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The Elusive Goal of Machine Translation

Statistical methods hold the promise of moving computerized translation out of the doldrums


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Natrium Nepal Asia legend: The lion, the sorceress, the evil spirit wardrobe "already lack" the evil spirit abstains the trilogy "rich in poetic and artistic flavor, also has not let" the Harley baud "the series novel have the infinite pleasure the undercurrent to be turbulent.

The preceding gibberish was brought to you by a Chinese-to-English translation carried out by Altavista's Babelfish, the popular Internet-based translator. In coherent English, from a bilingual page on the Web site of Taiwan's China Post, it reads:

Gary Stix, the neuroscience and psychology editor for Scientific American, edits and reports on emerging advances that have propelled brain science to the forefront of the biological sciences. Stix has edited or written cover stories, feature articles and news on diverse topics, ranging from what happens in the brain when a person is immersed in thought to the impact of brain implant technology that alleviates mood disorders like depression. Before taking over the neuroscience beat, Stix, as Scientific American's special projects editor, oversaw the magazine's annual single-topic special issues, conceiving of and producing issues on Einstein, Darwin, climate change and nanotechnology. One special issue he edited on the topic of time in all of its manifestations won a National Magazine Award. Stix is the author with his wife Miriam Lacob of a technology primer called Who Gives a Gigabyte: A Survival Guide to the Technologically Perplexed.

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Scientific American Magazine Vol 294 Issue 3This article was originally published with the title “The Elusive Goal of Machine Translation” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 294 No. 3 ()