For no particular reason I'm sitting here thinking about translation's ultimate destination. Maybe these ponderings can serve as the catalyst for fruitful--or at least creative--conversation.
Machine translation should eventually go the way of Big Blue, the chess-playing computer, and end up out-performing human translators. It may be many years away, but things are heading that way. On another track, I have to believe that the Internet will open the way to a new Mother Tongue--some common language (probably an invented language, though some think that English will take over) to fit the capacity of instantaneous, inexpensive, global communication. Both tracks lead to a common end: no need for translators between modern languages.
Or am I dreaming?
