From: urbanas@reis54.alleg.edu (Shawn Urbanavage)
Subject: Re: RE: Universal translator
Organization: Allegheny College
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 16:23:36 GMT

CXMP000 writes
> In article <1992Dec14.165724.6011@neb> prp@neb (Paul Peterson) writes:
>                                        ^^^^^^^
> I tried to answer this guy by email but my machine laughed at me. :)
> 
> >A thought provoking question:
> >
> >We all know that the various and sundry alien races do not really
> >speak English, but their speech is converted to English by the
> >"Universal Translator" in the Big E-s computer and vice-versa to
> >enable communication between species.
> >
> >This translation capability has enabled the humans to communicate
> >even with races such as the Nanites in 'Evolution' and the silicon
> >race discovered in 'Home Soil' (remember - they called the humans
> >"ugly bags of mostly water").
> >
> I think the Universal Translater has always been some sort of decoder.
> Supposedly, if a species communicated telepathicly (like the Companion
> from TOS) then it was decoding ... well, whatever it is that telepaths
> broadcast.  What about otherwise?
> 
> The problem with assuming that the universal translater interprets what
> is actually said is that, well, imagine an alien walked up to you and
> said "FGD DF TFH UGKB ERU YUT RU"!  Pretty darn hopeless.  Supposedly,
> the Universal Translater must be able to get inside a person's mind so
> that we can understand what they mean.  The question then is why can't
> the Universal Translater be used when you're not even saying something?
> Well, I guess most species are not that easily to "read".
It has always been my understanding that the Universal Translator does  
actually translate what is said (verbally) by the aliens into English.  As  
far as I know, no computer, even in the fictional 24th century ST world is  
telepathic, and can "read" people.  If you remember the TNG episdoe where  
the Enterprise attempted communication with the race that communicated by  
using analogies from a myth/legend about "Darmok and Jilad on the ocean,"  
the Universal Translator was able to translate what they were saying into  
English based on their speech patterns, but it was not able to get the  
connotations right because the computer cannot "read" their body language.  
It is not "pretty darn hopeless" to assume that the Universal Translator  
will translate "FGD DF TFH UGKB ERU YUT RU"!, because it can!!  How do you  
think that the Enterprise can understand the Romulans, or the Klingons, or  
any other race?  The computer takes what is actually said, and translates  
it into the language that the crew of the ship understands.  There is no  
other way to explain it.  I do find it amusing, however, that although the  
aliens are speaking in some foreign tongue, their mouths move in  
conjunction with the English translation--instead of something like the  
"spaghetti" westerns where the Italian actors had English dubbed over what  
they actually said.

Shawn . . . 
" . . . we are dealing with things that are useless."
--Mathematics Professor Allen Shepard (of Allegheny College), when  
speaking of power series. 
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