This study analyzes how, in the last forty years, translation has ceased to be an artisanal activity to become a billionaire industry and the voice of globalization. To develop this analysis, I discuss theoretical proposals from canonical authors for the establishment of a historiography and of a sociology of translation, and some aspects of systemic and functional lines of translation studies. Based on these ideas, I suggest some theoretical and methodological adaptations to update the concept of translation as a protagonist in the globalized world, focusing on specialized translation. After a brief analysis of the conceptual history of translation, taking in account recent changes in its practices, I conclude by showing how these transformations became more visible in the concepts of authoring, source text, translator and target text, considering the technology used in each one of these four elements as the materialization of these transformations, with special attention to translation-specific technologies.