The thesis today is quite controversial: despite menacing voices and dark prognosis, translation will never die. And it’s not because we are so great or irreplaceable. It’s only because of the economy.
Before the industrial revolution
Paper and writing were always terribly expensive: Egypt, China, mediaeval monks. It got a bit better with Gutenberg, but we were still far away from mass (in nowadays understanding) distribution. Written texts were translated (we all know the glorious beginning of the industry, as if sent by some gods), but translation was exclusive and elitist.
Industrial revolution
Factories, manufactures, and production lines were all very useful, introducing mass production of goods and mass production of technical instructions. This is when the translation boom started. Companies growing, developing and getting international needed translators to spread the technical descriptions of their machines and processes. But that was only the beginning.
Huge factories needed tones of copies of the same manual or instruction. That’s how first automated copiers were invented. If you think of it, even MS Word (or any other word processor) still uses the same function: ctrl+c ctrl+v. Only done by software, not by copier bars.
Information Technology systems
But printing and copying was still fairly expensive: paper, ink, cartridges, hardware, software, etc. The real revolution happened when computers allowed creating digital documents. Cheaper production meant more documents, more documents meant more translations.
Communication and Information
For some time spreading documents was still pretty costly. Sending them on the other side of the world with Fedex, posting them to another country, it all meant huge numbers spent on communication. And any document is worthless if it is not communicated. Thank gods for the internet!
Now companies save tremendous amounts owing to the internet. It means that cheaper production plus cheaper communication lead to more documents written. More documents - more texts to translate.
Why translation will never die?
Documents will be even cheaper do produce and share, so there will be more documents. The potential for translation will grow endlessly, and the language barrier will be overrun somehow.
Pessimistic point of view: the same as copying was automated, then sending was automated, translation will be automated one day as well. Translators will die.
Optimistic point of view: there will be more and more demand for translation. Translators will live forever, as long as they are better than machines. Now we all know what to do to gain immortality.
Marta Stelmaszak
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