We have the ability to learn multiple languages, and to work in them. In the history of science, working in multiple languages is the norm.
The idea that every piece of discourse should be in English is a modern phenomenon. It ironically has arrived just as the automated translation renders the interlinguistic literature gap irrelevant.
People should be talking about forcing English speakers to work in their non native language, not just about the woes of a single common language for science.
It is precisely at this moment that we have the ability to gain from cultural diversity without losing intelligibility. Will we go for this possibly? Probably not....
>People should be talking about forcing English speakers to work in their non native language, not just about the woes of a single common language for science.
There are thousands of languages in use worldwide. If English weren't the modern lingua franca, what would stop people from having these same complaints about any other "universal" language?
> It ironically has arrived just as the automated translation renders the interlinguistic literature gap irrelevant.
>It is precisely at this moment that we have the ability to gain from cultural diversity without losing intelligibility
Modern translators have come a long way, but they're far from able to translate scientific texts into intelligible English, especially without losing meaning, particularly from languages which have vastly different grammatical and conceptual styles, like Chinese, for example.
I think it's just en Vogue right now to complain about the Anglo-Saxon hegemony; these problems are not caused by English per se, and the rate of progress is substantially better with this current standard than the alternative you propose of keeping international research effectively siloed by language.
The idea that every piece of discourse should be in English is a modern phenomenon. It ironically has arrived just as the automated translation renders the interlinguistic literature gap irrelevant.
People should be talking about forcing English speakers to work in their non native language, not just about the woes of a single common language for science.
It is precisely at this moment that we have the ability to gain from cultural diversity without losing intelligibility. Will we go for this possibly? Probably not....