According to
Terence McKenna, one signpost marking the next step in
human evolution will be visible language. This is a type of communication where the content is actually expressed as
light in three dimensional
space, as opposed to just
sound.
Imagine instead of describing something with words, you describe it with pictures. Virtual reality may be the key to making visible language a reality:
It's possible to imagine a virtual reality that was driven by a speech-operated synthesizer where the various parts of ordinary speech, adjectives, modifiers, subjects and objects were interpreted by the cybernetic environment as topological manifolds of various shapes so that speech would then generate a visibly beheld topology. And its possible to imagine a future world where in setting up marriage contracts or in negotiating corporate takeovers, in areas where clear communication, clear expression of intentionality was very important, that people would actually go into the virtual reality to use the visible language because its capacity for conveying intent would be much greater than ordinary spoken language.
-Terence McKenna
For the real scoop, see http://deoxy.org/t_langvr.htm