From reading your HN comments, you seem like the kind of person who has a small axiomatic set of principles, and then attempts to fit the world to those princip

From reading your HN comments, you seem like the kind of person who has a small axiomatic set of principles, and then attempts to fit the world to those principles. Without going into the merits/demerits of that approach, I'd at least like to point out that it occasionally leads to absurd conclusions - such as replacing language courses with Google translate. Do you really think that Google translate is a feasible way to converse with someone in a foreign language? Or, for translating literature? Here is the opening paragraph of War and Peace, computer translation vs human. Note that Google translate assumed the whole thing was French, and left the Russian parts untranslated, so I had to manually translate the Russian words. Italics represent words originally in Russian. Google translate: Еh, my prince. Genoa and Lucca are only appendages of, the manor, Buonaparte family. No, I warn you that if you do not tell me that we have war, even if you allow yourself to overcome all infamies, all the atrocities of this Antichrist (my word, I think) - I do you know more, you are no longer my friend, you are no longer my faithful servant, as you say. Ну, hello, hello. I see that I frighten you, sit down and talk. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation: Well, my prince, Genoa and Lucca are now no more than possessions, estates, of the Buonaparte family. No, I warn you, if you do not tell me we are at war, if you still allow yourself to palliate all the infamies, all the atrocities of that Antichrist (upon my word, I believe it) - I no longer know you, you are no longer my friend, you are no longer my faithful slave, as you say. Well, good evening, good evening. I see that I'm frightening you, sit down and tell me about it