I'm not sure I can agree that the world would be better if everyone spoke the same language, there's plenty of readily googlable research suggesting that multilingualism has cognitive benefits.
But if we're going to have one universal language, it will be java. Still happy?
> But if we're going to have one universal language, it will be java. Still happy?
This is a great retort, the more I think about it. There would be huge efficiences if Java was the only language in the world...and there would be huge holes too, just as if we banned every language and insta-translated all the great foreign works to English.
I think it's safe to say that some of the great works in non-Java languages might never have been possible or thought of if everything was all-Java. Can we say that some of the great non-English works would never have existed if everything was done in English? Probably.
If all people spoke the same language, every person on the planet could express their thoughts to everyone else. In my opinion, that would increase the feeling of community for the human race. The analogy to programming languages doesn't fit very well here.
In 1471 (apparently) Chinese navy sent an armada (no seriously, thousands of ships, one dedicated to being a grassed over flat hill growing vegetables - really an armada) to tour the Indian China seas wand show their power / negotiate trade agreements. There is even a suggestion some of the fleet reached the Anericas
Anyway ten years later internal Chinese politics meant the Emperor effectively shut down the Chinese navy and ended external exploration - just as Columbus opened up the New World for Europe.
China was a united political body - spoke one language, etc
Eirope was a crazy, disunited, warring agglomeration - that leaped forward in the New World and brought us kickin and screaming into the modern era
Lets imagine we have a lingua Franca, then closer political union across the globe and ... Humanity misses the next leap forward - or more worryingly all of humanity collapses at the same time
Many other regions on the planet had also been in discord and warring for millennia, without producing an Industrial Revolution.
However the unbelievable progress made in the last centuries and today wouldn't be possible without having a lingua franca. The difficulties you'll have programming without knowing English are an excellent example.
It shouldn't bother you more than utf8 and tcp/ip. If everybody in the world spoke the same language, the world would be a better place.
The discomfort probably stems from the fact that some languages will die out. That's sad but there is always room for bilingualism.