Seven Similarities Between the Machine Translation Crowd and a Religious Sect

1.- Both fervently await a significant event that is in the future, but constantly deferred (the Second Coming, the Rapture, alien invasions, the day when machine translation [MT] is actually useful).

2.- Both gather periodically at ritual events to recite incantatory nonsense (covens, black masses, localization conferences).

3.- Both demand that you renounce all your worldly possessions in favor of a fuzzy afterlife no one has ever seen (Heaven, Paradise and the 72 virgins, well-paid post-editing).



4.- Both seek to alienate you from your loved ones and take all your money.

5.- Both solicit funding on the basis of preposterous premises.

6.- Both demand a significant amount of blind faith.

7.- Both have been denounced as farces by Richard Dawkins.

(I’m not actually sure about this last one).




Miguel Llorens is a freelance financial translator based in Madrid who works from Spanish into English. He is specialized in equity research, economics, accounting, and investment strategy.