Rants & Raves
__Literal Translation __
The US media has consistently failed to capture the truth about machine translation and the inherent and stubborn limitations in using software to leap the language barrier ("Hello, World," Wired 8.05, page 220). Every single media story on MT is a blend of brainless "universal translator" technohype and an irresistible journalistic Pavlovian urge to print silly and irresponsible claims by software vendors. When I first spotted your May cover, I braced myself for the inevitable salivating over how language barriers are about to be smashed to pieces. I was relieved to discover that Wired chose to buck this trend and actually report the truth.
__Kevin Hendzel
khendzel@asetquality.com __
Great feature on MT ("Talking to Strangers," page 224)! A word about Warren Weaver: In 1954 he became agitated about the growing prevalence of atomic radiation, so he appropriated $3 million of Rockefeller Foundation funds for a study by the US National Academy of Sciences on the topic. It was my good luck to be assigned to staff the committee, which consisted of a dazzling array of Nobel laureates, a dozen of the top American geneticists, and subcommittees on agriculture, waste disposal, and other areas of concern. The study alerted the country to the problem and had many indirect results, including banning the X-ray machines then used in shoe stores and stimulating the development of very-low-dosage X-ray machines for dentistry.
Weaver also had cute dimples, which we saw a lot of because he was smiling or laughing most of the time. He needed his sense of humor, because managing that array of geneticists was like running a wild animal act in the circus.
__Charles Ali Campbell
alicampbell@ibm.net __
Congratulations on one of the most perceptive articles that I have seen published on the subject of machine translation. You correctly position the central importance that translation technology will play in the future welfare of all cultures, not just those with English speakers.
Japan, for example, has long sponsored MT as a means of gathering economic intelligence from competitors, but now the social implications are being addressed. According to the "Report of the Prime Minister's Commission on Japan's Goals in the 21st Century" (see www.kantei.go.jp/jp/21century/report/overview.html), "people must possess the ability to access and converse with the rest of the world, meaning that they can freely and immediately obtain information, understand it, and express their own ideas clearly. The possession or lack of this ability, which we may call 'global literacy,' will determine whether or not one will enjoy a better life in the world of the 21st century."
__Guy Bague
gbague@ireland.com __
I wanted to add my name to what I am sure is a long list of people who enjoyed the excellent article on machine translation.
I am an industry analyst at IDC, a major market research firm. I have recently started a new market research service here on speech and natural language software. My task is to get beyond the technology and identify and describe markets for software. Right now the speech markets are not very closely related to the natural language software markets, but by the end of the decade, I expect there to be considerable convergence. At the moment I feel like a kid in a candy store. There are so many layers to the story and many niche markets at each layer.
__Steve McClure
smcclure@idc.com __
As a former MT consultant in the 1970s, I greatly enjoyed your package on global translation, especially Steve Silberman's insightful trek through MT's past and glimpse of the future. However, other than a brief mention in "Talking to Strangers" and the story on VoiceXML ("Capturing Eardrums," page 246), I think the series neglected a key aspect of where the multilingual Internet is heading: the integration of XML-enabled browsers, XML schemas, and Unicode fonts. This integration, rather than MT itself, will be the next major stage in multilingual Internet communication.
Placing multiple languages and fonts on the same Web page is now possible; this will revolutionize international ecommerce through the use of multilingual forms. Once that process matures - and it may take a while - that and other technological developments will help lay the foundation for truly global MT. But we're not quite there yet.
__Jim Melnick
info@portableexpert.com __
Your article on machine translation was useful and fascinating, but if anything it underestimated the difficulties in creating a general-purpose translator for dissimilar languages. The ambiguities in English are bad enough, but those in other tongues can be much worse. Spoken Chinese, for instance, contains around 1,100 possible syllable sounds (including tonal variants) to express somewhere on the order of 40,000 characters. Chinese speakers frequently resort to scratch pads or tracing characters in the air to clarify which word they mean by a given sound.
The most successful translation engines deal with basically similar pairs such as English and German, and even these are fit only for specialized use. I am highly skeptical that a digital computer program will ever be able to translate accurately between truly different languages.
__Robert A. Benzinger
icebear@dc.net __
__Listen Up __
I'm still having a hard time believing some of Tellme CEO Mike McCue's comments ("Capturing Eardrums," Wired 8.05, page 246). He's actually encouraging people to eschew a higher education simply because we're not in a recession? With advice like that, we'll soon be knee-deep in wealthy, technologically savvy, but ultimately uncultured louts. In the end, it's not just about the money, Mr. McCue; it's about what sort of life you lived.
__Jaime Muldoon Gòmez
jaime@siteshapers.com __
Advances in voice recognition technology developed by Tellme will surely be innovative, but their business model is seriously flawed. Tellme faces a double-edged sword in generating revenue. The more aggressive their ads are, the less users will get what they really want - quick and easy information. For instance, Joe Fan wants to know the score of the Raiders game. If Tellme bombards him with ads up-front, he might stay around for the score but next Sunday he'll watch ESPN instead, where he can see highlights, scores, and news from around the league. If he gets bored, he can flip to the Weather Channel. On the other hand, if the ads are pitched after the score, Tellme's advertisers will reach a lot of dial tones.
Really, how many ads can you cram into a telephone call without being annoying?
__Josh Howard
moehoward1998@yahoo.com __
__Tripping Out __
Erik Davis' interview with Terence McKenna ("Terence McKenna's Last Trip," Wired 8.05, page 156) is a special kind of document. Davis is a terrific writer and thinker, capable of connecting with Terence in a most insightful way. And as this was the last interview, alas, with McKenna, it catches this wonderful man's thoughts and reflections as his life is coming to a close.
__Stephen Miller
mkzdk@mkzdk.org __
In my view, Terence McKenna was merely an undisciplined voyager within the labyrinths of the mind, and not a "real visionary" or heroic figure. Psychedelics, when used to deconstruct reality for recreation, are habit-forming, destructive, and most often deadly.
Entheogens, briefly administered, can be useful in providing a liberating and nondual view of reality. The remainder of the journey toward enlightenment is drug-free.
__Edward Plotkin
info@fouryogas.com __
Erik Davis presented Terence McKenna as someone who is not afraid of what's out there, nor what's inside himself. He presented McKenna as someone who appears to have taken brave steps toward what might be the source of creativity and invention. I find that quite inspirational.
__Chris Walsh
walsh@netcom.ca __
__Deep Freeze __
I am a poet and composer, a person who deliberately cultivates a sensitivity for the poignant and the beautiful. But a piece of writing about scientific exploration never moved me to tears until I read the last three paragraphs of the essay about Lake Vostok ("Ice Station Vostok," Wired 8.04, page 121). The vast sweep of time, the longest night, the return of the dawn after 100 million years - how majestic, how beautiful! An idea this grand could easily inspire great art.
__John C. Grannis
crossroads@viconet.com __
"Ice Station Vostok" missed perhaps the most important point of debate, especially considering the April cover story ("Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," Wired 8.04, page 238) and its questioning of the ethics of human interference with nature: What if the bacteria that these scientists bring up from the depths adapt and destroy other life-forms on this planet, like us? The potential harm to life on the surface from 30-million-year-old organisms cannot be ascertained by the speculations of a so-called intelligent species.
We have a saying in Kazakhstan that is very similar to what your grandmothers tell you: Leave well enough alone.
__Gtron Sistem
gtronsistem@hotmail.com __
__Comeback Kids __
Good article on the older executives coming back for round two ("Act 2.0," Wired 8.05, page 188). While these old-school execs have operational knowledge of business, their fundamental lack of experience with the underlying technology and its application could handicap their leadership capabilities. I'm not suggesting that they need to know Java, but they should understand the possibilities for information delivery. Jeff Bezos and Pehong Chen certainly do. The experience and advice of the execs in the article would be absolutely invaluable, and I would not mind having one of them as a corporate officer. But I would not want them to have the final word.
__Phil Adams
pcadams@firesteedsoftware.com __
__Undo __
Risk Management: AIG canceled or did not renew $1 billion in unprofitable insurance premiums over the last two years ("The Wired Index," Wired 8.06, page 229). ... Accountable: Merrill Lynch & Co. gained $36 billion in private-client accounts in Q4 1999 ("Financial Services Monster Mash," Wired 8.05, page 285); Merrill Lynch Direct accounts amounted to around 2 percent. ... Deconstruction: Cephren's extranet ("Pyramid Power," Wired 8.03, page 106) was used in the design, not the construction, of the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino.
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