Philosophical Study On Translation Technology:Problems And Their Solutions

Modern technology based on artificial intelligence has become an important part of the social development,and has shown the profound impact on people’s daily life.Translation,as an ancient human profession and social practice,also suffers from the technological turn currently.The continuous development and widespread use of translation technologies such as machine translation and computer-aided translation have not only significantly improved the productivity of the translation industry,but also brought great changes in translation practice,translation education,translation research and other related fields.However,while enjoying the benefits brought by technology,a series of negative effects are also worthy of our attention For years of development,why is it still difficult to achieve the goal of"full-automatic and high-quality" translation technology?What new changes have taken place in the relationship between translation technology and translators?What influence does the wide application of translation technology bring to translation profession,translation industry and translation education?The problem of translation technology,which is composed of the above-mentioned contradictions,not only restricts the further development of technology itself,but also hinders the well-being of human beings.Although the problems of translation technology have attracted extensive attention in the academic community,the current research shows a trend of disciplinary division,that is,the opposition between engineers and linguists.In order to bridge the contradiction between scientism and humanism in technological development and application,this study believes that translation technology should be reviewed from a philosophical approach.Specifically speaking,it is necessary to refine those problems and then conduct a comprehensive reflection on the technical,social and human dimensions on the stages of R&D,use and application based on theories of philosophy of artificial intelligence,philosophy of technology and STS respectively.By recognizing the essence of translation technology,we can clarify the internal causes of the current contradictions,and find effective solutions.The technological problem in the stage of R&D mainly comes from the theoretical issues faced by the R&D path.As the specific application of AI,the research direction of translation technology depends on the guidance of AI,and the limitations of AI’s logic framework also limit the breakthrough of translation technology.From the perspective of analytical philosophy,phenomenology and philosophy of cognitive science,although some achievements have been made along the"rule-based","statistics based" and even "neural network based" path,in essence,it is only the progress of data,algorithm and hardware,rather than the breakthrough of technological essence.Besides the technical issue,the ultimate realization of translation technology depends on our understanding of the complexity of translation activities and the uncertainty of natural language.That is to say,according to the current development path,translation is only regarded as a "statistical problem" in the sense of engineering,avoiding the "intelligent" problem,and the translation technology that equivalent to or even beyond human translators will be difficult to achieve.For humanistic dimension,the problem of translation technology mainly lies in the lack of translator’s subjectivity.With the development of technology,the relationship between technology and human is gradually transferred from the initial physical level to the intellectual level.As the user of technology,translator’s subjectivity has been changed in the process of translation practice.In the early stage,the technical goal of machine translation attempted to completely expel translators from translation activities,which resulted in the opposite relationship between translation technology and translators,and translator’s subjectivity tend to disappear.However,due to various theoretical and practical difficulties,the computer-aided translation technology appeared,which eased the relationship between translators and translation technology,and translator’s subjectivity began to recover.The intelligent translation technology with features of"full automation" and"high quality" begin to threaten the translator’s identity,which also causes the tension between translation technology and translators.For social dimension,the problems of translation technology mainly lies in its new challenges to translation profession,translation industry and translation education.First of all,translators are faced with the risk of "unemployment".Secondly,translation technology promotes the development of translation industry,and the new translation content and organization form need to be standardized.Finally,the field of translation education is affected by translation technology,so the teaching methods and contents need to be updated.Although there are positive factors in these changes,we also need to answer the following questions:how to deal with the occupational crisis,how to regulate the development of translation industry and how to change translation education.In view of the multidimensionality and complexity of translation technology problems,it is difficult to propose effective solutions from a single subject.Through further analysis,we found that it is precisely because of the weak sense of responsibility in the translation technology activities,the lack of ethical regulations and the conflict between scientific culture and human culture that led to those problems.Therefore,this doctoral dissertation believes that ethics of responsibility undoubtedly provides a new perspective for eliminating the above problems.Specifically speaking,this paper discusses the responsibilities of multiple subjects in technical translation activities from three aspects of research and development,use and application of translation technology.First of all,for technical problems,engineers should stick to their responsibilities in terms of the goal,the usability,the direction and the value sensitivity of translation technology.Secondly,the humanistic dimension of translation technology requires translators to recognize their own advantages,change their attitude towards technology,innovate their capabilities and ensure the quality of translation.Finally,the social problems need to be solved by multiple subjects in the application process of translation technology.The professional translators should face up to the professional crisis,the insiders of translation industry should standardize the model management,and the practitioners of translation education should improve the training system.Only by integrating translation,technology and ethics,and clarifying the responsibilities of engineers,translators and practitioners in the field of industry and education in different stages of technology research and development,technology use and technology application,can translation technology make a breakthrough,and the contradiction between translation technology and human and society be reconciled.