A babelfish is probably never going to be good enough to fully replace actually knowing the language; to start with due to different word order in different languages you’ll get something delayed and awkward. It will probably never capture slang and punning properly. Some languages can express some concepts very well, others struggle with those concepts and are awkward.
Babelfish are coming, and they will be very useful, but I kind of expect them to accelerate the drive towards everyone knowing a bit of English.
A babelfish is probably never going to be good enough to fully replace actually knowing the language; to start with due to different word order in different languages you’ll get something delayed and awkward. It will probably never capture slang and punning properly. Some languages can express some concepts very well, others struggle with those concepts and are awkward.
Babelfish are coming, and they will be very useful, but I kind of expect them to accelerate the drive towards everyone knowing a bit of English.