From Star Trek to Doctor Who, many science fiction writers have invented gadgets to let their characters communicate. Free and open communication is a basic requirement for the Utopian society of the Star Trek universe, and we currently have access to that exact capability.
For a while now Skype has had a real-time translation service available for use and recently Microsoft announced that it’s Speech Translation service is available for anyone to licence and use. The technology is available, and at prices that make it accessible.
I have always believed that people are people everywhere and if we could all just sit down and talk to each other, we could work together to accomplish great things. My optimism has been greatly challenged recently, with a swell of nationalist, racist and frankly fascist sentiments from communities the world over. I get it, Globalism is frightening. Times of change are always upsetting for the people living through them.
But there is no going back.
There is no putting the genie back in the bottle.
Our technology is catching up to the Science Fiction stories that see the best possible outcomes for humanity. Our society is not. We have the tools, we need to use them.
The Odd Blog 