The document discusses the development of writing systems in early civilizations. It notes that while the origins of human language are unknown, writing first emerged in Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE and later developed in ancient Egypt. Independent of these early Old World cultures, the Mayans in Mesoamerica had established their own complex hieroglyphic writing system by the 4th century AD. The document then transitions to discussing how modern computers only understand machine language, so machine language serves as an interface to allow humans to communicate with computers using our own natural languages.