Post by Jeff Gerke on Mar 5, 2007 9:43:18 GMT -5
It's nice that Star Trek has that convenient little device called the universal translator. Makes life easier.
But what if we did something a little more technological (and less magical) to accomplish the same thing in our story?
What if the SF people have a Language Learning Computer (LLC) that uses artificial intelligence, speech recognition, infrared imagery of the other person, walking CT scans, etc., to first figure out the speaker's emotions and intentions and then later to learn words and syntax?
At the first conversation, the LLC would utter things like, "Subject is angry. Subject feels threatened." I could see the space marine with that kind of information displaying on his helmet HUD going, "No kidding! Stupid machine."
But then later the LLC begins figuring out more of the meaning behind the language. The more it observes the better it gets. Especially if someone from the target language could be convinced to sit down and train the computer, like speech recognition software of our day needs to be trained. I could see the space marines capturing a chatty fantasy person and sending him/her off to talk to the LLC to teach it the language.
This gradual learning process, which along the way provides an incomplete level of communication, feels more realistic and interesting to me than a magical universal translator.
And maybe the fantasy folks have a spell that allows interpretation for short periods, or maybe there are empathetic or telepathic animals or plants that they carry around, which the priests can interpret and understand. Organic, low-tech translation.
Jeff
But what if we did something a little more technological (and less magical) to accomplish the same thing in our story?
What if the SF people have a Language Learning Computer (LLC) that uses artificial intelligence, speech recognition, infrared imagery of the other person, walking CT scans, etc., to first figure out the speaker's emotions and intentions and then later to learn words and syntax?
At the first conversation, the LLC would utter things like, "Subject is angry. Subject feels threatened." I could see the space marine with that kind of information displaying on his helmet HUD going, "No kidding! Stupid machine."
But then later the LLC begins figuring out more of the meaning behind the language. The more it observes the better it gets. Especially if someone from the target language could be convinced to sit down and train the computer, like speech recognition software of our day needs to be trained. I could see the space marines capturing a chatty fantasy person and sending him/her off to talk to the LLC to teach it the language.
This gradual learning process, which along the way provides an incomplete level of communication, feels more realistic and interesting to me than a magical universal translator.
And maybe the fantasy folks have a spell that allows interpretation for short periods, or maybe there are empathetic or telepathic animals or plants that they carry around, which the priests can interpret and understand. Organic, low-tech translation.
Jeff