The
humanities are under attack. Enrollments are plummeting, tax cutting zombies in
state legislatures are looking for more reasons to cut higher education funding
and, most worrisome, a national panel of distinguished persons has published a
report.
As an
historian and former lesser deanlet in a college with the word “humanities” in
its official title, I find the attacks discouraging. And, as someone who writes
about technology, I can see further dangers. Specifically, is computer
technology in general, and Google in particular, going to destroy the role of
the humanities in studying foreign countries and cultures? Even foreign
languages themselves? Is French writer Fabien Cazenave right to suggest
Google’s Translate software as a solution to the EU’s multiplicity of
languages?[i]
Before I explain, a disclaimer. I love Google.
Every day I use Search, Gmail, Calendar, Chrome, Maps, and the excellent and
eerily prescient Google Now. “The Google,” as W called it, is truly great.
But.
Consider
Google’s effort to digitize libraries. Google started this massive effort and
others have since joined the party, frantically scanning books, letters,
newspapers, diplomatic cables, boring legislative zombie speeches and much
more. Soon, all of this will be on the Web and all the text will be searchable.
This
digitizing was clearly something Google did to help scholars (they’ll sell ads,
but I don’t expect many businesses will be clamoring to pay to “capture the
eyeballs” of people studying Nineteenth century Ottoman diplomacy).
Unfortunately,
the Law of Unintended Consequences and the rule of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
both apply here. Specifically, it’s likely that historians, literary scholars
and other humanists who currently need to spend years abroad will soon be
constrained to sit at home instead.
It’s
easy to imagine the conversations, at least those in public universities:
Faculty member: “Even though I can get all the stuff online
and the legislature has cut our budget again, it isn’t enough to simply read
the documents. I also have to go to Ankara for a year to better understand the
culture. So, can I have a sabbatical to…”
Dean:
“No.”
I’m a
former area studies person (Eastern Europe and Russia) and this travel issue
has worried me for some time. It’s not much appreciated, but people in the
humanities, with their deep knowledge of foreign cultures, have long comprised
an important part of America’s foreign policy and security foundation (for
example, they had key roles in the early CIA). In addition to knowledge,
humanists provided perspective. Looking back on the Cold War, one can see where
their insights provided a much needed antidote to rigid military and diplomatic
views.
What
about an essential key to culture, language learning? Is it under threat too? I
mean, Google is telling us that its Chrome browser-based Translate software
provides a billion translations a day for some 200 million users.[ii] Wow.
There’s
even a rumor on the Internet that the National Security Agency, overwhelmed by
the volume of call and e-mail intercepts coming from its PRISM Project, turned
to Google to help with the translating. Hmm. Assuming this started right after
9/11, it could sure explain…
Anyway,
I know that Google’s not kidding about its translations being widely used,
since I see many technology articles in English that refer to translations of
press releases and software and hardware reviews that are provided by Google.
Will
it no longer be necessary for people to learn other languages? Will our
literary scholars not merely miss going to Ankara, but also skip learning
Turkish, too?
Not yet. Here, finally, comes the good news: if the NSA did use Google Translate for
intelligence gathering, it wouldn’t make it a part of Project PRISM. “Operation
Funhouse Mirror” might be more like it. Google Translate at the moment is often
useful but it can be…odd. Let me explain.
In addition to compulsive reading about
technology, I also try to maintain my withered foreign language skills by
scanning news in various languages and occasionally employ Translate for help,
which it sometimes provides. Mostly, though, I use it when I’m bored and need a
good laugh.
Here are some Google translations from three
different languages. The common thread is that they don’t make any sense in
English.
“Pain to us ad nauseam to listen to the poor pensioners of inadequate
mothering in misery swept the country.”[iii]
“Sinner's mouth really speaks. Talking Bible
is more suggestive than anything.'s What I said everything.”[iv]
These
first two are from Bulgarian and Romanian respectively. A bit on the esoteric
side. But translate will do vastly better with a major language like French.
Right?
No.
Much Translate fun can be
had with the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the
International Monetary Fund who is famously persona
non grata at the New York Sofitel. Given his experience in Gotham, you
won’t be surprised to learn that DSK, as the French call him, was recently indicted
for acting as pimp for “libertine” parties at the Carlton Hotel in Lille.
Want to know more?
Translate elucidates with phrases like:
“The case of Carlton summarize it thus a history of false
brethren feet nickel?”[v]
Different things went
wrong in these three translations. In the Bulgarian example, Translate missed
the author’s passion, with the result that a very emphatic but still entirely
lucid statement comes out as gibberish.
In Romanian, Translate
tripped on a proverbial expression (and mistranslated some words). In French
the software stumbled on a cultural reference—a popular comic series. Should
Google have known these references? Yes. Both phrases were used on the front
page of major newspapers; they aren’t esoteric.
A reasonable critic might
ask if the sentences would make sense if read as part of the entire translated article.
Probably not (the links referenced after each will allow you to see for
yourself). Each of these stories, like most Google Translations, is threaded
with many hopelessly garbled and incoherent sentences, sometimes with words
that can be read in a way that contradicts the original intent. The resulting
confusion is so great that in most cases you’d have to do a lot of guessing
about meaning. Needless to say, that can be very dangerous when you don’t know
the language yourself—the only reason you’d be using the software.
And don’t think that
technical articles necessarily do better. It’s hard to have an overall
Translate favorite, but this one, from a Korean language cell phone review a
while back, is tough to beat:
“Being frank more, more when it tries to talk, it leans
against you in the land of the product which is Samsung also there is different
mysterious expectation. Like all things to in gear composition and Samsung SPH
m4300 which degree is big in PDA market, hoyk with the product which it draws it is visible
with the polyvalent opinion thing. Of course at the degree where the reaction
of the market against hereupon will correspond in him hot thing authorization
also is an unknown….”[vi]
Google recently announced that it is planning to
move Translate into “real-time communication.”
Imagine the possibilities! Pilots from around the
world could crew together without having to learn English! As the big 797 comes
in for a landing, conversations will go
something like this:
Pilot [speaking in Korean]: “Lower the landing gear!”
Co-pilot [hearing in English]: “Mysterious expectation in him hot
thing?”
In the same vein, think about an international
visitor renting a Google self-driving car at the Paris airport and telling it
what to do via Translate:
Visitor from Korea [in Korean]: Take me to the Carlton Hotel!
Google Self-Drive Car [Replying in Korean]: Hey Sexy lady! Sinner’s mouth of inadequate
mothering really speaks!
After reading a while English this kind, you start
yourself doing it too. So, Googlers, the translation work keep up. For
posterity do it. Really. Grandchildren your will think funny also. But give up
the day job not.
Sorry, got carried away there. A more serious
summary would go like this. Google Translate is very much at the leading edge
of technology—an example of the amazing potential of Cloud Computing. In
addition to state of the art hardware, its software uses paired translations to
augment the standard dictionary files.
The use of these translation pairs means that the
system is often very context aware: type
a word from an article or story into the website and you’ll get one
translation. Then, if you submit the entire original sentence or paragraph,
you’ll often see the rendering change as the big interpreter in the sky
analyzes the additional data and builds relationships of meaning.
This means that Translate can scale and grow. More
CPUs, more memory and especially more paired translations will make it
continuously more potent.
Will it ever catch up to humans? There’s reason for skepticism.
First, the human brain is no slouch when it comes
to computation. In linear kinds of problems we don’t match up well, but in
parallel, branching kinds of analyses—what’s needed for language—we’re far
ahead of the machines.
Just as important, language is always evolving
(think of the recent evolution of the word “wicked” from bad to good). Culture is one reason for language change,
and, as illustrated in the Romanian and French translations above, as long as
people read books and watch films and TV, computers are going to have a hard
time keeping up.
So, can Google eliminate the need to learn
languages? Maybe, but not soon. The company has an awesome track record but,
before people rely on Translate they’re going to have to be sure it isn’t
dangerous. We’re talking a decade or more, I think.
Finally, if Google wants to help the
humanities—and enhance its chances of getting Translate right some day—a really
good idea would be to create a Google Scholars program. These would be awards
to faculty and graduate students in history, literature, philosophy and such
who could spend a year or so studying or doing research in a foreign land.
When they come back, many Google Scholars would
get jobs at universities or federal agencies or businesses while others would
be hired to work at Google itself—maybe on Translate. Still others could be
given fellowships at a new Google Humanities Center to look at big picture
technology-humanities issues—sort of a Xerox PARC[vii]
for the soft side. I’m confident that, just as happened at PARC, the creativity
of folks at this institute would lead to lots of useful new services and
products (in fact, taking a good first step, Google has just opened a cultural
center in Paris[viii]).
By the way, and apropos of new services, don’t
worry too much about the Internet rumor that the NSA is using Google
Translate—I made that up a few paragraphs back so it might not be true.
Finally, Google, while I’ve got your attention,
how about we collaborate on a new “first person shooter” computer game? We
could call it Zap the Finance Committee Zombies. The public is ready for this. I couldn’t
being frank more.
