Scribd
Upload
55 views2 pages

Will Brain Wave Technology Eliminate The Need For A Second Language

The document discusses how advances in brain wave technology could eliminate the need to learn a second language. It describes how researchers have already achieved basic mind-to-mind communication using EEG sensors. While this could mean perfect real-time language translation apps will make additional languages unnecessary, learning a new language provides cultural and cognitive benefits. It strengthens the brain and offers perspectives not available through just one language. However, with radical technology changing communication, some argue time may be better spent learning other skills like coding instead of languages.

Uploaded by

Ital
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
55 views2 pages

Will Brain Wave Technology Eliminate The Need For A Second Language

The document discusses how advances in brain wave technology could eliminate the need to learn a second language. It describes how researchers have already achieved basic mind-to-mind communication using EEG sensors. While this could mean perfect real-time language translation apps will make additional languages unnecessary, learning a new language provides cultural and cognitive benefits. It strengthens the brain and offers perspectives not available through just one language. However, with radical technology changing communication, some argue time may be better spent learning other skills like coding instead of languages.

Uploaded by

Ital
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

01/10/14 09.39 Will Brain Wave Technology Eliminate the Need for a Second Language?

| Zoltan Istvan
Pagina 1 di 2 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoltan-istvan/will-brain-wave-technolog_b_5889346.html
Will Brain Wave Technology Eliminate the Need for a Second
Language?
Earlier this year, the first mind-to-mind communication took place. Hooked up to
brain wave headsets, a researcher in India projected a thought to a colleague in
France, and they understood each other. Telepathy went from the pages of science
fiction to reality.
Using electroencephalography (EEG) sensors that pick up and monitor brain activity,
brain wave technology has been advancing quickly in the last few years. A number of
companies already sell basic brain wave reading devices, such as the Muse
headband. Some companies offer headsets that allow you to play a video game on
your iPhone using only thoughts. NeuroSky's MindWave can attach to Google Glass
and allow you to take a picture and post it to Facebook and Twitter just by thinking
about it. Even the army has (not very well) flown a helicopter using only thoughts
and a brain wave headset.
Despite the immense interest in brain wave technology, little attention has been paid
to what translation apps--such as Google Translator--will mean to an upcoming gen-
eration that will likely embrace brain wave tech. Youth will surely ask: What is the
point of learning a second language if everyone will be communicating with brain
wave headsets that can perform perfect real-time language translations?
The question is valid, even if it's sure to upset millions of second language teachers
and dozens of language learning companies, like publicly traded Rosetta Stone. Like
it or not, sophisticated brain wave headsets will soon become as cheap as cell phones.
A growing number of technologists think the future of communication lies in these
headsets, and not handheld devices or smart phones.
However, the question of whether it will be useful to learn a new language in the fu-
ture is about far more than just human communication and what technological form
that takes. Different languages introduce us to other cultures, other peoples, and oth-
er countries. This creates personal growth, offering invaluable examination on our
own culture and how we perceive the world. The process broadens who we are.
Being proficient in other languages also offers certain nuances that knowing only one
01/10/14 09.39 Will Brain Wave Technology Eliminate the Need for a Second Language? | Zoltan Istvan
Pagina 2 di 2 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoltan-istvan/will-brain-wave-technolog_b_5889346.html
language cannot. French offers far more romantic and poetic gist than English ever
can. But Arabic is steeped in more historical imagery and connotation than French.
And nothing compares to Hungarian's ability to effectively curse in ways that all oth-
er languages fall far short of.
Perhaps most importantly, learning a second language offers the physical brain a
chance to grow in new and meaningful ways. The study of a new language, for
example, is often suggested to early on-set Alzheimer's patients to help stimulate the
brain's proper functioning.
Ultimately, the most quintessential question rests on whether there are more impor-
tant things to be doing in today's busy world than learning a new language. With
radical transhumanist tech changing our most basic functions like communicating, is
society better off pushing its youth to learn how to write code, or to speed read, or to
play the violin? In hindsight, I would've rather spent my time becoming a proficient
martial artist than the six years I studied Spanish in school.
Whatever your opinion, the future of learning languages and how we communicate
is in flux. Speaking at the 2014 World Future Society conference in Florida, Singulari-
ty University Professor Jose Cordeiro said, "Spoken language could start disappear-
ing in 20 years. We'll all talk with each other using thoughts scanned and projected
from our headsets and maybe even chip implants. This will radically increase the
speed and bandwidth of human communications."
Twenty years isn't that far off. I'm not ready yet to drop my 4-year-old daughter's
Chinese lessons, but I am keeping my eye on whether technology is going to change
some of our basic communication assumptions, like the value of learning a second
language.

You might also like