Mini-story: Translator

“Would you agree that human translators are becoming less important as technology evolves?” The man asking the question was wearing what seemed to be his only expression: blank, emotionless curiosity. Boone didn’t like him very much, nor did he particularly like the woman who sat to the man’s left, but Boone kept a faint smile on his face. It was a job interview, after all, and he needed the work. Their initial approach to him had been conventional enough, via an email reply to the ad that Boone took out on an online forum for linguists, translators, and related professions. He had recently finished the best bit of contract work he’d ever had: providing localised versions of the government’s citizen services website, in seven different languages. The work paid well, and had lasted a little over three years. Boone was a polyglot, and could speak, write, read, and understand fourteen distinct languages. And if you didn’t need written comprehension, he could speak and understand a…