alt Hacker News> I imagine language choice to be the same idea: they're just different views of the same data
This is a tempting illusion, but the evidence implies it’s false. Translation is simulation, not emulation.
> I imagine language choice to be the same idea: they're just different views of the same data
This is a tempting illusion, but the evidence implies it’s false. Translation is simulation, not emulation.
What evidence are you thinking of?
The parent comment is essentially correct that translations of the same material into different languages represent different views of the same data. A human translator must put in quite a bit of effort establishing what underlying situation is being described by a stretch of language.
Machine translations don't do this; they attempt to map one piece of language to another piece of (a different) language directly.