Nebuchadnezzar II's empire was triumphant at the beginning of the 6th century BCE. When the Jewish people were deported there in 597 BCE, Babylon was teeming with merchants from the farthest reaches of the Near East. The Tower of Babel (the Aramaic name for Babylon) stood at the center of the kingdom's capital. It was here, where people speaking very different languages met, that the myth of a universal language arose. In the Bible, the inability to understand one another (when two people each speak a language the other does not understand) was regarded as a punishment from God; it must also have posed a problem for trade.
Today, more and more people are coming into contact with foreign cultures, whether through work, leisure or tourism. English, of course, plays a dominant role as the primary language connecting different peoples, but this is clearly not enough. In institutional settings, tourism and commerce alike, translation between many languages has become necessary, if not indispensable. Yet the European Union's twenty-four official languages alone require 24 × 23 = 452 different translators (half as many if they can translate in both directions)! Automating the process could therefore be immensely useful…
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Warren Weaver, a pioneer
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