Individual strength is limited. Large-scale collaboration can propel civilization and intelligence to new heights. This includes collaborations between humans, humans and animals, humans and machines, and all possible combinations of these entities (humans, machines, animals, plants, microorganisms). Collaboration requires language for communication, even amongst animals.

Here are a few languages worth learning:

• English: As the most prosperous and civilized human community on Earth in the 20th and 21st centuries, English serves as the primary natural language for daily communication and collaboration.
• Programming: For precise collaboration with large-scale machine clusters and a select few highly intelligent individuals.
• Mathematics: The foundation of machine language and other scientific technologies.

Human Natural Language - Ambiguity and Deception

There are countless human natural languages, each vastly different. The saying “dialects change every 100 miles” holds true; even within 50 kilometers, human language mutates, with variations in pronunciation, grammar, semantics, and expression. Why is this so, given that natural language is innate? Only God can explain.

However, even within the same social organization, such as a company, under the same natural language and cultural background, communication between humans inevitably suffers from many shortcomings. This hinders mutual understanding and effective collaboration, let alone communication and collaboration with people from other worlds and countries.

Common problems include:

A. Misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and misinformation, whether intentional or unintentional. B. In intentional (malicious) cases, the other party in the communication may exhibit a series of complex emotions, extremely variable and chaotic thinking expressions, deception, cheating, lying, etc., making the situation even worse.

It is clear that human natural language must first address the issue of precise expression to ensure:

A. Normal communication and collaboration under normal (intentional or unintentional) circumstances. B. In inevitable (malicious) situations, identify the other party’s fraudulent intentions and behaviors as quickly as possible to minimize losses.

Professionals can communicate more precisely using human natural language, such as lawyers, accountants, and other highly educated professionals. Law is a social science, while the others are mostly in science and engineering.

However, we have seen too many highly educated professionals in the humanities and social sciences who still lack logical thinking and express themselves irrationally. This may be due to the relatively backward social background I am in.

The level of civilization varies among different groups. Currently, English-speaking countries are the most powerful, occupying the top 20 globally, excluding overseas colonies in Africa, Latin America, etc., belonging to the Commonwealth.

Since communication and collaboration with humans are inevitable, it is best to choose the language of the most powerful and civilized group - English - as the preferred human natural language.

Machine Language - Precise Enough

Compared to human natural language, machine language is more precise. If we follow the operating rules and the specifications of the machine’s language instructions, the machine can operate properly and collaborate efficiently with humans. Otherwise, giving the machine ambiguous instructions (language) will, at best, prevent it from booting up and working correctly, and at worst, result in damage to the machine and harm to humans.

No matter how much humans change, machines always strictly adhere to their inherent language rules.

Machines represented by clocks and steam engines ushered in an unprecedented era of productivity in the industrial age. All these scientific and technological developments have culminated in today’s computers.

The working language of computers is called programming, which is the basis for us to communicate and collaborate well with computers. Then, computers form a vast cloud computing cluster, and almost every other type of machine (non-computer) can now embed (micro) computing units, resulting in the Internet of Things (IoT). Large-scale collaboration between humans and machines reaches a higher level, and communication and collaboration between intelligent machines emerge. The world has undergone rapid changes in this era.

Programming, the computer language, encompasses all machine languages. This is why we need to learn programming.

Mathematical Language - The Foundation of Machine Language and the Laws of the Universe

Mathematics and logic underpin even subjects like law, philosophy, music, and other literary and artistic disciplines. Computer programming languages require a strong foundation in mathematics.

Mathematical symbols, formulas, theorems, equations, functions, etc., are universal language symbols throughout history and are highly internationalized. We often see Arabic numerals, Roman, Greek, and Latin characters, etc.

Mathematics = Erudition

Communication using mathematical symbols is the fundamental language of all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Mathematicians are more globalized than programmers.

How many programming languages are there? Hundreds, too many.

Mathematical symbols are much less numerous and more concise than programming languages.

Therefore, this is a compelling reason for us to learn mathematics well.

Other Species’ Languages - Mostly Esoteric

This includes the languages of animals, plants, or other spiritual species. Based on the scientific requirement of repeatable and verifiable evidence, limited papers have shown minimal progress in understanding other species’ languages. This field remains largely unexplored for humans.

However, many people claim to have mastered the language of communicating with all things in the universe, often farmers, religious (cult) figures, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, those who practice witchcraft, and extraordinary individuals who communicate with spirits. From the perspective of modern scientific education standards, these groups are mostly illiterate and fall outside the scope of this discussion.

Concerning sensitive topics like religion, it is advisable to consult the opinions of major mainstream religions. After all, religion combined with science and education may be more credible. According to university curriculum standards, is there any skills training on “communicating with ghosts and gods”?

Therefore, exploring other species’ languages currently belongs to the realm of charlatans and is not within our current consideration.