re: LANG: Machine Translation

From: Mitchell Porter (mitch@thehub.com.au)
Date: Thu Dec 18 1997 - 16:27:36 MST


> http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate.cgi?

I propose the word "babelization" to describe the process of
recursive translation of a text. It seems that "circular
babelization" - translating from A to B, and then from B
back to A - is a good way to find bugs in a translation
program. Here are the Extropian Principles v2.6, babelized
via English-German-English:

  1. Boundless expansion: Searches of more intelligence,
  of intelligence and of effectiveness, of unlimited life span
  and of reduction of the political, cultural, biological and
  psychological delimitations to selfactualization and for self
  implementation. Delimitations on our progress and possibilities
  unaufhoerlich overcome. Extension into the universe and advance
  without end.

  2. Self transformation: Moral one of acknowledging continuous,
  intellectual and physical self improvement, by reason and critical
  thinking, personal responsibility and experimenting. Searches of
  the biological and neurological vermehrung.

  3. Dynamic optimism: Tanks of the dynamic activity with positive
  expectations. A rational, activity action based optimism assume,
  blind faith and stagnating pessimism avoid.

  4. Intelligent technology: Science and technology creatively
  applying, in order to exceed " natural " delimitations, imposed
  upon by our biological inheritance it, breed and to climate.

  5. Spontaneous order: Support decentralized, voluntaristic
  Sozialkorrdinationsprozesse. Promote from tolerance, from diversity,
  long-term thinking, from personal responsibility and from individual
  liberty.

Being unable to "un-translate" single words is a pretty basic
problem; I've already mailed them to mention the instances
here ("perpetually", "augmentation", "social coordination
processes"), and I'd suggest that anyone else who finds a
single-word error do the same thing, since that sort of
error ought to be easy to correct.

-mitch
http://www.thehub.com.au/~mitch



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