In Dan Sperber's article “The Future of Writing”, he assesses the presence of writing and reading in our society , as well as their future position. It addresses the possible decline of writing, the predominance of reading in our society, and how our society will adapt and manage the changes. It also covers the emergence of technological advances in speech synthesis and speech-to-text, their effects on society, and the fact that their disappearance will never completely occur. Sperber's main claim throughout the article is that writing, with the help of technology, could eventually cease to exist, or at least become much less important. Although writing has acquired a unique and important place in most parts of the world, despite its more recent development, it still has the capacity to become a "thing of the past." Writing has not always carried this risk, but rather has in the past held great importance to the extent that it has become a product of specialization due to high demand. However, over time, the demand began to decrease and become significantly reduced with the help of substitutes and alternatives. Originally, there was the ability to dictate to someone while they typed or wrote what the other was saying. However, the marvel of technology has now arrived, with software that performs the same position, but faster and easier. The introduction of speech recognition software has the ability to completely undo the act of writing, but there are still many problems that make it far from foolproof. However, as technology improves, Sperber predicts that "in a few years it will be possible to speak normally, having the machine transcribe one's speech with very few errors", thus allowing the more... middle of paper. .. it expresses the importance of something that could often be taken for granted. Yet as one learns to read, this task requires little thought and so its relevance in the world can easily be overlooked. “The Future of Writing” addresses the power that technology has over society and the practices that are now of valid importance. . Yet in the future, technology will have the ability to reduce the importance of writing, according to Sperber. Reading will always have importance in society because it has aspects that cannot be imitated by a machine. But with the constant desire for technology that can fulfill the desires for a better, easier life, this need may never be fully satisfied. Works Cited Sperber, Dan. “The Future of Writing.” Dan Sperber. 2002. Associated institution. January 30, 2012 < http://www.dan.sperber.fr/?p=75>