The Future of Language

How Technology, Politics and Utopianism are Transforming the Way we Communicate

Philip Seargeant

Will language as we know it cease to exist? What could this mean for the way we live our lives?

Shining a light on the technology currently being developed to revolutionise communication, The Future of Language distinguishes myth from reality, and superstition from scientifically-based prediction.

From the rise of artificial intelligence and speaking robots, to brain implants and computer-facilitated telepathy, language and communications expert Philip Seargeant surveys the development of digital ‘languages’, such as emojis, animated gifs and memes, and investigates how conventions of spoken and written language are being modified by new trends in communication.

From Jean-François Sudré to Elon Musk, and from George Orwell’s fictional predictions in Nineteen Eighty-Four to the very real warnings of climate activist Greta Thunberg, Seargeant explores language through time, traversing politics, religion, philosophy, literature, and of course technology, in the process.

Philip Seargeant is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the Open University, UK. His recent publications include The Art of Political Storytelling (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020) and The Emoji Revolution (2019). Seargeant regularly works as a consultant for the BBC and has won awards for his short films on language and communication, including the viral series The History of English in Ten Minutes. He is a frequent contributor to publications such as Wired, The New European, Prospect, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post and The Independent.