English for Wizards (最終回)

See you in the future!

By John Moore

デイブとチャットしながら英語が学べる Dave ESL chat robbot

This year is soon coming to an end, and so this column will also end. Yes, Peter and I are about to "embark upon a hazardous and technically unexplainable journey into the outer stratosphere," as the original Wizard of Oz said — although we will take a jet instead of a hot-air balloon. And we will go to Tennessee to visit Peter's grandma, instead of back to Kansas.

But first, let's talk a bit about the future of computing. You know, computers are always getting smaller and more powerful, and the prices keep dropping. Therefore, we can expect future computers to be very different from today's standard desktop machines.

In 10 years, computers won't have keyboards. You will just talk to your computer, and it will understand you perfectly — or if it doesn't understand, it will ask you to clarify. Even today, some voice- recognition software packages exist, such as IBM's ViaVoice (www-306.ibm.com/software/voice/viavoice/). This software will improve steadily, I predict.

In 15 years, computers won't have screens, either. Instead, we'll have electronic paper, which will work much like today's video monitors, but you'll be able to roll it up and put it in your pocket. Read a recent article on electronic paper at www.nature.com/nsu/030922/030922-10.html.

In 20 years, computers will finally learn to speak ordinary languages like English and Japanese. The quality of machine translation will improve, and computers might actually be able to think of interesting things to chat about.

Even today, you can have an online chat with an artificial-intelligence program. Go to the Alice AI Foundation (www.alicebot. org). Alice is an Asian-looking female cartoon that talks. At the same site, there's also the "Dave ESL chat robot," which is specially designed to help English learners. To play with Dave, though, you have to pay about 10 dollars (¥1,080).

Another AI chat program is called Jabberwacky (www.jabber wacky.com). This one is free to tryonline, although it does not talk out loud. It starts the conversation with a question for you. You just type your answer and press the "Say it" button.

All these software programs are pretty useless today, but in 20 years you might talk to your own pocket-size supercomputer the same way you chat with your friends — your human friends, that is. And your pocket computer will chat wirelessly with its own friends, I guess.

It's all very exciting and a little scary. See you in the future!

Shukan ST: Dec. 26, 2003

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