Nicholas Negroponte is best known for his founding of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, in the age of internet searches, Negroponte has been recently identified as the "predictor of the future.” When he first spoke at TedTalks in the 1960s, he suggested that technology would evolve to be touch-sensitive. Professionals shrugged, and even heckled the idea. In 1976, he handcrafted the first computer imaging system atop a moving vehicle for the purpose of map documentations. Two decades later, Google Maps adopted the idea as their own.
In Negroponte's most recent TedTalk, he announced the idea of learning an entire language by swallowing a pill. "We have been doing a lot of consuming of information through our eyes. That may be a very inefficient channel. My prediction is that we are going to ingest information," he says in the video. "You're going to swallow a pill and know English. You're going to swallow a pill and know Shakespeare."
While the technological visionary is short on specific details, responses from neuroscientists and biomechatronics experts say that Negroponte's claim is entirely possible. Unrelated research has already uncovered a drug that may be capable of perfecting vocal pitch.
While technology of every sort has connected the continents, language barriers still exist beyond borders. Pharmacies may, in fact, stock the miracle pill within the next several decades. Meanwhile, there are several conventional ways to master a new tongue- whether it's Arabic, French, or Mandarin.
Attached video is Nicholas Negroponte: A 30-Year History of the Future http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b5BDoddOLA
