Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts
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Re: Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts
#2I built Ars Astronomica to make historically important works on astronomy, calendrics, and related sciences accessible in modern English. The project combines OCR, AI-assisted translation, editorial review, and publication into a workflow that can handle book-length works while preserving diagrams, mathematical notation, and references.
The site currently includes English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin works, including texts that have never previously appeared in English and others that survive only in manuscript form. All editions are released under a Creative Commons license.
I'm interested in feedback from historians of science, classicists, medievalists, digital-humanities researchers, and anyone interested in AI-assisted scholarly publishing.
Re: Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts
#3[dead]
Re: Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts
#4Why was the comment of the author of the translation-site that explains the methodology flagged / dead?
The mere fact that the translation was AI-assisted shouldn't be a reason to flag a comment. AI translations, especially supervised translations, can actually achieve a reasonable level of quality.
Disagreement on AI philosophy shouldn't be a reason to flag a contribution.
Re: Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts
#5Nice project, but I think the PDF format could be improved. I'd prefer having landscape layout and original text and translated text side-by-side or keep the portrait layout and do a line-by-line translation so that it is easier to review and spot translation errors.
Re: Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts
#6Nice project, but I think the PDF format could be improved. I'd prefer having landscape layout and original text and translated text side-by-side or keep the portrait layout and do a line-by-line translation so that it is easier to review and spot translation errors.
Thank you.
Your suggestion makes sense, and you are not the first to offer it.
Maybe someday, although probably not CC licensed.
Re: Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts
#7Why was the comment of the author of the translation-site that explains the methodology flagged / dead? The mere fact that the translation was AI-assisted shouldn't be a reason to flag a comment. AI translations, especially supervised translations, can actually achieve a reasonable level of quality. Disagreement on AI philosophy shouldn't be a reason to flag a contribution.
A professional book editor and Hebrew translator said the translation of the one work he checked out was "impressive".
Others have responded equally positively to the Latin translations.
AI as a panacea is overwrought, but there are genuine positive uses of it. Would critics rather have NO translations of these pivotal works?
Re: Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts
#8Why was the comment of the author of the translation-site that explains the methodology flagged / dead? The mere fact that the translation was AI-assisted shouldn't be a reason to flag a comment. AI translations, especially supervised translations, can actually achieve a reasonable level of quality. Disagreement on AI philosophy shouldn't be a reason to flag a contribution.
A professional book editor and Hebrew translator said the translation of the one work he checked out was "impressive". Others have responded equally positively to the Latin translations. AI as a panacea is overwrought, but there are genuine positive uses of it. Would critics rather have NO translations of these pivotal works?
Yes, because if a human didn’t do it, how will we know of the translation is free of mistakes? /s
Re: Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
A professional book editor and Hebrew translator said the translation of the one work he checked out was "impressive". Others have responded equally positively to the Latin translations. AI as a panacea is overwrought, but there are genuine positive uses of it. Would critics rather have NO translations of these pivotal works?
Yes, because if a human didn’t do it, how will we know of the translation is free of mistakes? /s
Professional translators don't throw around the word "impressive" like that.
You don't, yet I still stand by my work.
I translated some books up to four times as I refined the process. The default behavior is repeatedly to not attempt to translate text it can't resolve for whatever reason. AIs do have a tendency to hallucinate, and I expended a lot of effort on minimizing this problem to the point it can be considered mitigated.
Re: Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts
#10Why was the comment of the author of the translation-site that explains the methodology flagged / dead? The mere fact that the translation was AI-assisted shouldn't be a reason to flag a comment. AI translations, especially supervised translations, can actually achieve a reasonable level of quality. Disagreement on AI philosophy shouldn't be a reason to flag a contribution.
"Disagreement on AI philosophy shouldn't be a reason to flag a contribution."
Amen!