Philip Seargeant

The Future of Language (eBook, PDF)

How Technology, Politics and Utopianism are Transforming the Way we Communicate

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Will language as we know it cease to exist? What could this mean for the way we live our lives?

Shining a light on the technology currently being developed to revolutionise communication, The Future of Language distinguishes myth from reality and superstition from scientifically-based prediction as it plots out the importance of language and raises questions about its future.

From the rise of artificial intelligence and speaking robots, to brain implants and
computer-facilitated telepathy, language and communications expert Philip Seargeant surveys the development of new digital 'languages', such as emojis, animated gifs and memes, and investigates how conventions of spoken and written language are being modified by new trends in communication.

From George Orwell's fictional predictions in Nineteen Eighty-Four to the very real warnings of climate activist Greta Thunberg, Seargeant explores language through time, traversing politics, religion, philosophy, literature, and of course technology, in the process. Tracing how previous eras have imagined the future of language, from the Bible to the works H. G. Wells, and from Star Wars to Star Trek, the book reveals how perfecting language and communication has always been a vital component of utopian dreams of the future.

Questioning the potential ramifications of recent and future developments in communication on society and its ideals, The Future of Language is a no holds barred investigation into the state of civilisation and the impact that changes in language could have on our lives.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK
• Seitenzahl: 256
• Erscheinungstermin: 2. November 2023
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781350278875
• Artikelnr.: 68874072

Autorenporträt

Philip Seargeant is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the Open University, UK. His recent publications include The Art of Political Storytelling (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020) and The Emoji Revolution (2019). He has won awards for his short films on language and communication, including the viral series The History of English in Ten Minutes. He is a frequent contributor to publications such as Wired, The New European, Prospect, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post and The Independent.

Inhaltsangabe

1. After the Fall2. Change is the Only Constant3. The Three-Cornered World4. An Imaginary Guide to the Future5. Inventing Language6. Cyborg Speech7. Is Anybody Out There?8. The Decay of Lying9. They Who Control the Past Control the Future10. Futureproofing the WorldReferencesIndex

Rezensionen

You leave this book … with a renewed belief in language as “inherently creative”, offering what Noam Chomsky called "infinite expression by finite means”, and still our best way of expressing the sensory infinitude of being alive.