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PC Week
Dear Jesse Berst:
It seems obvious that it would be convenient and (dare I say?)
rational to adopt some universal operating system or exchange
medium. It is unlikely to happen soon because market pressures
always force competition and negate standardization. Much money
and time will continue to be wasted by creating local translation
packages and crunching data from one machine language to another.
Similarly the United Nations and other international political
organizations waste on average one third of their administrative
budgets on translation, because of the nationalistic pressures which
prevent adoption of any one national language in official
international contexts. The neutral language Esperanto could help
solve this communication problem, if people were but rational enough
to get beyond tribal hubris.
MIDI standards were planned and universally adopted. The
electric music industry functions quite well free from the cacaphony
of myriad pseudo-standards sucking translation time and money. In
fact the rapid agreement on MIDI standards has encouraged
musicians to invest freely, for they knew early on that there would be
no compatability problems between different machines and software
packages.
If we can be efficient and rational in one context, we can also do
so elsewhere. I do not know whether "Acrobat" is a worthy candidate
for universal exchange medium, but my experience with Esperanto
has convinced me that this neutral, logical, international language is
already functioning well in its Beta-testing (with over a million
satisfied users), and is ready to be shipped! Anyone interested in
learning more about Esperanto should contact their local Esperanto
organization, which in the U.S.A. is at (800) 828-5844.
Michael SLOPER
Office Director, Esperanto League for North America
