We need a basic set of universal ideographs and a basic international sign language

A universal set of ideographs, for example, selected from standard Chinese characters or modified characters for clear meaning, would allow a single set of labels, a single line of subtitles in a movie, a single set of instructions, to be read by anyone on the planet. As China continues to increase in economic power, I expect something like this will happen automatically.

We also need a universal sign language. Since computers now have video telephone systems as more or less standard features, a universal sign language would allow anyone to sign to anyone else for basic communication over the Internet.

On the other hand, a universal translator would make these less useful.