A Few Answered Questions (FAQ)


Maybe if somebody would ask some questions, they might become frequent enough to name a FAQ after them.

What about Wycliffe Bible Translators?
Can I use BibleTrans to translate the Bible into [whatever] language today?
Can we "crowd-source" the semantic database?
What about Artificial Intelligence?
What is "Open Source"?
What happened to "BibleTrans.com"?
Why ".info"?
What happened to BibleTrans International?
How does BibleTrans compare to The Bible Translator's Assistant?

Rev. 2010 February 11
 

What about Wycliffe Bible Translators?

Wycliffe Bible Translators (and SIL International, which is almost the same) are the world's foremost experts in linguistics and translation, as acknowledged by even the unbelievers. They are professionally competent to know that good machine translation is not possible. And they are right! -- Except BibleTrans doesn't do it that way. When a Wycliffe linguist takes the time to look at how BibleTrans works, and considers an actual translation into a language they are familiar with, their comments tend to become favorable. We are working with a small number of Wycliffe people at this time to develop suitable materials for explaining BibleTrans to the rest of them.
 

Can I use BibleTrans to translate the Bible into [whatever] language today?

Not yet. The software is working, but BibleTrans needs the whole Bible (or at least the New Testament) encoded (translated) into its semantic database before it can be translated into any human language. This is a huge job (see Business Plan). So far we have the whole epistle to the Philippians and four chapters of Luke encoded. Pray the Lord of the harvest, that He will send out laborers...
 

Can we "crowd-source" the semantic database?

The latest rage in distributed labor is using volunteers working on the internet. It's a great idea for easy but tedious human tasks, such as pattern recognition. The key term is "easy". Encoding the New Testament into a usable semantic database is a huge and complex job that requires a lot of training and attention to detail. Volunteers unwilling to spend full time on it cannot keep all the details in mind. My paid employee, who was an expert in Greek exegesis, made too many mistakes when her timecard dropped below 20 hours per week.
 

What about Artificial Intelligence?

My minor in grad school was artificial intelligence (AI) so I know quite a lot about it. When I taught computer science in college, I told my students that it's a fraud based on the erroneous supposition of Darwinism. In the real world computers don't get smarter by running themselves, they get smarter by smart people pouring human intelligence into them the hard way, by keyboard and mouse. BibleTrans knows that. Smart (or at least well-trained) people put all the smarts in. Almost any person is smarter than the smartest computer.
 

What is "Open Source"?

The software Marxists like to believe in the concept of "free software" (their term), which they insist means "free as in free speech" but from their actions you can see they really mean "free as in free beer" (again, their terms). I'm no Marxist, but I also recognize that there's no profit in Bible translation (except into English, see Why ".com"?). Open Source is a way to make the BibleTrans software available to volunteers after I'm gone.
 

What happened to "BibleTrans.com"?

Dot-Com is the abbreviation "top-level domain" for commercial web sites. It also gets used by a lot of non-profits and individual people who do not understand what the "com" stands for. On 2002 January 7 an agent of the IRS determined that Bible translation into languages that do not already have it is a profit-making venture. There is no historical nor financial evidence to support their "determination" (an IRS technical term), but who says facts ever stopped the government. They are, after all, "God's instruments of righteousness..." So the domain name "BibleTrans.com" reflected the reality invented by the IRS. There is of course no commercial profit in this venture -- never was, never will be -- but it's fun to pretend. Besides, the government says there is profit, and I'm giving due diligence toward proving them correct. For a while BibleTrans.com still pointed here to this same web site. Then my web host bungled something and I lost the domain. It was snapped up by a squatter. I believe there was something unethical going on, but the evidence is circumstantial, and the web host is unwilling to help.
 

Why ".info"?

This website is for information about BibleTrans. It used to be called "BibleTrans.com" but I made the mistake of using as host some fly-by-night company that spends a lot of money advertizing, but has no physical presence in the USA. Judging from the language on their error messages, the servers might be in eastern Europe somewhere, their telephone support people admit to being in the Philippines, and their domain is registered to some address in an inaccessible Caribbean island hideaway. They changed their software so I could no longer maintain the website. Suspecting potential foul play, I created the new domain "BibleTrans.info" on a different host in case I could not get the old domain transfered to the new host. In retrospect that was a good plan, but I like the new domain as better reflecting the nature of this web site. Then I completely lost BibleTrans.com when the new host bungled the transfer. So BibleTrans.info is all I have at this time.
 

What happened to BibleTrans International?

BibleTrans International was incorporated as a California non-profit corporation on 2000 May 8. (I might say unfortunately), God did not give me the administrative skills necessary to assemble and motivate a team of people into a long-term commitment to computer-assisted Bible translation. When the IRS returned an adverse determination (see Why ".com"?), they decided to roll over and disband instead of meeting the reasonable concerns of the IRS. After getting my shattered finances back under control, I picked up the pieces and here I am today...
 

How does BibleTrans compare to The Bible Translator's Assistant?

I prepared a separate document comparing The Bible Translator's Assistant (TBTA) to BibleTrans. They are two similar but significantly different ways to do computer-assisted Bible translation. I think BibleTrans is better, but you can download working software in both cases. Try them out.
 

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