The End of the Curse of Babel

garynorth.com / Gary North / July 04, 2017

A subscriber posted this last week.

I do not speak English. I use google translate for reading and communication. In the books and articles of Dr. G. North, I find the answers to the questions that interest me. I am very encouraged and taking forward-looking actions. I believe my work is an inheritance for my children.

https://www.garynorth.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?articleid=241109#241109This brief paragraph is easily understood by someone who speaks English. It opens the world to speakers of multiple languages. This is going to increase the intellectual division of labor on a scale never before imagined.

I don’t know how long it is going to take, but there will come a time when we have real-time communications with each other, despite the fact we do not speak each other’s languages. This will be a tremendous benefit to intellectual productivity.

We already know that most of the value delivered online has to do with knowledge. Knowledge is the primary economic good that is available online. The great barrier today is the fact that we do not understand each other’s languages. But I think it is easy to predict that sometime over the next two decades, this barrier is going to be reduced to the point where only about 5% of the information is lost as a result of inefficient translation software. That last 5% will be difficult to overcome, but the 95% that will have been translated accurately will contain the most significant information.

We know that there is going to be a breakthrough in low-orbit satellite communications. Three companies are innovating in this area: Facebook, Amazon, and Google. One or more of these approaches is likely to work. Facebook recently ran a test of a high-flying drone that will be used to enable people in the Third World and Second World to hook up to Facebook free of charge. The story is here.

Because the most valuable asset as information, and because this cannot be blocked except by tyrannical governments, and it can be taxed by no one, we’re going to see an increase in international trade. There is no way to place a tariff or quota on a piece of information that is sent digitally. We know the rule: when the price falls, more is demanded. That is a fundamental law of economics. We are going to see this demonstrated across the world from this time on.

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