Kontra has an interesting question:
If aliens (which obviously would come from Mars aboard one of Musk’s spaceships) manage to completely disable one programming language to bring human civilization on earth to a screeching halt, which language would they choose?
— Kontra (@counternotions) March 7, 2021
I’d say C because so much of our infostructure (the Internet, operating systems, and much else) depends on it. A close second would be COBOL. That’s an old language that few if any Irreal readers have ever used but there’s still tons of software using it, especially banking and financial software.
Despite some other suggestions in the thread—Javascript, for example—I don’t think any other languages come close. Note that the question is not what language is “best” or most popular. Just, in effect, what language is most vital, today, for our civilization.