Essay: The End of the Language Barrier
By Brian McConnell
The original of this article is published in English. As an experiment, I invited people to translate this article into as many languages as possible.
You can contribute by clicking on your language (you will see a list of languages under the title).
If your language is not in the list, change the list of preferred languages in your browser settings, adding your language there.
In addition, you can view, create, and share translations at www.worldwidelexicon.org
Arthur Charles Clark once predicted that the world would become one in 2001.
And he became.
High-speed travel through the air, another popular topic of scientific fantasy, has become so ordinary that we complain that we have been carrying drinks for a long time, while we cross the oceans.
Memex, the electronic guide to world-wide knowledge, described by Vannevar Bush, has become a reality, embodied in the modern Web.
The world has shrunk to the size of a room.
Language is the only remaining barrier.
The language barrier, as we know, will be overcome in 2010.
Experts in computer technology are searching for the Holy Grail of artificial intelligence for a decade, but people will make a breakthrough that will eliminate the language barrier, and not machines.
Language, like music and painting, requires a person to understand its essence.
')
This is an ambitious prediction, I know, but all the prerequisites necessary for this are already in place.
The language barrier will be broken not by one powerful attack, but by a multitude of light strokes that will allow thoughts to easily overcome cross-cultural barriers.
The cheapness of publication, wide Internet channels and the power of huge social networks with millions of users allow creating organizations for a global “human-computing-structure” aimed at performing various tasks.
Text translation - is it not a goal to start with?
The Worldwide Lexicon, a project I have been working on for many years, recently released several tools for co-translating websites.
These open source tools can be embedded in most popular publishing systems and can be adapted to various areas of use.
Publishing tools show a list of languages under each heading.
Click on the language and see the latest translation published by other readers and a suggestion to contribute to the translation.
WWL is based on a few key points.
A site with several readers most likely has bilingual users.
Devoted readers form strong standing groups around the subject, whether they are railroad models or Paris Hilton.
Most of them are knowledgeable about the issue, and some will be happy to devote time to translating texts so that others can read them too.
People who just want to read will not have to do anything new.
They will simply find the page, or follow the link and read what they find.
Translated documents will be visible in other languages, both for people and for search engines.
This will greatly expand the reach of information discovery, since a large web sector will suddenly become visible in many languages.
Amateur bloggers and professional writers will also be able to pay people for publishing translations using this system, which allows them to combine voluntary and commercial translations.
The language barrier will be broken in a few simple steps.
The first phase of this transaction will be accomplished by publishers owning large or well-motivated masses.
Early adherents will appreciate the opportunity to make their content available in many languages and their readers will be happy to help them.
Each website will collect its own community of translators from its readers.
At this stage of the transaction, the system will be driven by several publishers and possibly several thousand dedicated translators.
These projects will grow, and multilingual publishing systems will become more sophisticated.
Sites will acquire large communities of translators who will decide what to translate, depending on personal interests, and regardless of the activity of publishers.
Wandering crowds of amateur translators will translate anything they find interesting.
There will be commercial services, complementing the system based on volunteers.
Translator communities will determine what needs translation.
The motivation of people to translate will be their own interest, or the desire to help friends and family.
It will be interesting to know what content will be the most translatable, as well as what works of one culture will be of interest to others.
It will also be a very useful “measure of interest,” since these systems will measure the amount of work done on each text and calculate the cost of each user's work.
When a large mass of people voluntarily translate a text for a small fee or for free, it will be a signal that the text, whatever it may be, is interesting.
At some stage, everyone will notice that the web translates by itself.
They will see popular sites featuring articles in different languages.
They will find translations of texts when they begin to search for something, or follow the link.
This will bring even more bilingual people into the system and increase its ability to further translate.
Throughout the time, the collection of translations will increase and become more interconnected.
The final stage in the development of a multilingual web will be a world where amateur bloggers and professional publishers can be translated if they want, and where readers can search and read articles in other languages as easily as in their own.
Most readers will not think about how this happens and who is behind these translations.
They will simply surf the web, as they do today, only to be able to do it with all existing articles, and not just with written in their language.
When this happens, the language barrier, at least in one-to-many communication, will become the past.
It is likely that this transition will happen soon, because multilingual sites will take advantage of the various effects of the network (being available in many languages will attract a large audience and bring more people into the system)
Systems like WWL will solve the complex problem of combining people and computers to harness the strengths of each (computers are powerful in handling large amounts of information, while people are able to understand the nuances of human languages).
Now broadband Internet is available everywhere, in all regions, so this system will leak into every corner of the world in a short time.
In fact, one week after the announcement of the release of our newest tool at the end of August, WWL gathered users from more than ninety countries speaking more than forty-five languages.
Although the technologies underlying the system are simple, the end of the language barrier will have far-reaching implications.
When people can read a text written in Farsi as easily as in Japanese, they can see the world and other cultures in ways that are inaccessible today.
About Worldwide Lexicon: WWL is an open source project that aims to make collaborative translations accessible and easy to use.
We are developing extensions to popular publishing systems, open libraries for development and other tools for embedding into a wide range of web services.
WWL is free and can be adapted to any non-commercial or commercial use.
Visit www.worldwidelexicon.org for more information.
The original of this article is published in English. As an experiment, I invited people to translate this article into as many languages as possible.
You can contribute by clicking on your language (you will see a list of languages under the title).
If your language is not in the list, change the list of preferred languages in your browser settings, adding your language there.
In addition, you can view, create, and share translations at www.worldwidelexicon.org
Arthur Charles Clark once predicted that the world would become one in 2001.
And he became.
High-speed travel through the air, another popular topic of scientific fantasy, has become so ordinary that we complain that we have been carrying drinks for a long time, while we cross the oceans.
Memex, the electronic guide to world-wide knowledge, described by Vannevar Bush, has become a reality, embodied in the modern Web.
The world has shrunk to the size of a room.
Language is the only remaining barrier.
The language barrier, as we know, will be overcome in 2010.
Experts in computer technology are searching for the Holy Grail of artificial intelligence for a decade, but people will make a breakthrough that will eliminate the language barrier, and not machines.
Language, like music and painting, requires a person to understand its essence.
')
This is an ambitious prediction, I know, but all the prerequisites necessary for this are already in place.
The language barrier will be broken not by one powerful attack, but by a multitude of light strokes that will allow thoughts to easily overcome cross-cultural barriers.
The cheapness of publication, wide Internet channels and the power of huge social networks with millions of users allow creating organizations for a global “human-computing-structure” aimed at performing various tasks.
Text translation - is it not a goal to start with?
The Worldwide Lexicon, a project I have been working on for many years, recently released several tools for co-translating websites.
These open source tools can be embedded in most popular publishing systems and can be adapted to various areas of use.
Publishing tools show a list of languages under each heading.
Click on the language and see the latest translation published by other readers and a suggestion to contribute to the translation.
WWL is based on a few key points.
A site with several readers most likely has bilingual users.
Devoted readers form strong standing groups around the subject, whether they are railroad models or Paris Hilton.
Most of them are knowledgeable about the issue, and some will be happy to devote time to translating texts so that others can read them too.
People who just want to read will not have to do anything new.
They will simply find the page, or follow the link and read what they find.
Translated documents will be visible in other languages, both for people and for search engines.
This will greatly expand the reach of information discovery, since a large web sector will suddenly become visible in many languages.
Amateur bloggers and professional writers will also be able to pay people for publishing translations using this system, which allows them to combine voluntary and commercial translations.
The language barrier will be broken in a few simple steps.
The first phase of this transaction will be accomplished by publishers owning large or well-motivated masses.
Early adherents will appreciate the opportunity to make their content available in many languages and their readers will be happy to help them.
Each website will collect its own community of translators from its readers.
At this stage of the transaction, the system will be driven by several publishers and possibly several thousand dedicated translators.
These projects will grow, and multilingual publishing systems will become more sophisticated.
Sites will acquire large communities of translators who will decide what to translate, depending on personal interests, and regardless of the activity of publishers.
Wandering crowds of amateur translators will translate anything they find interesting.
There will be commercial services, complementing the system based on volunteers.
Translator communities will determine what needs translation.
The motivation of people to translate will be their own interest, or the desire to help friends and family.
It will be interesting to know what content will be the most translatable, as well as what works of one culture will be of interest to others.
It will also be a very useful “measure of interest,” since these systems will measure the amount of work done on each text and calculate the cost of each user's work.
When a large mass of people voluntarily translate a text for a small fee or for free, it will be a signal that the text, whatever it may be, is interesting.
At some stage, everyone will notice that the web translates by itself.
They will see popular sites featuring articles in different languages.
They will find translations of texts when they begin to search for something, or follow the link.
This will bring even more bilingual people into the system and increase its ability to further translate.
Throughout the time, the collection of translations will increase and become more interconnected.
The final stage in the development of a multilingual web will be a world where amateur bloggers and professional publishers can be translated if they want, and where readers can search and read articles in other languages as easily as in their own.
Most readers will not think about how this happens and who is behind these translations.
They will simply surf the web, as they do today, only to be able to do it with all existing articles, and not just with written in their language.
When this happens, the language barrier, at least in one-to-many communication, will become the past.
It is likely that this transition will happen soon, because multilingual sites will take advantage of the various effects of the network (being available in many languages will attract a large audience and bring more people into the system)
Systems like WWL will solve the complex problem of combining people and computers to harness the strengths of each (computers are powerful in handling large amounts of information, while people are able to understand the nuances of human languages).
Now broadband Internet is available everywhere, in all regions, so this system will leak into every corner of the world in a short time.
In fact, one week after the announcement of the release of our newest tool at the end of August, WWL gathered users from more than ninety countries speaking more than forty-five languages.
Although the technologies underlying the system are simple, the end of the language barrier will have far-reaching implications.
When people can read a text written in Farsi as easily as in Japanese, they can see the world and other cultures in ways that are inaccessible today.
About Worldwide Lexicon: WWL is an open source project that aims to make collaborative translations accessible and easy to use.
We are developing extensions to popular publishing systems, open libraries for development and other tools for embedding into a wide range of web services.
WWL is free and can be adapted to any non-commercial or commercial use.
Visit www.worldwidelexicon.org for more information.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/31240/
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