Omnicommunicability

Grundig · Post by **Grundig** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:43 am

Funny, I was just thinking about this today. Of course, I watch Star Trek every day, and just about every episode has this problem, so I find myself thinking about it alot.

I think Hoshi's abilities are pretty unbelievable... I mean, the writers don't even try to make that stuff realistic. She just learns every language in no-time flat, even with a head injury!

The whole omnicommuncability problem is just one I have to chalk up to necessity for entertainment value...

In sixth grade I had to write a 5 minute play about school, and my story was about a kid cheating on a test, so for 2 whole minutes of the play the class was just sitting quietly and taking a test. When my teacher told me that I couldn't do that in a play it took me a long time to understand why... Anyway, this reminded me of that .

Post by **Mikey** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:20 am

Well, you can do that. John Cage wrote an entire musical opus, 4'33", which consists of nothing at all being played - the piece entirely comprises the environment for four mintes and thirty-three seconds; the audience's movements and mutterings, sounds from the building, etc. Education in the arts should be geared towards what CAN be done, not what CAN'T.

But, I get your point. And the bottom line is you're correct - there couldn't be a show without the "magical" universal translator.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:28 am

Yeah, and 4' 33" works once. Just like a show about the translator breaking down works once.

Post by **Mikey** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:15 am

Well, at least either one is better than listening to Philip Glass.

*rimshot*

But seriously folks... when I said "couldn't be a show" I meant a series or franchise, not an individual ep. Obviously, the UT was of limited help in "Darmok" and that ep was excellent.

Grundig · Post by **Grundig** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 6:59 am

Darmok is sooo good! It rings true today more than ever IRL, with all the culture clashing going on.

Jordanis · Post by **Jordanis** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 9:21 am

Yeah, and they used the only really interesting reason for the UT to not work for Darmok.

Captain Picard's Hair · Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:58 pm

A couple of odd things about the Darmok language: how do they learn the stories in the first place without a language like ours, and how does such a culture become spacefaring? By the second question I mean, a scientist or engineer can't point and say "Geordi with the Warp Core;" the engineer needs (numerical) precision that this type of language doesn't offer and the scientist discovers new things for which there are no stories.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:45 pm

You expect things in the show to makes sense?
You have watched Star Trek, right?

Captain Picard's Hair · Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:53 pm

Post by **Mikey** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:54 pm

Better yet, if they can't translate the language, how were they able to translate the indivdiual terms of the metaphors into "English" words?

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:02 pm

Damnit people, what did I say about trying to make the show make sense?

Captain Picard's Hair · Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:07 pm

Mikey wrote:Better yet, if they can't translate the language, how were they able to translate the indivdiual terms of the metaphors into "English" words?

I was thinking about that too, Mikey. "Darmok AND Gilard AT Tinagra" "(forgot) WHEN THE WALLS FELL" and so on...

Sorry, Rochey

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:08 pm

Gah, I give up. You lot are too foccused on trying to make things logical.

Post by **Mikey** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:11 pm

Logical is too lofty a goal. We'd settle for "understandable."

Tyyr · Post by **Tyyr** » Wed May 13, 2009 3:31 pm

Old topic, I know, but this has come up in discussions with some of my friends. First off, there's no possible way the UT could work in normal face to face first contact situations. You can't deduce an entire language, it's vocabulary, structure, syntax, etc from just a few words being spoken.

However, in regards to ship to ship hails it just might work. Communication with new alien vessels is going to be a problem for every spacefaring race. So the concept of "Hailing" might not be a simple "Hey you!" The idea we came up with is that a hail is actually a very large amount of information broadcast across a wide spectrum. A wide range of styles of communicating would be used in the hopes that you'll nail whatever style of communications equipment they use. Microwaves, radio, subspace radio, blinking lights, etc. The information you'd transmit would be things like basic math equations, to get you on the same page, then a linguistic database. With the massive amount of processing power available to races in Trek decoding such a data stream and arriving at a basic set of communication protocols could be possible. In fact it could be possible to get everything set up in working between the time you hail them and they answer.

Omnicommunicability

Re: Omnicommunicability