When feats of artificial intelligence are reported in the
media it is easy to be deluded into feeling that the machine in question has
some intrinsic merit and forget that what is remarkable is the human input. So when we learn of some new peak of computer
engineering we need to keep in mind the creativity, ingenuity, intelligence and
perseverance behind it.
For instance, the Google Translator. One can enter a phrase, even a colloquial one,
in, say, Russian or English and the
English or Russian equivalent comes out. The same applies to numerous other pairs
of languages – even fundamentally different ones like Chinese(?) and English. Poetry,
or long passages of prose, cannot of course be made sense of. Nevertheless, it
is a major achievement.
Several decades ago machine translation was almost useless
and only incremental improvements were made over the years. According to an article in the New
Scientist (Oct 15) the big breakthrough was in the early 2000s, when
Pentagon researchers started to programme computers to search for language patterns
rather than individual words. Vast digitised collections of documents, such as
millions of UN conference transcripts in six different languages, have enabled
powerful pattern recognising algorithms to be developed. Google took over the
research after hiring Franz Josef Och who had won a machine translation
competition in 2003.
It is difficult to know how far back to go to appreciate this achievement. One could start with the dawn of creative thought, perhaps
ten thousand years ago. That would be beyond the scope of a post and
take too much time, so let’s restrict ourselves to developments
since the 19th century. All the following and probably more, had to
occur before the software of machine translation could be written (no need to read the whole list – it’s just to give
an idea of the scope of work which led to computer science ).
- Mathematical developments, including imaginary numbers which are of particular value in the theory of electronic circuits.
- Laws of electromagnetism discovered and expressed in mathematical form made electrical engineering possible.
- Major advances in the science of chemistry, including the arrangement of elements into the Periodic Table.
- Semantic analysis of languages around the world.
- Invention of the electronic valve, capacitor and other electronic components.
- Invention of the first punched card computers using valves.
- Theoretical and experimental investigation of quantum theory and semiconductor band structure.
- Invention of the transistor.
- Painstaking characterisation of silicon and other semiconductors by research teams around the globe.
- Collation of peer reviewed research findings into a coherent body of knowledge on semiconductors.
- Invention of innumerable techniques in chemistry, crystal growth, purification, implanting of elements, cooling, heat processing etc.
- Invention of the integrated circuit and the silicon chip using this knowledge.
- Invention of the first computers based on chips.
- Advances in information, circuit and computer processing theory.
- Advances in pattern recognition.
- Continual improvements in the performance computer chips (Moore’s Law etc.).
- Continual improvements in programming languages.
- Availability of large numbers of documents translated by people into a large number of languages.
John
Author, 2077 AD (being revised)
cosmik.jo@gmail.com
