The Symbol Of Globalization

Do you remember that simple childhood game called tic-tac-toe? I believe that the square in which that game was played, a square divided into thirds on each side so that there are nine smaller squares within the large square, is the perfect symbol for globalization. Here is why.

I am convinced that cell phones (mobiles), which are taking over the world even faster than computers, are a potentially very powerful tool for translating one language into another.
In my book "The Patterns of New Ideas", I introduced what I called "The Base Language" in which everything that people say to each other is broken down into numbers according to the parts of speech and this provides a simple way of translating written communications, using computers, from one language into another.

Now let's move on to a more thorough system. The tic-tac-toe square resembles the keypad of a cell phone (mobile). Suppose we placed the tic-tac-toe square on a sign and filled each of the smaller squares with a number from 1 to 9. That would give us 362,880 possible combinations of squares. That is more than enough combinations to give each word in a language as well as basic sentences their own combinations. These combinations would be agreed upon throughout the world.

When a traveller who did not understand the local language saw such a "Global Square" sign as we will call it, the traveller would simply click his phone onto translation mode, enter in the combination of numbered squares in order and, press zero for enter. The phone would display the meaning of the word or sentence in the traveller's own language. The translation of each combination of squares would be stored on a chip in the phone. The combinations, each of which would be assigned to a word or basic sentence, could also be expressed as numbers according to which ones of the nine squares were darkened, such as 134682957.

This square, divided into nine smaller squares, would also be the perfect symbol for globalization with the various people of the world not only being brought into closer contact but also gaining more understanding of each other. In my posting below "Parallel Revolutions", I described how the communications revolution is far outpacing the transportation revolution because it is still stuck on dependence on gasoline and other fossil fuels.

However, the communications revolution has a roadblock of it's own. No matter how easy we can make global communications, the fact remains that the people of the world speak about a thousand different languages.

The next step in the transportation revolution should definitely be to get away from reliance on gasoline and other fossil fuels. The next step in the communications revolution should be the utilizing the power of cell phones and computers to get beyond the language barrier.