Is Perfect Machine Translation Possible?

Is it possible to translate automatic (translation programs)?

• June 08, 2022

Human brain versus computer

The human brain is the most advanced and complex organizational system in the universe. Although its operation is similar to the operation of computers in many ways, it has some features that computers do not have yet or are not developed enough and are critical in performing an action: learning, experiencing, feeling, etc. Therefore, although computers are far superior to the human brain in matters such as arithmetic operations, memorization or retrieval, data processing; computers are far behind when it comes to judging and relating different variables.

Language and reason

The scientific definition of language is "human capacity to learn and use complex communication systems". But it is also the tool and expression of reasoning and logic. It has a structure that is alive, constantly changing, developing and interacting with other languages. It contains countless forms of expression of different situations, processes, phenomena in many ways, and also according to different emotional states. These phrases are created and categorized with the mind. Here, it is not only the thinking and computation in which computers outperform humans, but also the reasoning process using the myriad variables held in the human brain.

Where did computer-based translation lead?

It is not possible for computers to fully perform the above-mentioned complex process. It will be necessary to wait for a longer period of time for them to approach human competence in language with the existing facilities. A scientific study of the current state-of-the-art automatic translation tools found that purely computer-based translation is far from satisfactory (Source: Accuracy of Data Extraction of Non-English Language Trials with Google Translate - http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK95238/).

Although such tools do not give accurate and perfect results, they can provide meaningful translations to a certain extent. In the above-mentioned study, an academic article was translated via google and accuracy between 30% and 80% was achieved in different languages.

Conclusion: We'll have to wait a few more decades

It is too early to get the translation of pages of text into the language we want at the touch of a button. We can use such software to get an idea of the content of the text in a language we do not know. However, we will continue to benefit from the services of translation offices for quality translations that we can use in our official and private works.