The tower of Google!

Google Translator: The Universal Language



Here is an interesting article about the "Google Machine Translation System" (not to be confused with the current Google Translator).

Apparently Google's new translator is capable of the following translation from Arabic:
From current Google on-line translator: "Alpine white new presence tape registered for coffee confirms Laden"
From New Google translator: "The White House Confirmed the Existence of a New Bin Laden Tape."

The Google Babelfish: "It would be a smart device you plug-in to your ear, and it would have speech recognition and Auto-translation built in. You can now visit a foreign country and understand people who talk to you in languages you never learned. For them to understand you as well, either they would also have a Google Babelfish, or there would be the need of a second gadget you speak into, which then translates what you said. While the needed text-to-speech and speech-to-text technologies are far from perfect at the moment, they are still realistic possibilities."

If the technology is as good as the claim, this is going to bring the world together like nothing else. No more language barriers!

I can't speak for anyone else, but I suspect that we all feel less connected and less compassionate with people speaking languages - that to our ears - sound like gibberish. I wonder how different we would feel hearing cries of anguish from Iraqi people in English.

Another immeasurable benefit will be to global education. Language has been the key to human success. We use language to share ideas, skills, and to communicate years of aggregated knowledge. Until now the most limiting quality of language is that we don't all share the same one. We could learn so much more quickly if we only spoke the same language.

Musing:
Will Google herald the next human revolution.
Knowledge + Communication = World Progress