Climbing the Tower of Babel

Machine translation of language isn't rocket science. It's even more difficult. Despite revolutionary leaps in hardware, software, and linguistics throughout the 20th century, technology has delivered only rudimentary solutions for a handful of the world's 6800 languages. By 2035, however, advances in computers and artificial intelligence, the convergence of information-based devices, and the maturity of linguistics and programming tools will dissolve barriers to language and bring game-changing transparency to this greatest human challenge. Perfect machine translation will permit instantaneous availability of all languages, fusion with video and imagery data-streams, and unprecedented multi-domain awareness. In short, machine translation will guarantee communication and understanding. Accordingly, the Air Force and the Department of Defense must plan now to integrate this spectacular capability to further a gamut of national security interests.