$¬\w000600¬¬\qTimes New Roman\q¬¬\ä000001¬In the comic science fiction novel by Douglas Adams, ¬\I¬Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy¬\I¬, the main character (Arthur Dent) comes upon an unusual sight in the cargo hold of a spaceship.
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$He discovers a machine which dispenses a curious creature:
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$the Babel Fish.
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$When this fish is inserted in the ear, it makes possible the instantaneous understanding of foreign languages.
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$The Babel Fish is a biological version of the universal translator which has appeared in many futuristic films and in science fiction programs.
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$From the writer's point of view, these universal translators serve as a literary device which allows him to avoid the problem of the many alien languages that a character in a television show would confront during each episode.
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$Nevertheless, these universal translators represent a real hope and a possible vision of the future, when machine translation may free people from the dangerous barriers to knowledge and communication that their languages erect.
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$There are several contradictory opinions about the possible success of machine translation.
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$Many people believe that machines will not be able to achieve the goal of automatic translation of every language.
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$Because machine translation is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI), people who believe that computers will not be able to think like human beings also 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 it flies.
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$Similarly, a computer does not need to think like a human; it can achieve the same results.
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$And others believe that computers will eventually be able to perform all the mental tasks that we now consider exclusively human.
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$At present, machine translation is making gradual progress toward the day when everyone will be able to communicate with each other.
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$This goal is extremely important in the modern world.
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$Global communications and worldwide commerce require communication in many different languages by governments, businesses and scientific institutions.
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$They need speed and accuracy in the translation of a large number of important documents.
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$It is believed by some historians that many wars have started because leaders failed to communicate.
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$In the Bible, God punishes human beings by destroying the tower of Babel and by fragmenting human speech into a number of different languages.
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$Some ancient philosophers realized that the inability of nations to understand each other was a cause of grave problems.
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$Since the biblical era, these problems have troubled humanity.
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$If machine translation could solve these problems everyone would have a better life.
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$Perhaps machine translation will become the Babel fish of the modern world.
