Pretty soon language will no longer be a barrier that keeps humanity separated.
The Internet has become the ultimate medium for communication amongst humans. When it first began, web sites
we are
predominantly written in English, but over time all the major languages in the world have voiced themselves to their fellow tongued colleagues and brethren. There is a new technology on the Internet that although in its early development, could revolutionalize communication on our planet: Universal translation software.
If youve read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy you will
recall the science-fiction idea of the Babel fish. You take a small fish and put it in your ear and then automatically you may understand any language in the whole Universe in your own tongue. Pretty unbelievable stuff huh! But now on the Web there are numerous sites that are turning this dream into a reality. One of the main sites is http://world.altavista.com/tr where they actually call their accomadation
Babel fish Translation.
There are two main options on this page
that you may try out for free of cost. The first is to insert 500 words at a instant in your native language, choose the language you want to interpret to, and push the translate button. For example, say youve met a French human
through a internet site
dedicated to healthy living and you want to send them your recipe for Grandmas famous vegetarian soup, but you speak English. Just push the English-French option, paste the recipe in, and in a few seconds, wow, its right in front of you ready to send in French! Now dont get me wrong, this concept is in its infancy so the language is far from a perfect grammatical interpretation, however it will definitely get the main ideas across to this human
who otherwise you wouldnt have been able to communicate with. If you we are
in the identical
town or city you could make use of
body language, or see each other a webcam, but I think it would look a little strange watching someone miming out the actions of how to chop up a carrot!
The second option is for translating a whole website. Say youve got a website for your e-commerce business exporting a new kind of deodorant, but in this instance you are a French person (a country understand
for its fine scents) and you would like to enter the Japanese online sell
as you are well aware that they have a strong stigma against body odor. Well, just click on French-Japanese, put in your web address, and in a few seconds, bang, the whole site has been interpreted into Japanese. You might
then add a Ja/ at the finish
of your address thus making a whole new web site just for Japanese speaking people. To do this you can have to download a Japanese language pack from your computer but that shouldnt be much of a problem
Some many people
can complain that your language is bad, or get some misinterpretations of ideas because of the newness of this technology, but I do think it might
be very useful. You may have some contact with everybody and acquired skill
that otherwise can have been totally impossible before. When the concept is evolved further, as is the case with all worthwhile technological additions to human society, I believe the results will be spectacular.
Imagine anyone and many people
being able to connect and read each others ideas and information. Humanity could reach a level of information and appreciation of each others differences that then could have huge effects that resound across perceived boundaries bringing every one
much closer together. Hey, maybe one day we could all realize that we are all human beings, all individuals, and all from the same place: Earth.
