not sure if anyone is working on this, but....
I would like to see in the world more understanding between cultures who speak different languages. It would be in all of humanity's interest to communicate more efficiently. I believe that for me the teachings of Baha'u'llah and the book Snow Crash (and some other cyberpunk novels as well as Star Trek) had a lot to do with why I'm having these ideas and why I feel they are worth sharing and not trying to lay claim to.
I suppose if someone needs to make a commercial endeavor out of a project like this to make it a reality, I hope that they would be fair and equitable with the technology, sharing it free for non-commercial/game-world communications projects, and licensing it to developers for commercial use for a modest (scalable) sum.
If there is some company that is doing a project like this, I hope I'm not raining on your/their parade by taking this idea public. If you do theoretically exist, all apologies, and I wish you luck with this project.
But wouldn't it be cool to log into a game and talk with a stranger who's speaking/typing Korean and some middleware is translating it into English? Or Spanish? Japanese? Arabic? I realize that many hurdles exist to making this a reality (bad spelling correction technology is improving though). But I can envision a huge grass-roots effort in accomplishing something like this (for the betterment of humanity, yadda yadda yadda).
I was thinking how great it would be if a team of multi-lingual volunteers got together with some programmers and created "Debabbler" middleware, that could act as a 'universal translator' for online chat communications. Ultimately all human languages could be programmed into the translator and updated wiki-style by users who understand the multiple connotations of the 2 different languages they are trying to make the 'wiki-patch' for, and always they should try to distill it down to the most elegant & efficient translation (not that I'd make a good translator, as my limited knowledge of French isn't passable).
I think that (online multi-user) games/environments have huge potential in allowing humans to communicate across vast distances without needing to expend the resources to actually travel to meet. These aren't necessarily cutting edge thoughts, but we could slow 'global warming' if we could consume less fuel.
Slowly, with ~$100 computers on the horizon, humans would have the chance to better empathize and communicate with people across the globe. I think it would be fun and interesting to add the technology to a multi-player game as an afterthought to the 'real-time language translation' as a means to achieving global harmony.
This isn't the game idea i was referring to in the other forum. Is there anything going on like this in the world that people know of? I am aware of babblefish and other online 'real-time-translation' services, but none with this wiki-style approach. I also realize that there is Esperanto, but that requires people to learn a new language, which many people do not do with ease in today's world.
Anyway, these are lofty, long-term goals, and I'm more interested in working on game design, I just wondered if anyone knows of anything like this? It'd be a logical step to take this babel-wiki and turn it into a portable database, and allow users to download via satellite onto their new portable-iphone-dealie, and have real-time portable voice translations possible eventually.
ps. its late, i'm loopy, and i should be asleep, so I apologize if i messed up the flow with the run-on sentences....aye aye aye this would surely be a nightmare to translate into multiple languages.
[edit: I was thinking, as I was trying to drift off to sleep unsuccessfully, that this would be a good project for academia--particularly larger schools or schools which have multiple linguistics/language departments and comp. sci. departments]
[edit 2: So I asked some co-workers whether they have heard about anything like this, and I was informed of a couple of relevant things: 1) The US military has something akin to a 'universal' translator on the ground in Afghanistan, and maybe Iraq. 2) Final Fantasy XI and Phantasy Star Online both had limited implementations of something like this. Neither of those games had it go much beyond basic in-game translations, which is a feat in itself. I think that a publicly run wiki-style front-end for real-time-chat-translator middleware (It would be nice if someone like the the U.N. saw the merit, but really I think people and countries would have to get behind it. Then again, we could just wait for the technology to filter down from the military sector like the internet did out of Arpanet. Also, as I was going to bed, I was wondering about how social communication would change between say, a l33t online gamer who likes to talk about AIDs a lot, and a person who lives in a country with a high incidence of the tragic disease.]
You like big ideas, eh? Well, it certainly sounds tickety-boo, and I would welcome such a system, but I doubt very much the results will justify the efforts.
I'm multi-lingual myself and have lived in several different cultures and I can state with a fair degree of certainty, even from casual observation, that vocabulary is the smallest part of communication. You could put an American who studied Japanese to fluency but has never been to Japan opposite a Japanese who speaks English fluently and I can guarantee there will be miscommunication. Language is a facilitator of communication but not the be all and end all. Hence a universal translaion system isn't a panacea. You'd need a universal *interpreter*.
The best approach would be a new universal language, but history is littered with heroic failures in that area too, like Esperanto and Volapuk. Sony's PSP Talkman promised much but delivered little (or nothing). Even on-line translation services can only offer a glimpse of real meaning and rely heavily on contextual interpretaion.
It's a nice idea, it really is, but I don't think it's the way to go.
I have never played Sims online but I can see a system like that working well, where you select your "emotion" or "speech" in English and the person you're playing with only sees the reaction of your Sim (grabbing your arm and whispering seductively in your ear) and knows you selected "flirt" A new "language", as it were, which makes sense within the game world and can either be controlled by a universal input system or localised language inputs.
The day I can have a real-time chat in English, Arabic, Japanese and Esperanto with people across the world is probably never going to happen.
I recall from a presentation on Second Life and other MMO's like it, that plugins were created to automatically decipher recieved chat via. whatever online service was picked, and it could get people by (ie; it could do the reverse too).
Perhaps a better text translator would be good, although online ones are good because they can do the searching/processing and have a huge DB (while on a persons computer it is more limited! and on a MMO server, you have better things for it to do!)
I don't play second life, if anyone does perhaps they can point out the software/plugin/mod I was talking about. That seems to be the best casual solution.
In response to J Kay:
I agree that a system like this wouldn't replace "interpreters," particularly for very important communications. And I agree that the context has everything to do with proper communication. I think that humanity has the ingenuity to make something happen on this front, though. Maybe as you suggest, some system sorta like the Sims' solution with little emoticons/symbols that represent 'universal' themes in conversation/human interaction could be employed, and maybe even combined with a real-time-translation(& interpretor) similar to the one described in my first post.
I think that we are approaching a zenith with technology that will allow us to overcome the hurdles which would have prevented a technology like this from ever being realized before. What is all this exponential technological advance leading us to? Better ways to kill each other? Wouldn't it be great if humanity rallied behind ideas that promote further understanding and better communication? Wait, let me get off this soapbox.
As far as context, a good example of the varied meanings of a word is the English word 'run,' which according to dictionary.com has some 179 meanings/contexts. I realize that presents a huge roadblock for a translator/interpreter properly capturing the meaning I intend when I say something like "We're going to run those bastards into the ground." In some languages, the word that translates from certain meanings of 'run' might not apply, so maybe rather than doing a 1-to-1 translation, people need program the "empathy box" (if I were inventing this, that is what I'd call it---name taken from a really good electronic music ep) to 'think' of it in terms of meaning/context. Maybe if we translated that sentence to another language and back, it wouldn't necessarily be the same when you heard it again, but the general meaning/intent could be the same. It might (ideally) come back the same, but if the analogy doesn't translate well to language B, you might get something back like "We are going to drive those fatherless humans into the dirt."
I heard from another programmer about an IBM attempt (back in the day, maybe the '60s?) to make a translation device, and an English sentence was sent through a translation engine they built and after this 'telephone-game,' the sentence had lost its meaning. A quick google resulted with this:
http://abhishek4420.wordpress.com/2007/06/29/computer-science-anecdotes/
"Talk of using the machines for automatic translation of natural language got the attention of many on the cocktail circuit. One story goes that the machine was asked to translate the phrase, ‘‘Out of sight, out of mind,’’ The translation into Russian and back to English: ‘‘Blind idiot.’’ Still another attempt was translation of the phrase, ‘‘The
spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.’’ It came back: ‘‘The wine is ready but the meat is raw.’’
You might be right that it might be 'easier' to create a universal language, but only in-so-far as making it. Then everyone would have to learn it, which seems like a less surmountable obstacle than what I'm proposing.
I did give thought to the possibility that the universal language humans may someday achieve could be non-verbal, but I was thinking more along the lines of psychic awakening (breaking down of the ego-walls that prevent us all from experiencing universal consciousness), but again that seems like a pipe dream compared to a technological solution.
In response to Andrew:
I'm not aware of the thing you are referring to, but would be curious to learn about it too...
[edit: barring a company the size of MS retooling a large chunk of their workforce for an altruistic project like this, I think the best approach would be a public wiki filtered by programmers and linguist 'volunteers'.
People do in fact learn new languages, and it wouldn't be hard for people to understand a language that is made of images ('a pictures worth a thousand words').
Also, I was thinking that in essence, a hieroglyphic form of communication, whereby we could reduce intent/words down to illustrative stick-figuresque picto-grams and symbols a la The Sims meets Egyptian hieroglyphs but possibly with animations and a translation engine on the side for the finer details. People could type their words in their native language, and the system could interpret that into these hieroglyphs perhaps. Wow, that'd be a big challenge.]
That "wine is ready but the meat is raw example is a classic. It just goes to show the true meaning of communication doesn
't lie in words. The sentence "would you like to come in for a cup of tea?" can easily be translated, but you have to understand culture to know that in the Kansai area of Japan it can be used to mean "bugger off". And don't let's think about how "bugger off" would be translated...ouch.
Thinking about it, even pictoral communication would offer some difficulties, with differing body language and visual meanings across different cultures. I'm thinking particularly of the old "green tick" in Europe versus the "red circle" in Japn meaning "OK!". Still, it's probably the best way to go, as the relentless globalisation (read Americanisation) of culture is making things a little more samey across the board.
It's nice to contemplate these things. Like you say, all this technology and all we're using it for is prettier explosions. It's not all doom and gloom, though, as there are some "communication" games out there. I'd love to see a global, online Animal Crossing world to play in. That would be ace!
I think your example of the localized meaning of that "Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?", and it's potential double-meaning is a good example of some of the roadblocks with an idea like this.
Perhaps one possible solution would be to have location become a more important variable. Though with globalization, and how a phrase can change meanings when mis/reinterpreted/misspelled, it might not work so well.
As a user living in America, and more particularly Austin, perhaps if I opted I could have a persistent identity that could store the history of places I've lived, and have the 'empathy box' check that vector against where particular phrases are known by wiki-volunteers to have originated (i.e., shaping the possibilities of interpretation of the words & phrases based on where I have lived and where a phrase is known to have originated and/or propagated). But again, a technique like that would not be fool proof, as now that we have had this 'conversation,' I have learned the double-meaning, and my location vector has never been to Japan.
But a wiki-contributor who understands both the universal intention of the meaning (literal translation) and this alternate meaning for that phrase and similar variations can can mean "Bugger Off." The uploaded patch then becomes part of the Japanese-English (British edition;)) translation database, and that patch is used as one of multiple points of reference/comparison for the empathy box when an end-user types a sentence which has the same morphemes/characters/words in it.
So maybe a chat could go something like this:
2 people are chatting, a Japanese person from that area who uses that phrase to mean "Bugger Off" to someone from Britain who is pestering them online. The 'empathy box' in this case doesn't know the persistent identity of either person or where they are from, but maybe still cross checks the words/phrase/morpheme combination against that 2nd (and 3rd, et al.) alternate meaning(s). It could either make a judgment-call based on probabilities, or perhaps the 'empathy box' asks for clarification when there is a 'double-meaning-phrase.' (i.e., empathy box replies "Do you mean that literally or sarcastically?" before it relays the translated message "Bugger Off").
Alternately, maybe there is a "sarcasm" button that you can depress like a shift lock to get the 'empathy box' to look through a "sarcastic" sub-database. The users would have to be more cognoscente of their intent when typing a phrase, and it may force people to think more before saying things.
[edit: On a different tangent, and as an intermediary step to the development of the empathy box, perhaps a real-time multi-lingual online forum, which could use some adaptation of one of available translation devices to allow the multi-lingual empathy box community to post progress and discuss in their native language, but have it translated and displayed in all (programmed) languages. So this post would hypothetically be run through the translation gamut and in a couple of moments, 1 new page is created on the English IGDA forum, and 1 translated into Japanese would be created on the Japanese IGDA forum page, etc.
Dare I say, this would be something like building the scaffolding around the neo-tower of Babel]
Searching a bit provides a bit of the second-life info on translating, including a written article at IMB (which surprised me) which details implementing a command-line one, and there are in game things for it too, if this is the area being discussed that is.
Text surely is a poor medium for any emotion - including swearing and many slang words, since it doesn't dictate how the person feels, very hard thing to translate just from a line of text (why do you think smilies are so popular? 
), your idea of a "sarcasm" button might help though.
"Searching" you say? Touche (imagine the accent).
I've been thinking some more about this, and for 1, I think its great that people are attempting to develop something along these lines. Secondarily, I don't know if people realize how big/important this is, based on my perspective/worldview anyway. Talk about globalization....the possabilities would really start to open up if there was better communication on political, economic, and personal levels.
I was thinking about other methods of ensuring accurate translation of intention.
One I came up with would be a 'telephone-game-echo,' where the chat, which is being translated into another language, maybe English-to-Russian, and shows up as Russian (and also perhaps English, if they want to learn English) on the other user's screen; but then that chat data which has been translated to Russian could be retranslated back to English and bounced/echoed back to me, so i could see whether my intent was lost based on whether it read ‘‘The wine is ready but the meat is raw’’ when I typed "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.’’
This method of letting the user determine how well the translation appears to have captured the intention could be done as a preliminary check before the chat message is cleared to be delivered to the Russian counterpart, so I could edit my English message before they see the bastardized translation. Or it could happen after the potentially bastardized message was delivered, at which point I could tell the Russian friend there was a mis-communique ....or this could be a diagnostic "beta" feature left out of the final 'empathy box.'
I have some other ideas relevant to this thought train, but I worry that I will reveal some ideas I don't want to reveal (yet) with regards to new models in game design.
I think language-to-language translation would just be too much work, both for the community to input and for the hardware to handle. For each language you'd need an interpreter for each other language.
The best way is probably to invent a new language, but one that stays hidden to the users. Let's call it Electricblanketish. So I type something in British English, like "Cor blighmy, guv. It ain't 'alf 'ot over 'ere, dontchuknowdontchuknow ferfaaaaaksake." A British-Electricblanketish translator interprets this and writes it in its own language, as, say "Expression of disbelief - informal vocative, expression of extreme (HEAT), nonsensical self-referring confirmation".
You then receive this Electricblanketish text which gets translated on your end from Electricblanketish to American as "Yo dog, ahm sweatin' like yo momma, biatch!". Basically each language only needs one interpreter, the language to Electricblanketish and back one. Electricblanketish itself can then interpret all the hidden meaning and sarcasm (the British to Electricblanketish translator database would take care of that).
Just a thought. It's Friday and I need to keep my brain alive somehow.
I think you just blew my mind....seriously.
I'm gonna think about your suggestions--which could solve a lot of obstacles with some of the models I was contemplating.
[I was just thinking, because sometimes I take the path of difficulty, what about going another direction:
Develop a learning AI to 'study' the language habits based on the sets of data available now (search engine caches, books-in-databases, real-time chat of voluntary users {an unintrusive, "Would you like your chat habits to shape the Human Communication and Interpretation Projects'
[Ok....or, instead of a 'learning AI,' perhaps just using some of those methods to collect data.
But addressing your concern that this project the way I envisioned and presented it would take too many man hours and too much centralized computing power...I see your point, but again, I kinda liken the idea to building the next wonder of the world, taking a massive effort from many people. Certainly against probabilities of making it happen without serious manpower, which would need serious motivation....but designing a cohesive system to facilitate better human understanding and communication is the only thing I can imagine bringing the 'world' together.
Addressing the root of a problem will prevent it from recurring. I would argue that misunderstanding and lack of empathy are at root of many if not all of the problems humanity makes for itself.
But, you wouldn't build the Hanging Gardens or Colossus on shaky ground, so before a line of fresh code is written I would think that a good plan is in order. Ideally with the input of many experienced linguists, programmers, artists, authors, volunteers, humans...
Again, I think you may be onto something with your design idea.]
[Ok, while I was doing dishes, I was thinking more....what if a user would "train" their particular database, so the first time I say "Youz a silky-boy" I would depress the 'train colloquialism lock' and then be prompted to enter a translation of my intent, to which I would enter "You are a slikworm." Ok, bad example...
I start by hitting the "learn" button, and type my catch-phrase, "Feed me. Love me. Hire me." and it would prompt me to type a literal reiteration of what my intent was, and again, I would type "Feed Me. Love Me. Hire Me." Wait, another bad example.
Lets go back to your example about the cuppa tea, that would work well in this context.]
[I cannot imagine a project with more "universal appeal," which is one big determining factor for capitalist organizations deciding whether to develop.
I thought about some factors with determining factors about the feasibility of a project like this:
1) technology:
a) computer hardware, and the filtering down of technologies once relegated to science fiction into the hands of the (currently only the 'privileged') every-man; While it would be a further environmental disaster to try to replicate the amounts of material excess of western culture in the "3rd world." But if we can distill the technology down to "the most important features" into a computational device with a relatively small environmental footprint a la the $100 laptop-type project, perhaps we can make the best of our technological innovations available to every culture in the world.
b) computer software--there are many great starts, i.e. people who have worked on translation software, spelling correction utilities, dictionary databases and the like, as well as operating systems, information analysis, et al.---and this prior art, given the permission of the original developers, could shave off a big chunk of transcription and data collection which would be necessary to make something like this project move out of the hypothetical "wouldn't it be cool" phase.
2) demand
Near-universal demand, applicable to every (multi-lingual) human interaction
3) manpower
A lot, but given the lofty goal, I can imagine people/companies/countries making sacrifices and uneasy alliances to make it happen. Humanity has let me down before though. I live half in my idealistic utopian imaginary world, but am very often brought back to "reality" by one thing or another.
It kinda feels like my brain is a multi-core processor, and is usually being 'overclocked'.
One last note, I think the goal is ultimately to strike that balance between 'translation' and 'intent/context/nuance', rather than just 'translation' software. ]
Wow, I reread some of my previous posts, and wish I could go back and edit some of those grammar boo-boos, but I'm locked out.
Regardless, I have discovered that people are working on a lot of what I've described, and I have emailed a couple of people to see if my (and the other posters' ) perspectives can offer a fresh perspective or new ideas or insights. But perhaps I think too highly of the originality of my ideas....
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.05/tpmap.html
I've been able to check-mark off many of the different 'unique' ideas I've been having when I go down the list (from 2000! no less), but these divergent organizations might be able to make much more progress collaboratively. Of course, this collaboration may be happening elsewhere, so I should just go back to my cubicle perhaps (figuratively speaking, as I'm at home, and even at work, its more a trapezoid). It just appears, from this outsiders perspective of research in the field, there is less cooperation than is possible?
[I guess to restate the goal I think we (humanity) should focus some attention to: we ought to build a universal architecture for translating and interpreting one language into another (probably via a middle "universal" language as per J Kay's post), which could have applications for real-time (or near real-time) person-to-person translation and interpretation via machine assistance either face to face or over the internet.
I could see a 'smartphone-thing' with a built-in-scanner that can interpret books and magazines, or even using a built-in-camera to take a photo of a street sign and have the universal interpreter translate that so you can understand where you are at. And if you are sick and cannot describe your symptoms to a doctor because you do not speak the same language, you could use the universal translator in conjunction with voice-recognition technology to better describe why you are screaming in agony.
To achieve that goal, I believe that having end-users (alpha &) "beta test" the universal (might be ~10-20 of the most widely spoken languages at first, then "tier 2" languages, etc.) language interpreter while it is still in development, but that set of tests would also allow enthused users (who could be "hired" for the project via grants and/or jobs?) to help make the dream a reality. If many individuals, companies and organizations shared the burden of making something like this happen for the benefit of all humanity, I believe it is possible, and I would argue probable, that we could make it happen (given the time, resources and honest effort).]
[Some other commercial implications I thought of(as I was riding my bike to the video store):
-Game Industry
could use the unified language to make their games' user-viewable/(hear-able?) text/dialog instantly translatable to any language, opening up the market to new customers.
-Movie Industry
Next-next-gen movie distribution/playback could incorporate another "layer," the transcribed dialog of the film which could be translated by the middleware. Suddenly their movie which would previously would of only been available in one (or a few) language(s) has a global market.
-Small-scale companies & individuals (particularly in "developing" countries/continents)
could potentially make a more reasonable living wage by coordinating with other small entrepreneurs and delivery/transport specialists to create distribution coalitions/networks that have the production meeting the demand (i.e. a village in India may have a number of excellent textile artists and clothing producers, and they could take orders on their web portal from all over the world and have them delivered in coordination with another few villages, eliminating some of the "middle-men" who take an inequitable slice of the pie.
On a side note:
I think that for humanity to have a chance of turning the tide on the current and recent turmoil(s) we're facing (war, environmental catastrophes, genocide, unethical business practice associated with oft-corrupted political infrastructures), we need to develop a system of more equitable distribution of wealth on a world-wide level (but I wouldn't consider myself a communist). My utopia would involve a steady state world economy, and I don't think technology alone can bring about something like that.]
[edit: After re-reading all the details of the steady-state economy model, I think that I actually disagree with a few recommendations. Particularly, I don't agree with these finer points {I think that the steady-state model offers a lot of brilliant ideas for sustainable living, but I think that many are 'dated' and we need to consider that the entire world (read: all nations) has a vested interest in a sustainable global economy}:
1) Halt immigration
2) Abandon globalization.
Why, you ask? (or I'm thinking someone may ask)
It just ain't gonna happen (see the Penn&Teller's: Bullshit immigration t.v. episode for some compelling arguments). Unless we build the "great wall of america," which I believe would not be in the spirit of trying to achieve global harmony, there just isn't a way to keep immigrants away from the carrot-on-a-stick that personal wealth in our debt-ridden nation is...
I don't think a "one-world-government" is exactly the answer, for reasons alluded to in that article.
A steady-state economy adopted by only one country (if that would ever happen even) wouldn't be enough to make global impact.
Each "nation-unit" could have open borders, and a set of "agreed-upon laws" that their micro-culture could determine, but there are certain laws all "nation-units" probably agree on (general "no-harm principle" kinda stuff like no murder or rape, etc.), as well as all nation-units by necessity must be aware of the interconnectedness of and interdependency of each-other with the goal of maintaining a steady-state for the world as a whole.
I apologize if that came out kinda convoluted, and welcome any feedback.]
[As a solution to the inequity of wealth of mankind, a (preferably slow but deliberate) equalization may need to occur. Integrating the steady-state model with globalization, particularly of the economy (facilitated by a universal language translator/interpreter), if done in a cooperative way, could allow competitors to still exist (encouraging innovation), but with the recognition that the distribution of goods on a global scale needs to be done in such a way so as to maintain the global steady-state economy, and also so that all of the worlds' occupants can maintain a certain standard-of-living.]
What about a design competition kind of similar to the ones they used to decide the new "7 wonders of the world" and the design of the new World Trade Center Building design?
Every stage of the competition would be transparent.
Maybe Stage 1 would last for about 1 year from the time the contest was announced.
-------------------------------------------
Stage 1:
a) potential end-user's across the world think about the contest/project goals and suggest and vote for features they think the "ultimate multi-language-communication-and interpretation-device" would include (Battery life, alternate methods of power?, touchscreen, voice-recognition, user interface, camera?, scanner?, design/concept, ease-of-use, elegance, network/integration protocols, music storage & playback?, thumb-print identification/authentication?, video-phone?, data storage method and capacity?, light/laser assisted virtual keyboard?, weight of device?, green footprint/ecological implications of mass-scale production, etc.) Maybe design X will integrate music/video/media playback but is a bit larger/heavier than design Y, which may work better for a country/culture that has less interest in media playback. Both X and Y could eventually be built to meet the needs of the popular demand.
Emphasis on quality over cost and speed of development.
b) Submit Integrated Universal Language Interpretation System proposals. Informal ideas (stage 1a) can be on a public set of forums and/or in some wiki-format, and official proposals can either be similarly of differently formated. The goal is to make all proposals and ideas on the table for all users to see (the language and "technology gap" barriers do create some hurdles, I understand).
c) At the same time, a group of interested linguists and programmers and cultural liaisons/interpreters will be selected and/or will volunteer, and perhaps there will be grants arranged for these workers (if necessary) from some charitable or government organization(s) to pay their living expenses while performing this civil service.
The best design may ultimately be a hybrid of many of the best ideas submitted in stage 1, unless one company/academic institution/country/individual's design is ultimately voted superior to the others (the most universally agreed upon design will eventually make it out to a 'lets-makes-the-prototypes-stage'). Perhaps the top ~3 (or more) designs could then be developed to the prototype phase, and maybe the best 1-3 eventually to the production phase?
Ideally, linguists of all cultures could translate proposals into all other languages, but for convenience's sake, English could serve as a temporary universal language (thanks to my Dad for that idea), since it is so prevalent (which I understand would require non-English speaking countries/cultures to hire/allocate interpreters to translate the proposal into English and back).
These expert linguists/computer programmers/developers could then scour the proposals, and the public would have access to and could comment on the (translated) proposals, but the public of the world does not "vote" at this stage--perhaps they could "digg?," which would only be a method of keeping track of generally what the public feels about the contribution of particular proposals. The 'experts' decide which course of action is prudent ultimately, as they are recognized as being proficient in their 'art.'
At the completion of Stage 1, all submitted proposals are made completely public on the internet, and then there is a "contemplation/discussion period" where wrinkles and/or disagreements on the best strategies to employ can be worked out. There can perhaps be a vote, which could hold weight or be symbolic at this stage.
All users/companies who submit a design to the contest strike a deal to help in the development phase in any way the reasonably can (stage 2).
Emphasis on quality over cost and speed of development.
-------------------------------------------
Stage 2 (this might take ~2-3 years)
Refining the Design/Prototypes phase
With the publicly voted upon prototype(s) of the hardware and software architecture, attention is now changed to the development and production of the prototype(s). Once prototypes are completed, they are presented to the public, all details included (pros/cons) and voted upon again. If one or two are the hands-down winners, then those become the models that move forward to the production/distribution phase (stage 3).
Emphasis on quality over cost and speed of development.
--------------------------------------------
Stage 3
Production phase
Work continues on the language interpretation database and processes that will integrate the 'ultimate' personal hardware communication devices with the middleware/hardware/server/communications architecture.
Stage 4
Distribution phase.
A world-wide lottery determines who gets to be the first to buy the first runs of these devices. Maybe significant contributors could bypass the lottery. Lottery winners could perhaps 'order' the unit they want if there were multiple units that won the competition. One unit is created when one user "demands" one.
The device would sell for a scalable price (depending on the affluence of the society, or more particularly, the affluence of the individual: i.e., Super Rich Guy Y would maybe have to pay $300,000 to pay for one, but Super Poor Girl X may only have to pay $30).
-----------------------
Another possible benefit/reward for being deemed to have contributed the most innovations (by wither the 'experts' or the voting public): your language can perhaps become the "universal" language (if a majority of the 'linguist experts' agree that your language is well suited to the task, that is).
The primary goal is to create the best universal interpreter/translator communication software/hardware architecture and implementation (i.e. server arrays, communications satellites, software {middleware, databases, clients, data manipulation techniques, etc.}).
All participants/entrants in this contest (be they a person/corporation/country/etc.) must abide by the will of the people (world vote like "New 7 Wonders" contest) when they ultimately vote on the model to follow for the creation of the Universal/Unified Language Interpretation Architecture (or whatever we want to call it)--I think of it as the 'Empathy Box.'
It can take the form of the multi-purpose communication device a la a smart phone, or it could be something like a bluetooth headset and/or 'glasses' with a screen inset in the lens, or a fish-thing (Uhura/Roddenberry and Douglas Adams would be proud), that connects to cell phone towers or world satellites, or local/long-distance wifi networks, or some amalgamation of those.
Emphasis on quality over cost and speed of development.
I'm trying to present a workable framework here, and would be glad to get input/suggestions for change to this whole enchilada.
(This is my first attempt at global-scale project management, and I am exhausted, so I am going to submit this {2nd} draft of the proposed competition rules so I can get back to work *yawn* )
[edit: was just thinking that this whole system would also be an excellent tool for preserving "dead" or "dying" languages, which could be part of the universal language interpretation system, and also an excellent tool for teaching & propagating languages.]
i just woke up from some pretty vivid dreams....
once the universal language (interpreter/translator) is created, the creation of the next 'Library of Alexandria' may be created.
It could serve as a a great repository for all human knowledge and known art, and could be accessible from any corner of the globe, as well as be update-able, so new discoveries that disprove old theories would be available in near real-time, and the dissemination of that knowledge to every doctor across the world for example. can happen in real-time. The problems in the way that important information related to particular professions are currently spread across countless annals and disparate websites in multiple tongues, for example, can be overcome so that all doctors could know the treatments used by doctors throughout recorded history in all the world's countries.
Knowledge should be free, and anyone interested in learning should have access to knowledge. Of course, that is my opinion, and i'm sure there are many people who would disagree (certainly there are cases that could be made about not disseminating knowledge about super-dangerous technologies that have great potential for death and destruction). Perhaps if one gained the confidence of their fellow humans, they would be granted access to certain rooms in the great library that are off-limits to the public. Just an idea....
maybe i can get some rest now instead of having more 'deep thoughts....with jack handy' keeping me from 'sleeping'.
and came across a nifty article, and thought this might be a novel approach to overcoming some issues with this project perhaps:
http://www.techconsumer.com/2007/07/16/the-next-big-thing-why-web-20-isnt-enough/
My dreams are appearantly shared by many people.
http://economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9512531
If anyone is interested in some more of my ramblings, feel free to check out my blogs at http://myspace.com/opticecho
Cheers, and may peace prevail.
some intriguing new research on data storage (also, there was some quantum computing stuff I read about that seemed promising):
this may help:
the link in the post above this one describes a researcher who has developed a system for translating Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics into English words.
The link below is to the FAQ page of a foundation which has discovered some very interesting things about the ancient Hebrew language, and how there is a 'geometric depth' to the language, as well as it being a 'formal language' similar to programming languages today. I'm not doing it justice, but its pretty interesting. There are articles on the main page too.
"Information policy for Borges's Library of Babel"
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/09/information-policy-f.html
The article(s) remind me of the Librarian characters in "Snow Crash" and the "Sandman" comic books named Lucien. Also, I am reminded of Don Delillo's "White Noise," where filtering through the information entropy (of our global information society)--the white noise--and finding the specific knowledge you are seeking becomes somewhat of a monumental task without some system to catalogue and understand it. I suppose we have 'search engines' which aim to do that now.
When I think more, I am reminded of "Dreamfall: The Longest Journey," a game I enjoyed like it's prequel.
Here is a link to a page where some of the intricacies of the Japanese language are explored, and some of the difficulties in translation and interpritation are shown. Some criticism or acknowledgement of gender roles being tied to the language are also discussed.
http://www.coolest.com/jpfm.htm
That Japanese women are empowering themselves seems to be a trend occurring the world over. Woo! (no sarcasm implied)
This article explains why this project is needed sooner rather than later. I can't do it alone. Any takers yet?
Take a look at the following: http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/research.nsf/pages/r.uit.innovation.html
I'm not fluent in Chinese, so I couldn't verify the intermediary, but I've tried the system and it worked!
30 Year charge laptop battery being developed:
http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-betavoltaic-10.1.html
This technology would be excellent for an "empathy box," and would help increase the life-cycles of electronics products which require batteries. Now if I can just convince the world.
[edit 3: so if I were throwing out how it might be done based on a few hours of thinking about it, and not knowing what method others have taken exactly, but wouldn't it maybe be good to parse words down to morphemes and assign values to those, employing some system of cataloging that makes sense to people of multiple cultures? Until/unless personal computers can store the entire lexicon of human vocabulary, we'd need an online database that has different cultures' vocabularies, so if you knew you were traveling to China you could download the Chinese/English RTTS (real-time-translation-set). If you were chatting online the translation middleware could connect to a central (or an array) of servers and compute the translation and present the other user with a chat window showing both the original characters/words and their translation to your language.]