5 ms·
Time Warp
- mrfusion 10y agoThis is great. I've always been fascinated by future predictions. Do to think we'll have universal translators in 20 years. It seems like the technology is already 90% there?
- hvs 10y agoLanguage is an incredibly difficult problem. Natural language processing can get you to 80% very easily, but we've been struggling with that last 20% for a long time.
- jobigoud 10y agoAs the saying goes, once you're done with the first 80%, you just need to complete the last 80%.
- JohnStrange 10y agoThe reason is that intelligence is needed for the remaining 20%, and that's hard to emulate.
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoI think more likely there will be "tiers" of translators, with highest accuracy going first to languages with accessible and common Rosetta Stone-style word-for-word translations. Think French to German. Or Polish to Russian. Or English to everything else. Langagues without vast translated data sets will probably be stitched together by various translations of multiple degrees. If you want to translate Farsi to Creole, for example, you probably won't find many direct translations to start with, but you'll probably have a better chance getting "mostly" there by going through a "hub" language like French or English.
- cgriswald 10y agoI'm a bit bothered by the entire conversation. 2016 Person has found a way to communicate with 1996 Person. And yet, when asked to predict the future, he does not communicate with 2036 Person. This could imply that 2016 Person is only able to communicate with the past. This should not be a problem, since 2036 Person could get in touch with him. Who wouldn't, if they could, communicate with Albert Einstein or Sir Isaac Newton? It could be argued that, if he were dead, they wouldn't want to communicate with him, because they wouldn't want to give away the fact that he would be dead in 20 years, but he seems smart enough to figure out that is exactly what that would mean, so they would definitely communicate with him. Since no one communicated with him, we're left with the implication that there is no one able to communicate with him in 2036. Best case scenario there seems to be that his secrets are lost to time (heh heh), but most of the other scenarios seem pretty dark to me... Edit: Formatting
- strgrd 10y agoI wonder if blockchain technology could fix this paradox?
- bertiewhykovich 10y agowhy would it be able to?
- mikeash 10y agoIn order to limit the paradoxical effects that come from altering the past, communicating across time is only allowed once per universe.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- mempko 10y agoI think if anything it revealed how most of our great predictions haven't happened. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QgSJkk1tng http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QgSJkk1tng I wonder if it has something to do with privatizing technology and reducing resources towards scientific research.
- cgvgffyv 10y agoHow do I downvote idiots? I keep tapping on the arrow but it does nothing. Please help. Thanks!
- gfosco 10y agoSpecial JavaScript detects when you're being rude and invalidates your downvote. Solution: Be nice.
- cgvgffyv 10y agoHave an upvote.
- roddux 10y agoI think you missed the humour, friend.
- sctb 10y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12960918 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12960918 and marked it off-topic.