The Future of English

Dwayne   Monday, December 27, 2004, 21:46 GMT
Sanja,
>>> But I think there is a final number of combinations in chess, while in translating it is much more complex. <<<

The progress made by computers was not the result of availability of more faster hardware only, but mostly because of more sophisticated programs and a larger database of knowledge, which computers can use to assess the situation more precisely. The number of combination is so large that the brute force approach is absolutely useless.

Easterner,
>>> Do you think a computer will ever be able to interpret the implied meaning of a text, that is, "read between the lines"? <<<
Why not? I do not expect it to happen all at once. I think the first significant milestone will be translation of technical texts and/or legal documents, which do not require much guessing. Translation of fiction is a more challenging task, besides different interpretations of the same text are always possible there.

>>> This skil is often required to translate a text properly, but it definitely needs a human mind. <<<
How do you know that the same effect cannot be achieved by some other means as it was the case with chess playing? What property of mind is so indispensable and cannot be mimiced by computers? Guessing the implied meaning? Isn't it mostly based on having right assotiations between different abstract symbols used by human mind? I think it is so, because people from different cultures may experience significant difficulties in 'reading between lines'