There are around 7,111 languages spoken in the world today, with 50% of the world’s population speaking just 23 of those. A third of the 7,111 are endangered, and rapid cultural convergence is contributing to languages dying out at the rather alarming rate of one every two weeks.
This has some rather depressing implications for the diversity of thought. The“Sapir-Whorf hypothesis” a model of ‘linguistic relativity’ states that “the structure of a language determines a native speaker’s perception and categorisation of experience.”
If we interpret this in it’s simplest form then the fewer languages in the world, the narrower the diversity of thought. The implications of which are plain, and rather depressing.
But it’s not just language that’s dying.
With the rapid acceleration of automation and machine learning, many jobs and tasks are disappearing as well, and with them the modes of thinking required to accomplish them.
What are the implications for diversity of thought when it doesn’t make sense for a human to do any form of computation, translation or navigation?
Modernity has disconnected us from abilities our ancestors would have taken for granted, such as wayfinding and weather prediction. What will the next wave of innovation take, should we allow it?