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'Tower of Babel' Translator Under Development
monopole writes "The BBC is reporting on a bilingual translator under development by Carnegie Mellon University which senses sub-vocalized speech, recognizes it, translates it and then synthesizes the translation. The overall effect would be to dub the speech of the speaker."
Ironically, the Tower of Babel, having removed all barriers of communication on the planet, has been the cause of more bloody wars than anything else in history.
The Tower of Babel, being so mind bogglingly useful and improbable, has also been used as the final, clinching proof of the non-existance of God. The argument goes something like this:
"I refuse to prove I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing."
"But the Tower of Babel gives it away, doesn't it?" says man. "It proves you exist, which, by your own logic, means you don't."
"Oh my, I hadn't thought of that," says God, and quickly disappears in a puff of logic.
"Oh my, that was easy," says man, and for an encore, goes on to prove black is white and is promptly killed at the nearest zebra crossing.
In all seriousness, putting our towels to the side for a second, doesn't anyone find the name ironic? I mean, I'm not a religious scholar, (I'm agnostic) but wasn't the Tower the CAUSE of different languages in the Bible? They wanted to build a tower to Heaven, so God supposedly made everyone on it speak a different language so they couldn't finish their work, I believe. (although I suppose they could have just as easily come up with a system of hyroglyphics or other pictorial ways of communicating what needed to be done. Though maybe the problem was that some languages sounded kinda similar, so one person's "Get to work, now, you lazy bum" is another man's "Go home and get some rest, we'll send you your checks tomorrow, you sexy stud."