Machine Translated Information Wants To Be Free (Professional Translation Doesn’t)

On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time.

So you have these two fighting against each other.

—Stewart Brand (quoted by Roger Clarke)

The main challenge facing a professional translator is to escape the perception that the service she provides is a commodity. Or, to state it more clearly, escape clients who perceive translation as a commodity. From anyone who has the perception that any bilingual can do that just as well. That a computer can also do the job pretty much just as well. Or that crowdsourcing or outsourcing are credible alternatives.

The Financial Translator's Bookshelf: How 2 Be a Frielance Transalator (Thorugh not a Very Goode Proof-reader)

We live in a world in which the amount of information is expanding exponentially. Or at least that is what our translationl10n pundits tell us. We are also told that this Content Big Bang overwhelms the current capacity of the translation industry. 

I, for one, keep harping on the counterpoint. For one thing, the idea that more content necessarily requires more translation is a non sequitur if ever I saw one. Just because a piece of text exists doesn’t mean it has to be translated into a gazillion languages. Ah, the McLocalization theorists tell us, but think about the benefit to humanity of increased communication. Call me a skeptic (yes, please call me a skeptic), but an increase in the amount of garbage communicated into other languages will benefit humanity how, exactly?

What I’ve Been Reading

Translation:

Kevin Lossner chokes on his cheese roll while reading ProZ.com’s failed attempt at localizing its gift shop (funny).

How much is your translation worth?

Isaac Newton Versus Alan Moore, or Is Wikipedia Written by Obsessive Geeks?

In traditional encyclopedias, the size of the entry is proportional to the editors’ estimate of the subject’s importance. Flash forward to Wikipedia. The hive mind of the Crowd decides these hierarchies.

Ray Kurzweil Predicts the Arrival of Human-Level Computer Translation By 2029

When people stop believing in God, they don't believe

in nothing -- they believe in anything.

—G.K. Chesterton

I read this interview with futurist Ray Kurzweil about translation last week. It contained the following statement: “According to Kurzweil, machines will reach human levels of translation quality by the year 2029.”

I confess I burst out laughing. Not at the prediction itself. I guess computers might be able to do that by then. What made me laugh is the inane precision of the date.

2029?