Computers already facilitate communication, but will they someday allow real-time conversations between speakers of different languages?  The Economist believes they might.  In an article about machine translation, the author speculates that we may see computers doing this “Star Trek” kind of work someday soon.  Still, this is a difficult feat for machines.  They struggle with slang, accents, multiple speakers, and other interferences.  And this is merely the set of “acoustic” problems.  This doesn’t even touch on the “meaning” problems that one encounters when trying out Google Translate, for example.  Picking up on nuance is certainly an area where humans surpass machines.  Yet we’ll surely see machines improve in this area over time.  As they leverage the power of crowds, machines will get better at identifying and and conveying meaning accurately.

This raises a good question, though: are there other benefits, (aside from the ability to convey meaning) that we gain from speaking different languages?  This writer would argue yes.  Conveying meaning is important, granted, but don’t we also hope to convey respect?  Learning another language demonstrates respect for those around us and shows a willingness to put effort into the connections we make.  Even learning to say “hello” and “thank you” in a new language shows that we care about making a good impression.  That’s something that machines will never replace.