bopuc/weblog

I hope the author doesn't mind my reposting this here.

[on a recent trip to India, Dr Om Vikas from the Ministry of Information gave a presentation and one of the slides really hit me hard. I have reproduced it here, with permission. This is the first time I have ever heard someone question the accepted meme of our knowledge explosion. Even if I disagree with the fringes, it is a bold and interesting point. Maybe an analogy with the loss of biological diversity stands: there are more biomass on earth, but of fewer types. -brewster ]

Is there gain in knowledge or loss of knowledge?

* From an estimated 10,000 world languages in 1900, about 6,700 languages survived in 2000. Two percent of the world's languages are becoming extinct every year.

* There is worldwide, un quantifiable erosion of cultural participation, knowledge and innovation.

* With the loss of language, we lose art and ideas, scientific information and technological innovation capacity.

* World-level literacy is improving. More people can read than ever before, but fewer people create stories.

* There is a tendency from being creators to consumers at the time when technology could have amplified our creative capacities.

* UNESCO study (1999) of 65 languages: 49 languages (75%) had experienced real decline in the number of works translated from these languages to other languages.

* The proportion for English arose from 43 percent in 1980 to over 57 percent in 1994.

* The share held by top four translated languages (English, Spanish, French and German) rose from 65 percent in 1980 to 81 percent in 1994.

* According to a UNESCO study involving the world's 140 most published authors: 90 out of 140 were English writers in 1994 compared to 64 out of 140 in 1980.

* There is a collapse in authorship, translation and quality in other languages.

Cultural Erosion!

Dr. Om Vikas

Wanting to find more information on this led me to this document:
International Conference on Universal Knowledge and Language .