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The internet is mentioned in passing, but the reason that English is dominating is that the vast majority of science, engineering and academia in general is pub
by _rpd 8y ago
The internet is mentioned in passing, but the reason that English is dominating is that the vast majority of science, engineering and academia in general is published in English, and then is quickly added to the English language Wikipedia. If you want to be at the cutting edge of global technology, it is just easier (and sometimes important) to be able to read English directly. Translations can be problematic, particularly for technical subject matter.
As others have mentioned, other languages have played this role in the past, and probably will in the future.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- anonytrary 8y agoInteresting -- do you think translators will slowly become obsolete before software "solves" the translation problem? Do you ever think there will be a point in the future where everyone can speak fluent English? It would seem the path of least resistance would be to eliminate the need for translators, and I'm not sure we'll live in a future where everyone speaks N languages, and just uses an app to translate between people.