Its 2012 so????

Latin is not a great language, it has very complicated grammar and is not easy to learn. It has a couple of advantages, but I don't feel any outweigh the problems it has.

Of course it's not so easy to just choose a universal language, and English will likely be the de facto universal language for the foreseeable future. Which is not that bad really, it's not that hard to learn the basics of English, the spelling however is pretty bad and spelling reform may be advantageous.

The alternative is a constructed auxiliary language of course, like Esperanto or lojban. I read a fantastic article about what a good constructed language should have as well: http://www.joerg-rhiemeier.de/Conlang/auxlang-design.html

We should all speak Proto-Indo European.

Sure its a little gwer...but suck it up. uhuh

Edit: The guy who wrote that article sounds like an engineer. It's like he's saying "I only care about a language's ability to be used to express culture and literary imagination insofar as it can be used to drum up interest for the language so that we can have people read our scientific papers"

Originally posted by Omega Vision
We should all speak Proto-Indo European.

Sure its a little gwer...but suck it up. uhuh

Edit: The guy who wrote that article sounds like an engineer. It's like he's saying "I only care about a language's ability to be used to express culture and literary imagination insofar as it can be used to drum up interest for the language so that we can have people read our scientific papers"

Well, he is arguing for an auxiliary language. Not for a first language.

English sux.

English is hard to learn, has complicated grammer, and things are not pronouced as they seem (sometimes), plus depending on where you are in america people speak and pronouce things somewhat different. (Especially with black people).

It's a colorful language.

What do you mean?

That was apropos.

K

Que?

I love how this derailed from a discussion about why there has been supposedly no substantial progress made 12 years into the 21st century to a discussion about number systems to a discussion about how much English does or does not suck.

Btw, which English are we talking about here? British or American?

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
depending on where you are in america people speak and pronouce things somewhat different

There is no language that doesn't have this problem and no realistic way to avoid having it.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
There is no language that doesn't have this problem and no realistic way to avoid having it.

I've long hoped that Elvish would one day emerge as a oft-used language in the real world. Let people swear on TV in deceptively pleasing mystical lilt.

Originally posted by Lord Lucien
I've long hoped that Elvish would one day emerge as a oft-used language in the real world. Let people swear on TV in deceptively pleasing mystical lilt.

I'm totally with you, I'm just not sure whether it should be Quenya or Sindarin.

Originally posted by Digi
I dislike the Base 10 numbering system. If it were me, we'd be on Base 9.

Agreed. Especially if it means getting my damn flying car sooner rather than later.

Even the most vague proposal of a top-down change to English is laughable. It is a language that will never operate that way; it is almost completely descriptive, not prescriptive. You just have to let it evolve as it will.

Actually, that really applies to all languages, but English grasped it first and best.

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As for 2012- people in 2000 thought there would be flying cars? Uh, no. That was more of a 1950s fantasy about the year 2000, and of course itr isn't about getting a car to fly, which is easy, but getting a system that works ad is actually of any benefit. If that ever becomes the case, we'll get the cars.

Leo from The West Wing bemoaned the lack of technological change in 2000 that was imagined when he was a kid, and when Josh points out the invention of the internet to him, he replies:

"A faster delivery system for porn? Screw that, where's my jetpack?"

"A faster delivery system for porn?"

Funny you mention that, this movie is based on that Idea, set between 1998 & 2003 IIRC.

Middle Men (film) (2009) - Wiki

Movie was actually pretty good too.