Localization When Localization has Gone Away

Dr. Arle Lommel 00:05 Hello, everybody, I'm honored to have the opportunity to talk to you all today about the future of localization. And I'm going to be talking today about why most of what localizers do today is going to be automated away. A lot of the work you do today you won't be doing in two, five or 10 years. But rather than seeing this as a problem, this is actually a good thing for the language for language professionals, the language industry and the world at large. Now, if you say, Well, how can this be a good thing, and you're ready to throw stones at me? All I ask is that before you do that you hear me out. As a bit of background, my name is Arlo Mel and I'm a senior analyst at the independent market research firm CSA research where I focus on language technology, the value of languages and the interaction of human and machine processes and resources. And just very briefly, if you don't already know us, we're independent firm modeled after Forrester, a Gartner that focuses on what it takes to go global by addressing the constituencies you see shown on screen. Now with that obligatory background, and I'm just going to dive right in, by start. And I'll start by talking about three visions of the future, and of the role of technology using science fiction as a way to discuss this. And often the ways we talk about science fiction, of course addresses real concerns in the present. And I think we'll see how looking at some of these things is relevant for considering where the language industry is going as a whole. Now, I'm limiting myself to three Otherwise, we'd be like the Avengers franchise with many, many options and far too many stories to talk about in a reasonable amount of time. So don't worry, I'm not going Marvel on you. We're going to talk a little bit more realistic science fiction. The first of the three visions is what we might call the techno utopian vision of the Star Trek franchise. It's one in which technology enables humanity to overcome its baser impulses and evolve into a kinder, more caring species. Now, in this vision technology is beneficial or neutral in general, but it delivers a future in which capitalism hunger and at least on Earth war have been done away with. Although the series didn't always consistently follow the vision of Gene Roddenberry. He saw the series and the movies and other things as a way to point to a desirable future. And the various series show a progression from an earth much like ours to one in which the Federation, a benign, benevolent, technocratic organization, think of the European Union writ large over half the galaxy, guide society along scientific principles and uses technology to improve the universe.