[on a recent trip to India, Dr Om Vikas from the Ministry of Information gave a
presentation and one of the slides really hit me hard. I have reproduced it
here, with permission. This is the first time I have ever heard someone
question the accepted meme of our knowledge explosion. Even if I disagree
with the fringes, it is a bold and interesting point. Maybe an analogy with
the loss of biological diversity stands: there are more biomass on earth, but of
fewer types. -brewster ]


Is there gain in knowledge or loss of knowledge?

* From an estimated 10,000 world languages in 1900, about 6,700 languages
survived in 2000. Two percent of the world's languages are becoming extinct
every year.

* There is worldwide, un quantifiable erosion of cultural participation,
knowledge and innovation.

* With the loss of language, we lose art and ideas, scientific information and
technological innovation capacity.

* World-level literacy is improving. More people can read than ever before, but
fewer people create stories.

* There is a tendency from being creators to consumers at the time when
technology could have amplified our creative capacities.

* UNESCO study (1999) of 65 languages: 49 languages (75%) had experienced real
decline in the number of works translated from these languages to other
languages.

* The proportion for English arose from 43 percent in 1980 to over 57 percent in
1994.

* The share held by top four translated languages (English, Spanish, French and
German) rose from 65 percent in 1980 to 81 percent in 1994.

* According to a UNESCO study involving the world's 140 most published authors:
90 out of 140 were English writers in 1994 compared to 64 out of 140 in 1980.

* There is a collapse in authorship, translation and quality in other languages.

Cultural Erosion!

Dr. Om Vikas