$<pa1n1025><cg1n4097><ca1l1><cb1l1>Machine Translation and The Universal Translator<cg1n4098><ca1l0><cb1l0>
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$<pa1n1025>
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$<pa1n1025>In the comic science fiction novel by Douglas Adams, <cb1l1>Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,<cb1l0> the main character, Arthur Dent, finds an unusual device inside a spaceship.
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$ He discovers a dispenser for a Babel fish, which can be inserted in the ear.
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$ It allows the instantaneous comprehension of foreign languages.
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$ The Babel Fish is the biological version of the universal translator.
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$ This translator is found in many science fiction films and television programs.
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$ The universal translators in science fiction are usually an aid to the plot.
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$ The author avoids problems with many alien languages in every program.
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$ Nevertheless, these universal translators represent a real hope.
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$ In the future, machine translation may liberate the human race from a great number of dangerous barriers to knowledge and to communication.
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$<pa1n1025>
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$<pa1n1025>There are several conflicting opinions concerning the possible success of machine translation.
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$ Many people believe that machine translation will not be able to achieve the goal of automatic translation of every language.
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$ Machine translation is a branch of artificial intelligence.
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$ Those people believe that computers will not be able to think as human beings and they do not believe in machine translation.
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$ Others believe that artificial intelligence is possible in the same way that artificial flight is possible:
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$ an airplane does not fly like a bird, but an airplane does fly.
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$ In the same way, a computer does not need to think like a human;
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$ it can achieve the same results.
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$ Still others believe that computers will eventually be able to perform all the mental tasks that we now consider exclusively human.
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$<pa1n1025>
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$<pa1n1025>In the present, machine translation is making slow progress toward the day when everyone will be able to understand each other.
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$ This goal is extremely important in the modern world.
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$ Global communications and world-wide commerce require communication in many different languages for governments, businesses and scientific institutions.
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$ They need speed and accuracy in the translation of a great number of important documents.
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$ Some historians believe that wars start because leaders have not communicated.
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$ In the Bible, God punishes human beings.
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$ He destroys the tower of Babel and He multiplies the number of languages.
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$ Some ancient philosophers discovered that the inability of nations to understand each other was a cause of grave problems.
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$ Since the biblical era, these problems have troubled humanity.
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$ If machine translation would solve these problems, everyone would have a better life.
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$ Perhaps machine translation will become the Babel fish for the modern world.
