Burning the Page: The eBook revolution and the future of reading

number of words, and then divided by two, since we’re translating twice.
    I tested a few different languages this way. Scores ranged from 83 percent for German to 65 percent for Japanese and averaged around 75 percent fidelity to the original text. A cynic would argue that this only proves my writing is more German than Japanese. But I would interpret this to mean that, on average, three-quarters of a given book of similar complexity to my own could be translated reasonably well into any language.
    What’s the threshold for automatic translation? Apple’s virtual assistant Siri seems to have a success rate of 86 percent, and people are still complaining, so clearly, we have a few more years to wait before automated ebook translation happens and we’re able to achieve the global vision of reading that I described above. Even though they’re offered as part of Google’s ebook reading experience, automatic translations just aren’t good enough yet. But soon, perhaps in the “twinkling of an eye,” automatic translations will be good enough to read—but never as good, I think, as those from a skilled human translator.
    Of course, the great thing about the future is that we can’t predict it. Perhaps an ebook innovator like Google will build a new Tower of Babel, but in reverse, reconstructing it from its rubble across all cultures. It’s ironic that the new Tower of Babel might be raised from the squat, windowless concrete building that holds Google’s cloud. Google is well poised to do this with its translation software and expertise.
    Is it too much of a stretch of the imagination to imagine that Google can rebuild the Tower of Babel from rubble, one captcha at a time? ( Captchas are those forms you fill out on websites when you have to verify your identity. They usually have a smudged word or two for you to type in.) Most of the captchas you see on the internet are from Google. They’re how Google fixes conversion errors in their ebook content. Every time you verify yourself on a website, you’re helping Google to decipher one or two words in one of millions of their books.
    As a technologist, I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to automatically decipher any book fairly well. I think that is stunning, because it opens up a whole new set of authors for me to read! These are authors who aren’t commercially important enough for publishers to translate themselves but authors that I would like to read, nonetheless.

Bookmark: Dictionaries
    Dictionaries, as we know them, are static snapshots of a culture at an instant in time, defined by a bunch of old men in an ivory tower in Oxfordshire, England. This ivory tower is crumbling, though, and is being replaced by sites like Wordnik and UrbanDictionary.
    In my experience, CEOs of companies are often spreadsheet-blooded, boorish, bottom-line businessmen. But company founders are often warm and soulful. They’re people like Erin, the founder of Wordnik. She’s so sweet that I wonder if she’s ever had a negative thought in her life. There’s a little red heart on her business card, for heaven’s sake.
    The former editor of Oxford’s dictionaries, Erin started her company to create contextual dictionaries, to scour the web and books and magazines for words and assemble what those words really mean in context, using clues from the content.
    Current e-readers—and some enhanced ebooks—often include a dictionary to help you look up words, which is awesome. It’s a feature I miss when I’m reading printed books. These days, I often find myself wanting to tap the physical page to select a word and see its meaning.
    Having a dictionary built into my e-reader is great, and dictionaries will only get more exciting over time. That’s right. You heard me: dictionaries will become downright exciting! You’ll be able to bring out the culture’s intent as you read with these new internet-enabled dictionaries and encyclopedias, ones that are germane to the book you’re reading.
    Imagine, for example, that you’re reading a Sherlock Holmes mystery from the 1890s. How nice it would be to have a culturally appropriate dictionary to use while you read, a Victorian one that recognizes 1890s slang and brand names. It would help you get more out of the book as you read it and uncover hidden dimensions.
    Certain publishers are starting to do this by building limited glossaries into certain enhanced ebooks. These interactive glossaries are seamlessly integrated into