The Tower of Babel vs the Power of Babble
Future Political, Economic and Cultural Consequences of Synchronous, Automated Translation Systems (Sats)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12656170 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sam Lehman-Wilzig (Bar-Ilan University), Sam Lehman‐wilzig (0000-0002-6635-4923, Bar-Ilan University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 467-494 |
| Publication date | 2000-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Media & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14614440022225913 |
| OpenAlex | W2109383415 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
Since the dawn of human history, language differences have served as a barrier to full intercultural and international communication. The recent advent of synchronous, automatic translation systems (SATS), incorporated into the internet, are but the first sign of a communications revolution as profound as the invention of print. This article briefly surveys the following: (1) text/speech recognition and translation problems; (2) current developments in machine translation (MT) and artificial intelligence (AI) devoted to resolving these problems; and (3) potential future SATS technological developments and uses. The second half of the article is devoted to a wide-ranging analysis of several potentially profound future political, economic and cultural consequences of SATS. The main conclusion points to a paradox: although (perhaps because) SATS will lead to greater linguistic (and external-cultural) differentiation, the overall impact will be centripetal - greater integration among the world's peoples, more international peace, and a general higher level of agreement regarding norms and values
International communication · Linguistics · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sign (mathematics · Sociology · The Internet · Tower · Tower of Babel · World Wide Web · Computer Science · History · Law · Mathematics · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Psychology · Topic Modeling · Translation Studies and Practices
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |