Esperanto: to enhance international collaboration on technology in the broader interest of society

Technology is a worldwide concern and IEEE is a worldwide organization. A major problem in all international concerns is the language barrier. For instance, ten percent of the UN budget is consumed in translation services. Then beyond this immediate monetary cost, translation slows the process and increases the risk of serious misunderstanding. For instance, our war against Viet Nam went on for weeks with more killing, as the linguists agonized over differences among the three forms of the peace treaty, in English, French and Viet Namese. We tend to defer to the computer to solve this problem. Indeed the computer can do much, and software will be ever improved to make the result better and better. Still, direct communication among concerned parties, in one language, which everybody can use with more or less equal facility, will always remain far superior to communication through translation. This is not only a matter for the simplification of everyday operations in international affairs, technological and otherwise. It will also help to get a better accounting, on a worldwide basis, of just where technology is taking us-a better view, sooner, of the broader impact of the various developments. In answer to the need here implied, a close look at Esperanto is offered.