on the fly...this can work even with phone conversations also.
 

AmsterdamAssassin

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So I could speak English and another person could speak French and we can carry on a conversation and it will translate on the fly...this can work even with phone conversations also.
"My hovercraft is full of eels." :cool:
 
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