Language is the ultimate dematerialized technology. It wouldn’t kill you if it were dropped on you. Its ecological and carbon footprints are practically zero. All of a sudden, you could exchange feelings without making them known by hurling stones at one other.
Language should be every environmentalist’s dream invention: progress without needing more stuff.
That, of course, was a short-lived phenomenon. Each particular human interaction became less material, but the invention of language also sparked enormous economic growth. The number of interactions increased exponentially. Much of what followed throughout human history was based on its invention.
We are clearly better off with language than without. But it’s equally clear that over time, language has resulted in enormous additional resources being mobilized—with all the good and ill that entails.
