I don't think that a smartphone is enough for conversations in a long term period. If one live in a country, he will need to learn the language. When there will nano robots and a brain-computer interface that will enough.
Esperanto is good for an education goal. It has a solid structure and patterns from different languages.
There was many chances to made Esperanto an official language in USSR, League of Nations or maybe in China. Now it is Europe, what they will choose?

Wow! Altebrilas and studentojn - impressive combo there!

I know that comment isn't conductive to the discussion at hand, but I was impressed by the presentation of that point and felt the need to throw the compliment out there.

sophietsesmelis:Do you believe Esperanto will reach its full potential?

In order to discuss something, you first need to clarify the concepts.
For example, I do not understand what the "full potential of Esperanto" really is.
Is this another name for "fina venko", "interna ideo", "homaranismo", "raŭmismo" or something else?

For me, Esperanto is primarily a language. It is much easier than any national language, and therefore provides an effective communication between people with different mother tongues. So, if you mean the possibility of describing the world in this language, then the full potential has long been achieved. (But it is certain that Esperanto continues to evolve, like all other living languages.)

When China is talking with Russia, Iran or Arab states e.g. about tne new Silk Road, which language is used? Most of these countries dont use latin alphabet. Do they use english? russian? chinese? automated translation?

Altebrilas:When China is talking with Russia, Iran or Arab states e.g. about tne new Silk Road, which language is used? Most of these countries dont use latin alphabet. Do they use english? russian? chinese? automated translation?

When China piles money on the table, suddenly everybody speaks Mandarin. So, money talks

Do you mean that the talks are actually done in mandarin?

Altebrilas:Do you mean that the talks are actually done in mandarin?

I have no idea, but it wouldn't amaze me, if that were the case.

sudanglo:Metsis is quite correct in his view that many Esperanto organisations are too inward-looking and are not going about their business in the way that any single-issue political organisation might best proceed.

In particular, I see little attempt at addressing the major current threat to Esperanto as a world lingua franca - which is the rise of machine translation.

I would expect that in as little as 5 years time it will be common place to load one's smart phone with a translation app. which will allow the user to speak into his phone in his own language and have the translation into another language transmitted to another party's phone.

The likely near future emergence of such technology should already be influencing the way that Esperanto is promoted. But I see little sign of that.

In my view the best hope for the future of Esperanto is to emphasise its educational value - teaching students grammatical concepts, revealing ambiguities in their own language, demonstrating that there are alternative ways of expressing ideas (that not all languages work in the same way).

All this is difficult to achieve by teaching a national foreign language, since there is so much dross to be absorbed before the student can begin to express himself in that language. In fact, in education at a secondary level, few students of a foreign language get close to achieving a reasonable command of the language - quite the reverse is true of Esperanto.

There is an interesting phenomenon in the case of Esperanto, which is that whilst few students of a national foreign language get to the point where they feel that they own the language, this is a not an uncommon experience of students of Esperanto.

How many students of a national foreign language get to the point where they can spontaneously crack jokes in the language, or would undertake writing an original piece in that language, or would take on the production of a quality translation into that language.

Another focus that can be emphasized to fight cold hard machines in the digital age is that Esperanto is wonderfully expressive for writers/creative types. That's one of the neat things about the language that appeals to me. Esperanto has an interesting flexibility in this area. I think the educational and creative features could be enough to continue to gain traction against where the tide is moving.

Esperanto estas meze dekfoje pli facila ol la ĉefaj naciaj lingvoj laŭ Claude [Klod] Piron.
Kun sep miliardoj de poŝtelefonoj en la mondo dum 2018, ĉiu povos baldaŭ kontroli ĝin
Historie, la ĉefa uzata lingvo estas ĝenerale la lingvo de la plej potenca imperio kaj pli kaj pli facila. En Okcidento: la greka, poste la latina, poste la franca, poste la angla.
Ekde 2015 la ĉina ekonomio estas pli granda ol la usona kaj la mondo havas nun plurajn centrojn.
94% de la monda loĝantaro havas intereson pri facila internacia lingvo, ĉar ĉiu homo povus ŝpari milojn da horojn de studado kaj la komunikado estus pli justa.

The reason Esperanto didn't become a global lingua franca is because it doesn't have a power base like English does.

A language doesn't become widespread and a tool of communication and diplomacy because of external reasons, most commonly the dominance of an ethnic group or the power of a state it is associated with.

English is so common today because of the British Empire's imperialism and colonialism in the 19th century and the global American hegemony since the end of World War II. Doesn't matter English has a simple grammar. French used to be the language of diplomacy in Europe because the French nobility were some kind of trend-setters. Latin was the "lingua franca" of Europe in the Medieval Ages yet it is known for being hard to learn. It was widespread because of the former Roman Empire's territorial expansion. Ancient Greek was important in Antiquity because the Greeks were very advanced and Alexander the Great conquered a large part of the known world. It is akin to Latin but even more complex. And if the Axis would have won World War II, we likely would use German and Japanese instead of English nowadays.