"Translation introduces understanding where only tumult and confusion reigned. However, translation does not spell the end of diversity, since it does not mean sameness but merely equivalence. Translation is pre-eminently the means of mediation between cultural diversity and the universality of knowledge. In this sense, the bottom line is that there is no universal language but only exchanges between cultural and spiritual heritages in quest of a common language. It follows that the knowledge societies will have to be translation societies, if we are to avoid the snares of fake universalism and relativism, both of which are sources of misunderstanding and conflict. The spreading of the new technologies in emerging knowledge societies offers promising prospects. Still deficient today, machine translation systems, which have nevertheless made considerable progress, represent a real opportunity for the preservation of linguistic diversity. Research in this field, after being rather slow for want of funding, has in the past few years been given a new lease of life through the globalization of the internet market. Some products are now capable of translating internet pages almost simultaneously into the languages most commonly used on the web. Eventually machine translation systems might be made available to the public at large, or through their direct incorporation into hardware for professionals. This should contribute to greater linguistic transparency on the Web."

Fonte: Bindé, J. (dir.) (2005). Towards Knowledge Societies. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, p. 157.