Sigmund Freud had it right when he said, “The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.”

Currently the internet attempts to make sense of 8,512 computer languages, dozens of HTML-based web languages, and nearly 6,500 active spoken human languages.

Communication originates from the brain. We communicate within our minds using electricity electrical neuronal spikes. This is the starting point of any forms of communication. We know what it sounds like: neuronal spikes sound like static crackling. This is the fundamental building block of language. If we can take this and map it to the fundamental building block for how the internet and computers communicate, we’d have the foundations to make translations at the root level of thought. Computers and transistors communicate using the same electrical currents that neurons do.

Language tends to form before the breakpoint and this is a primary reason why so many companies are rushing to hire linguists: they see the opportunity but they also know it may slip away.

Here’s a really cool article and infographic that traces communication right from 6000 B.C  -early drum beats, the postal system, telephones to communication as we know it today: