The Digital Age and the rise of Smart Languages

With the advent of digitalisation and virtualisation, algorithms become increasingly interwoven with traditional languages. When we combine algorithms with traditional languages we are fundamentally creating “Smart Languages”. Voice recognition services or automated response services are examples of smart languages. A smart language uses language (or information) as an input and combines and processes it with other information and algorithms to finally render it as output in the form of (traditional) language.

The Common Benefit of Languages is at stakes

When we use English, the English language is ours to speak, ours to read and ours to write. Yet, it is not ours to own in the sense that we can make others pay for it or deny others to use it. The English language is and exists to our common benefit to communicate. That commonality of language is considered self-evident in today's society. While the communal grounds of traditional language are more or less an accepted given, this is not at all the case for “smart languages”.

Algorithms are key components of “smart languages”. These algorithms are created to provide certain benefits. While there may not be an issue to obtain benefits from applying algorithms by itself, algorithms could introduce conflicts of interest should they be used to benefit the owners and developers at the cost of users or others.

Take for example the (smart) languages that we use to search the internet today. The smart languages we use to search the internet are not at all commonly owned. Exclusive ownership, makes that the owners of smart languages may not act in alignment with common interests.

The Vision of a Common Smart Language

1LANGUAGE is inspired by communication design principles that “nature uses”. The vision of the first founders and growing group of community members of 1LANGUAGE (and the UETP protocol) is that these natural design principles need to remain accessible for everyone and everything, as nature intended.

The vision is that we need to commonly protect our common interests and digital and virtual freedom by securing the commonality of smart languages.

1LANGUAGE is easily accessible and understandable, also for people without background in Information Technology (IT). Technically, 1LANGUAGE is actually very structured natural language, like an additional layer of grammar applied to it.

By nature, 1LANGUAGE is interoperable among a large number of traditional spoken languages, hence, the knowledge of English or another widely spoken language is very likely not required if you want to use 1LANGUAGE.

1LANGUAGE makes it possible:

• to define and declare information
• to keep information at (your) source
• to manage information (including access and control)
• to relate information
• to relate meaning
• to query or search information
• to translate information (with precision)

With the current accelerating paces of advancement in fields such as algorithms, artificial intelligence, big data, the quantum internet, the likelihood that we soon become substantially dependent on smart languages that are owned and controlled by a few, may make us lose our (digital and virtual) freedom and sovereignty.

1LANGUAGE and especially its language interoperability can only be realised with the help and use of many (just like the relevance of regular languages is determined by the use and maintenance of many).Please join the 1LANGUAGE initiative, because:

“LANGUAGE SHOULD BE OF AND FOR ALL OF US”