4 ms·

I had one interesting thought while reading that section. It seems that a lot of effort has been put into tooling for translating to and from English. It's pro

I had one interesting thought while reading that section. It seems that a lot of effort has been put into tooling for translating to and from English. It's probably much more effort invested than for other languages, so by using English he actually is increasing his TAM because the translation tools are better adapted to many other languages from English.

Dalewyn 2y ago
Or to put it another way: Spanish can understand English. English can't understand Spanish. Speaking English you can communicate with English and Spanish without also speaking Spanish, kill two birds with one stone. The virtues of a lingua franca.
- aleph_minus_one 2y ago
  > Spanish can understand English. > English can't understand Spanish. Many Spanish-speaking people are bad at English.
- renewiltord 2y ago
  Funny how dominant languages of the past have died but now the lingua angla feels forever. I wonder if that's how it feels to be at the height of some culture's age: it feels immortal. Then it falls and is only remembered as the past: either as humorous, or as sophisticated, but not meant for normal use. We shall cement this one by creating AIs in the American image.
  - coldtea 2y ago
    The Roman Empire seemed forever for those living within it too!
  - wddkcs 2y ago
    That cement will always crumble, but the next empire will probably be built with it's pieces. It's no accident that the current global language is a derivative of the last 'worldwide' language, Latin, which itself flourished from its relationship to Alexander's Greece, a language which stole its alphabet from the semitic empires. Nothing new under the sun.
  - _heimdall 2y ago
    The same can be said for empires in general. Dominance seems forever until it isn't, and often the "higher you go the faster you fall" idea plays out. There are plenty of signs that the US could be in the midst of its own empire failing. Whether that actually plays out is something we wouldn't know for decades or centuries, but there sure are a lot of parallels to failed empires of the past.
    - Dalewyn 2y ago
      The question we need to ask isn't whether Pax Americana is dying, but who is going to succeed it. So far it seems like it'll be China on account of there being no other country or bloc able to compete at that level, but that would be very unpleasant for us westerners.
      - TheLoafOfBread 2y ago
        Uncomfortable situations are seed for evolution. Westerners has no real need to do audacious steps, because they don't feel threatened. When China will take over from USA, I would not be surprised that there will be some ingenious way how Western civilization will rebuild itself.
        _heimdall 2y ago
        The west, especially the US, likes to view China as our big rival these days. I'm still not sold, economically we're highly dependent on each other and militarily it doesn't make sense. If the US and China really were to get into direct conflict, the bigger question may be who on earth was least impacted by nukes rather than which of the two countries "wins" (in quotes because we all lose in war).
      - _heimdall 2y ago
        In all likelihood, I'd expect it to be a country or a group of countries that we would never really have expected. Unfortunately I don't think the US would go down quietly if the empire really is failing. Another major war wouldn't be out of the question, clearing the board for a lot of change to take place. Without a war though, and one can only hope this is the case, I don't see China pulling it off. I both don't think they really have that motivation, and I don't expect they really could transition from such a totalitarian state to an empire driving anything near the level of US dominance. When the US empire fails, and it has to eventually even if we aren't currently walking that path, the question is whether it falls apart or fails violently. You could point to many parallels with the Roman Empire and guess that it will just fall apart, even if there are fringe wars along the way.

Dalewyn 2y ago

Or to put it another way: Spanish can understand English. English can't understand Spanish. Speaking English you can communicate with English and Spanish without also speaking Spanish, kill two birds with one stone. The virtues of a lingua franca.

aleph_minus_one 2y ago
> Spanish can understand English. > English can't understand Spanish. Many Spanish-speaking people are bad at English.
renewiltord 2y ago
Funny how dominant languages of the past have died but now the lingua angla feels forever. I wonder if that's how it feels to be at the height of some culture's age: it feels immortal. Then it falls and is only remembered as the past: either as humorous, or as sophisticated, but not meant for normal use. We shall cement this one by creating AIs in the American image.
- coldtea 2y ago
  The Roman Empire seemed forever for those living within it too!
- wddkcs 2y ago
  That cement will always crumble, but the next empire will probably be built with it's pieces. It's no accident that the current global language is a derivative of the last 'worldwide' language, Latin, which itself flourished from its relationship to Alexander's Greece, a language which stole its alphabet from the semitic empires. Nothing new under the sun.
- _heimdall 2y ago
  The same can be said for empires in general. Dominance seems forever until it isn't, and often the "higher you go the faster you fall" idea plays out. There are plenty of signs that the US could be in the midst of its own empire failing. Whether that actually plays out is something we wouldn't know for decades or centuries, but there sure are a lot of parallels to failed empires of the past.
  - Dalewyn 2y ago
    The question we need to ask isn't whether Pax Americana is dying, but who is going to succeed it. So far it seems like it'll be China on account of there being no other country or bloc able to compete at that level, but that would be very unpleasant for us westerners.
    - TheLoafOfBread 2y ago
      Uncomfortable situations are seed for evolution. Westerners has no real need to do audacious steps, because they don't feel threatened. When China will take over from USA, I would not be surprised that there will be some ingenious way how Western civilization will rebuild itself.
      - _heimdall 2y ago
        The west, especially the US, likes to view China as our big rival these days. I'm still not sold, economically we're highly dependent on each other and militarily it doesn't make sense. If the US and China really were to get into direct conflict, the bigger question may be who on earth was least impacted by nukes rather than which of the two countries "wins" (in quotes because we all lose in war).
    - _heimdall 2y ago
      In all likelihood, I'd expect it to be a country or a group of countries that we would never really have expected. Unfortunately I don't think the US would go down quietly if the empire really is failing. Another major war wouldn't be out of the question, clearing the board for a lot of change to take place. Without a war though, and one can only hope this is the case, I don't see China pulling it off. I both don't think they really have that motivation, and I don't expect they really could transition from such a totalitarian state to an empire driving anything near the level of US dominance. When the US empire fails, and it has to eventually even if we aren't currently walking that path, the question is whether it falls apart or fails violently. You could point to many parallels with the Roman Empire and guess that it will just fall apart, even if there are fringe wars along the way.