What high-performance programming language is designed for technical and scientific computing?

The choice of Julia as the high-performance programming language designed specifically for technical and scientific computing is well-founded. Julia was created with the goal of combining the performance of low-level programming languages, like C and Fortran, while maintaining the ease of use that comes with high-level languages, such as Python and R.

One of Julia's standout features is its ability to execute mathematical operations quickly due to its just-in-time compilation, which means that it compiles code on the fly, achieving speeds comparable to statically-typed languages. This makes it particularly suited for tasks requiring complex numerical analysis, linear algebra, and high-dimensional data processing, often encountered in scientific computing.

Julia also offers built-in support for parallel and distributed computing, which is essential for scaling scientific computations across multiple cores or machines. Its rich ecosystem provides numerous libraries dedicated to various fields of scientific research, making it an attractive option for researchers and practitioners in these domains.

Overall, the design and capabilities of Julia make it an optimal choice for high-performance technical and scientific computing tasks, which is why it is correctly identified as the answer.