This year, we decided to look to the future instead. To do that we enlisted the help of UTEP Western Civilization specialist Robert Wren, UTEP historian and author John West, City Planning Director Nat Campos, and NationsBank President David Graham. We asked them to give us their take on what El Paso will be like in 1,000 years, in 100 years, in 10 years and next year. We hope you enjoy their reports. First, El Paso will not be called El Paso.
Language tends to simplify itself overtime.
The post-literate world of 2999 will have little use for vowels, bothersome signs for inchoate sounds that are the chief cause of spelling errors. That alone will account for their disappearance. The human race will not be brighter a thousand years from now, but it will figure out ways to make it seem so. The simplification of written English and Spanish might appeal to some on the grounds that such a simple system will make literacy and the power that it brings available to all. A city where the simplicity of the written language makes everyone equally incoherent.