Back during the Industrial Revolution, there was a great deal of fear that machines would replace men. Today, the fear is that computers will replace human intelligence. This paper is a review of an extended article on machine translation: what it is, why people are afraid that it will replace standard forms of human translation,and finally why these fears are unfounded.
¶ … Machine Translation and Horizons of the Future
Almost everyone is familiar with the nifty Google feature which allows for instantaneous translation of foreign words. This automated or 'machine' translation is a convenient way to read websites in different languages. No longer does the reader need to know someone who speaks the foreign language or to hire a translator. The translation is provided quickly and easily, via 'machine.' However, for many professional translators, there is a fear that this mechanized process will render their profession obsolete. The article "The perspective of machine translation and horizons of the future" argues that such fears are unfounded. There a useful function that can be performed by machine translation that will enhance current translation capabilities for businesses, individuals, and other organizations, even if it is not a perfect replacement for human intelligence.
The article begins by noting the vital need for translation today, given the increasing globalization of the economy. However, despite the facilitation of communication through this globalization, business documents are often wordy and lengthy. Hiring a translator to translate these documents can be expensive for small businesses and even for large businesses. This can result in a long, costly slowdown and loss of income. Far faster than human translation is the process of machine translation, accomplished via the use of software. "The roots of machine translation are in cryptography; translating messages and then decoding them character by character. The first language translation was word for word and as we all know, language cannot always be translated word for word, without some very embarrassing mistakes." [footnoteRef:1] Yet a machine cannot understand the subtleties of language, thus there will always be a need for human translators, even if only as proofreaders. As with the introduction of any new form of technology, fears abound that it will be used to take away jobs from actual, skilled human beings who have devoted many years of their life to learning a particular skill. However, most of the existing (relatively scant) literature on the subject does not support this thesis. Even when human beings conduct literal translations, the results are frequently hilarious because of the inappropriate nature of the wording and the 'tin ear' for colloquialisms and most existing software can only render language in a very literal fashion. [1: "The perspective of machine translation and horizons of the future,"7.]
Supporters of the ability of machine translation to completely replace human intelligence note how the program Systran has been used to translate entire newspapers, without the assistance of proofreaders, from Spanish to Catalan. However, this discrete example is not really 'translatable' (no pun intended) to other forms of translation as a whole. First of all, Spanish and Catalan are relatively similar languages. The ease of translation is not comparable, for example, to translating Russian into Chinese and vice versa. Also, newspapers are relatively standard, simply-written documents that are not analogous to complex legal and business documents, and they lack the subtleties and complexities of literature.
The opponents of these enthusiastic supporters of machine translation contend that all forms of machine translation are inherently useless and produce nothing but humorous nonsense. "As they expect nearly perfect speech, they will find themselves largely disappointed."[footnoteRef:2] It is very easy to find examples of humorous mistranslations that leave the reader scratching his or her head at best, or, at worst leave the reader dangerously misled. But this dismissive view belies the fact that there is a serious need for effective machine translation, and real and sustained efforts are being made to ensure that the process can become a reality. Not every translation needs to be a work of perfect prose, sometimes merely workmanlike efforts will suffice. And given the spread of globalization, without machine translation, the ability to communicate between global locations would be severely hampered, particularly for smaller organizations that cannot afford professional translators. [2: Ibid., ]
Another important and often-overlooked form of machine translation is the ability to search different language databases using a single keyword. This function is performed by a developing system known as ACENTINUS. ACENTIUS was developed in Europe. The European Union, a polyglot trading block, is yet another example of an entity which demands some form of machine translation to function effectively. When pure accuracy is not essential, machine translation can thus be a very useful instrument.
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