/media/bill/HOWELL_BASE/Projects/DrumLib - kid science event/Language translation.txt www.BillHowell.ca 20Sep2017 initial ****************************** GOOGLE LANGUAGE TRANSLATION Google has used Deep Learning Neural Networks for greatly advanced language translation, and greatly improved, full vocabulary voice recognition on Android cellphones. Google and other companies are using Deep Learning for image recognition too, that is the ability to recognize components in a photograph and understand what the photograph is about. This is extremely important for the massive amounts of social media, which more and more emphasize images and videos. Let's do a simple experiment modelled on the familiar game of passing a message around a circle of friends seated at a table. 1. Athenian Nicias, son of Niceratus, speaking to the Athenian assembly in approximately 415 BC. Athens is planning to send ships and troops to Sicily to fight in wars, with the intention of gaining power and influence in Sicily, hoping to eventually control the whole island. "... It is true that this assembly was called to deal with the preparations to be made for sailing to Sicily. Yet I still think that this is a question that requires further thought - is it really a good thing for us to send ships to Sicily at all? ..." French : Il est vrai que cette assemblée était appelée à s'occuper des préparatifs nécessaires à la navigation vers la Sicile. Pourtant, je pense toujours que c'est une question qui nécessite une réflexion supplémentaire - est-ce vraiment une bonne chose pour nous d'envoyer des navires en Sicile? Greek : Είναι αλήθεια ότι αυτή η συνέλευση κλήθηκε να παρακολουθήσει τις προετοιμασίες που απαιτούνται για τη ναυσιπλοΐα στη Σικελία. Ωστόσο, εξακολουθώ να πιστεύω ότι αυτό είναι ένα ζήτημα που χρήζει περαιτέρω προβληματισμού - είναι πραγματικά καλό να στείλουμε πλοία στη Σικελία; Chinese : 的确，这个大会被要求监测在西西里岛航行所需的准备工作。 不过，我仍然认为这是一个需要进一步思考的问题 - 送船到西西里岛真的很好吗？ Persian : در حقیقت، کنفرانس خواسته شد تا آماده سازی لازم برای قایقرانی در سیسیلی را نظارت کند. اما هنوز هم فکر می کنم این یک سوال است که نیاز به فکر بیشتر دارد - آیا واقعا برای ارسال به سیسیل خوب است؟ English : In fact, the conference was asked to monitor the preparation for sailing in Sicily. But still, I think this is a question that needs to be further thought-is it really good to send to Sicily? 2. Hurrican Irma : English : Hurricane Irma has made its second Florida landfall, unleashing its feared, catastrophic strike after it became the strongest to landfall near Key West in 57 years. Punjabi : Hurricane Irma ਨੇ ਆਪਣੀ ਦੂਜੀ ਫਲੋਰਿਡਾ ਦੀ ਧਰਤੀ ਉੱਤੇ ਭਾਰੀ ਧਮਾਕਾ ਕੀਤਾ ਹੈ, ਜਿਸਦੇ ਡਰ ਅਤੇ ਭਿਆਨਕ ਹੜਤਾਲ ਦੇ ਕਾਰਨ 57 ਸਾਲਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਕੀ ਵੇਸ ਨੇੜੇ ਭੂਚਾਲ ਦੇ ਝਟਕੇ ਨੇੜੇ ਆਏ. Ukrainian : Ураган Ірма вибухнув на Землі у своєму другому Флориді, землетрус якого викликав колосальний землетрус через 57 років, через страх і жахливий страйк. Scots Gaelic : Bhris uchd Irm air an Talamh san dàrna Florida aige, crith-thalmhainn a chruthaich crith-thalmhainn crith-thalmhainn an dèidh 57 bliadhna, air sgàth eagal agus stailc uamhasach. English : Irm's throat broke the Earth in his second Florida, a earthquake that created an earthquake earthquake after 57 years, due to frightening terror and strike. Think up your own phrase, and pass it through 3 other languages and back to English. ***************************** EXTRA COMMENTS There is a lot more to language translation than you might think. It is very difficult to translate properly, and a skilled translator is critical to success. One example is are the regular failures of Ptolemy's translation of ancient Greek science to Latin, which has obscured the real nature of Greek science to this very day, especially as very few original Greek science writings still exist in their original form. Lucio Russo did a wonderful job of trying to analyse philological errors to derive what the Greek scientists were originally saying. The exercise was loosely based on the popular lesson of what happens with verbal messages when passed from person to person. We see this problem almost all of the time, when messages are distorted, details are lost, and the very sense of the message is no longer even recognisable. However, perhaps we learned some wrong ideas as well. Throughout early history, key works were only available in verbal form, and yet they retained details and integrityover hundreds, maybe thousands of years. I learned this from a classics professor at the University of Ottawa, who stated that myths and histories that were passed to societies that split up without contact for a long time, retained a great deal of accuracy. Other examples include the Old testament, which was originally oral, and the Talmud, for which a great controversy arose in the Jewish community about 100-400 AD (I forget the dates) when it was proposed to commit it to writing. The fear was that this would ruin the Talmud. That verbal stories could retain accuracy over time is almost incomprehensible to us today, but one has to remember that story-tellers committed the stories to memory, that these stories were repeated often, and that the rest of the village would rise up and protest if mistakes were made in their re-telling. ***************************** REFERENCES : https://translate.google.com/ Lucio Russo 2004 "The forgotten revolution: How science was born in 300 BC and why it had to be reborn" English edition, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidleberg, 2004, 487pp, ISBN 3-540-20396-6 Thucydides “History of the Peloponnesian War” Penguin Books, 1954 translation by Rex Warner, Intro by M.I. Finley, 648pp ISBN 978-0-14-044039-3 # enddoc