Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on March 12, 2018, 11:36:01 AM
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Well, another Star Trek technology is making its way into the real world - the universal translator. Just saw a Fox Business segment on this company, which will be introducing "translator" earbuds:
https://www.waverlylabs.com/
I'm sure there will be plenty of bugs to work out, but just like the Star Trek communicator (i.e., cell phones), in ten years time it will be very interesting. And at least it's not the SciFi concept (I forget which SciFi universe) of having a worm-looking thing crawl through your ear and latch onto your brain. :laugh:
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Well, another Star Trek technology is making its way into the real world - the universal translator. Just saw a Fox Business segment on this company, which will be introducing "translator" earbuds:
https://www.waverlylabs.com/
I'm sure there will be plenty of bugs to work out, but just like the Star Trek communicator (i.e., cell phones), in ten years time it will be very interesting. And at least it's not the SciFi concept (I forget which SciFi universe) of having a worm-looking thing crawl through your ear and latch onto your brain. :laugh:
Possibly THE WRATH OF KHAN, where Khan (Ricardo Montalban) used Ceti Eels which implant themselves into the victim's brain, and used them to control Chekov and Captain Tyrell?
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Possibly THE WRATH OF KHAN, where Khan (Ricardo Montalban) used Ceti Eels which implant themselves into the victim's brain, and used them to control Chekov and Captain Tyrell?
No, there's (at least) one SciFi universe where a "translator organism" is implanted in people. Might be a book vs TV/movie universe. As I recall, the Khan bug was just for mind control.
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Well, another Star Trek technology is making its way into the real world - the universal translator. Just saw a Fox Business segment on this company, which will be introducing "translator" earbuds:
https://www.waverlylabs.com/
I'm sure there will be plenty of bugs to work out, but just like the Star Trek communicator (i.e., cell phones), in ten years time it will be very interesting. And at least it's not the SciFi concept (I forget which SciFi universe) of having a worm-looking thing crawl through your ear and latch onto your brain. :laugh:
Babel fish
For other uses, see Babel fish (disambiguation).
"The Babel fish is small, yellow, leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the universe. It feeds on brain wave energy, absorbing all unconscious frequencies and then excreting telepathically a matrix formed from the conscious frequencies and nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain, the practical upshot of which is that if you stick one in your ear, you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language: the speech you hear decodes the brain wave matrix."[7]
It is a universal translator that neatly crosses the language divide between any species. The book points out that the Babel fish could not possibly have developed naturally, and therefore it both proves and disproves the existence of God:
Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly useful could evolve purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this:
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white, and gets killed on the next zebra crossing.
Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys. But this did not stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme for his best selling book, Well That About Wraps It Up for God. Meanwhile the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different cultures and races, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.[8]
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Babel fish
For other uses, see Babel fish (disambiguation).
Oh, duh! Stupid Ben. :lol:
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I hope that if it uses auto-complete and predictive
text voice that it doesn't cause problems people make sure to video the results.
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I hope that if it uses auto-complete and predictive text voice that it doesn't cause problems people make sure to video the results.
That's one of the things that will be very interesting. My German has gotten rusty in my old age because I just don't have the opportunity to speak it a lot, so I sometimes forget certain words and how to spell others. When writing my relatives in Germany, I generally have Google Translate open so I can check on the occasional word or phrase.
More often than not, the translated phrase from English to German is an incorrect usage or incorrect syntax. Sometimes even nonsensical. Because I still know German, I generally catch it right away, and actually, it usually reminds me of what the correct phrase is. However, that's writing, where you have the ability to check/correct things. That won't work in near real time communication, so it will be interesting to see how bugs are worked out in that regard.
Google Translate has been around a good long while now, and it still doesn't get it right a good portion of the time. It usually does well enough so people can make themselves understood for basic conversation, but it certainly doesn't allow for say, a deep philosophical conversation on the works of Nietzsche or whatever.
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No, there's (at least) one SciFi universe where a "translator organism" is implanted in people. Might be a book vs TV/movie universe. As I recall, the Khan bug was just for mind control.
See also translator microbes (http://farscape.wikia.com/wiki/Translator_microbe) from Farscape.
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You are thinking of the Babel Fish (http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Babel_Fish) from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
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You are thinking of the Babel Fish (http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Babel_Fish) from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
That would explain all the existence of God verbiage. =)
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No, there's (at least) one SciFi universe where a "translator organism" is implanted in people. Might be a book vs TV/movie universe. As I recall, the Khan bug was just for mind control.
There's a fish you stick in your ear in the Hitchhiker's guide. Farscape has translator microbes you inject. killsixbilliondemons has you drink some brew, you grow horns and can understand all languages. Then you barf up a demon, if you eat the demon you then gain the understanding of all languages permanently. It's a bit messed up, but it supposed to be that way.