Universal translators.
- Thread starter groo667
- Start date
Well, they got him on the show... so they had to find something for him to do... kinda like Uhura opening hailing frequencies when Kirk coulda just hit the darn button on his chair.
And how did Q get away with saying Mon Capitan so often? Maybe he used his Q-power to disable the universal translators for those two words. He was quite the drama queen, after all.
And what's with all this Klingon Qapla' nonsense? They shoulda been running around yelling Success!
Oooh, this is working me up. Must think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. All canon is internally self-consistent. All canon is internally self-consistent. All canon is internally self-consistent.
And what's with all this Klingon Qapla' nonsense? They shoulda been running around yelling Success!
Oooh, this is working me up. Must think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. All canon is internally self-consistent. All canon is internally self-consistent. All canon is internally self-consistent.
Person #1 can use their universal translator to overide words they say so that they are not translated by person #2's translators. It is similar to noise canceling headphones, where a signal is sent out that disrupts the signal coming in.
Since this override is done with alphawaves, it can often be done by the subconscience, especially during times of high emotions.
Translators were designed this way on purpose so that proper nouns, or proper language translations were possible. After all, saying 'success' in english is not the same to a Klingon as saying it in thier native language.
Since this override is done with alphawaves, it can often be done by the subconscience, especially during times of high emotions.
Translators were designed this way on purpose so that proper nouns, or proper language translations were possible. After all, saying 'success' in english is not the same to a Klingon as saying it in thier native language.
And how did Q get away with saying Mon Capitan so often? Maybe he used his Q-power to disable the universal translators for those two words. He was quite the drama queen, after all.
And what's with all this Klingon Qapla' nonsense? They shoulda been running around yelling Success!
Oooh, this is working me up. Must think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. All canon is internally self-consistent. All canon is internally self-consistent. All canon is internally self-consistent.
Well, this one is easy (Dax doing translation, on the other hand? - Good thing I don't remember this)...
The UT works for the owner. It is a learning system which is trained over the wearers long term use. You modify the UT to your personal tastes. Do you know Klingon? Then you program the UT to not translate anything it determines to be Klingon. Do you know a few words of Klingon? Qa'plah, for instance? Then you program the UT to ignore those words as well.
For Q, we are viewing Q though the person he is interacting with. Q is the outsider and Picard, or Guinan or whoever, is the lens through which we view this outsider. For us, as viewers, to hear "Mon Capitain" when Q is addressing Picard is no problem, Picard speaks French! It is also no problem for the viewer, for the little French or Latin or Klingon that is spoken, we speak that as well (or are given a quick translation).
The reason q doesn't get translated is probably because the universal translators interpret brain waves and not the language, so q is speaking english and french, but the translator doesnt know what he is thinking, hes not humanoid.
dax translating = klingon says something before the attack on the station, and dax translates it saying "he said, today is a good day to die."
maybe kingrodder is right about the noise cancelling, that seems the only way that they would override it, but it might just be their emotions, not their control over their own device, because the universal translators only have to be used by one species.
dax translating = klingon says something before the attack on the station, and dax translates it saying "he said, today is a good day to die."
maybe kingrodder is right about the noise cancelling, that seems the only way that they would override it, but it might just be their emotions, not their control over their own device, because the universal translators only have to be used by one species.
I figure if I'm willing to suspend disbelief on faster-than-light travel, transporters, beam weapons, magical holodecks, and a utopian society that can somehow sustain a money-free economy, the universal translator is no big leap.
As others have said, it's TV. The UT was just a plot device to explain why aliens are speaking English. It's not an idea that's meant to be examined all that closely.
As others have said, it's TV. The UT was just a plot device to explain why aliens are speaking English. It's not an idea that's meant to be examined all that closely.
Faster than light travel is the the least likely thing. beam weapons are already being made, they wont stun, but they will kill you, being lasers. transporters are theoretically possible based on quantum computers which are becomeing a reality, there is already a 24 qbit quantum computer in existence. and if transporting is possible than a holodeck is. it is also theoretically possible to bend time, making warp a moot point, just by going faster than light you arrive at your destination before you leave. the utopian society is the hardest thing to believe, and the only thing that doesnt require "magical technology"
when you get something like in 'Way of the Warrior' where Martok talks to Sisko and then says something in Klingon which Worf then translates, it's simple: Martok was talking to Sisko in English, which is the lingua franca of interstellar relations and then switches to Klingon to order his troops to 'begin'. Thus, the UT wasn't in use.
likewise, when Tuvok tells Kim and Paris they're experiencing 'Pal-to-vay' the sensation of needing to visit the bathroom, they're talking in English, but he uses Vulcan which isn't translated...
simple.
likewise, when Tuvok tells Kim and Paris they're experiencing 'Pal-to-vay' the sensation of needing to visit the bathroom, they're talking in English, but he uses Vulcan which isn't translated...
simple.
what i wanna know is how the translator works with a species that doesn't use them. are we supposed to assume that ever species either speaks english or has a UT? i just don't see the kazon having them. they didn't even have replicators!
clever username; universal translators work by reading the brain patterns of the person talking to you and interpreting them into your own language, so when quark and co went back in time they could talk to the humans but without the translators they couldnt even hear the english.
If the UT really works like that, then it's also easy to explain the Qa'pla! and alien curses thing... Thoughts heavily laden with emotion might confuse or even jam the device. 
Seriously, the UT must be more than a microphone-translator-loudspeaker combo that interprets the voices around it and pipes the translations forth to the ear of the user. At the very least, the output must be fed directly to the brain or at least the inner ear of the user rather than to his outer ear, because no outsider can hear these translations. And no doubt the brain of the user is harnessed for doing part of the job, too: the UT could feed semi-processed pulp which the brain then makes the best sense of, sometimes correctly, sometimes not. It would be the brain, not the UT, that creates the effect of lip-synch; no holographic projections would be involved, just the firing of the user's own neurons.
As for why certain words can be skipped, yes, the UT probably would err on the safe side when interpreting proper names, or things it suspects might be proper names. It would also have a preprogrammed database of the most common alien languages, and would know that certain alien words just don't translate directly. Thus, Cardassian "Gul" doesn't readily translate as "Captain", because it seems to be a much broader term that does not refer merely to a specific rank or position. And the Klingon "Qa'pla!" might not translate accurately to anything English, either, or is historically deeply rooted in English as a loan word from ye olden days when the direct translation had not been worked out, so it is customary to leave it untranslated, a bit like "rendezvous" or "Gesundheit!".
Finally, when two people from different species with preprogrammed UTs in their ears meet for a chat, all sorts of interesting interference is just bound to arise. The two devices could probably carry on a discussion all by themselves for hours if left to process the minutiae of exact translations...
Timo Saloniemi
Seriously, the UT must be more than a microphone-translator-loudspeaker combo that interprets the voices around it and pipes the translations forth to the ear of the user. At the very least, the output must be fed directly to the brain or at least the inner ear of the user rather than to his outer ear, because no outsider can hear these translations. And no doubt the brain of the user is harnessed for doing part of the job, too: the UT could feed semi-processed pulp which the brain then makes the best sense of, sometimes correctly, sometimes not. It would be the brain, not the UT, that creates the effect of lip-synch; no holographic projections would be involved, just the firing of the user's own neurons.
As for why certain words can be skipped, yes, the UT probably would err on the safe side when interpreting proper names, or things it suspects might be proper names. It would also have a preprogrammed database of the most common alien languages, and would know that certain alien words just don't translate directly. Thus, Cardassian "Gul" doesn't readily translate as "Captain", because it seems to be a much broader term that does not refer merely to a specific rank or position. And the Klingon "Qa'pla!" might not translate accurately to anything English, either, or is historically deeply rooted in English as a loan word from ye olden days when the direct translation had not been worked out, so it is customary to leave it untranslated, a bit like "rendezvous" or "Gesundheit!".
Finally, when two people from different species with preprogrammed UTs in their ears meet for a chat, all sorts of interesting interference is just bound to arise. The two devices could probably carry on a discussion all by themselves for hours if left to process the minutiae of exact translations...
Timo Saloniemi
The UT is one of the singular most broken things about Trek.
They encounter an alien life form for the first time.. exchange a few sentences and suddenly the UT says "AHA!" and translates the alien language perfectly and in real time (and even changes lip movement to english words on the viewscreen
)... and all this with less than 50 words exchanged.
Best not to think too hard about it
They encounter an alien life form for the first time.. exchange a few sentences and suddenly the UT says "AHA!" and translates the alien language perfectly and in real time (and even changes lip movement to english words on the viewscreen
)... and all this with less than 50 words exchanged.Best not to think too hard about it
The UT is one of the singular most broken things about Trek.
They encounter an alien life form for the first time.. exchange a few sentences and suddenly the UT says "AHA!" and translates the alien language perfectly and in real time (and even changes lip movement to english words on the viewscreen
Best not to think too hard about it
In DS9, there was an episode where the UT was not up to par for some new Gamma Quadrant species. It took while for the computer to finally process the language. I liked that episode.
I liked the UT problems part of Sanctuary. The rest of the Skrreean storyline sucked.
I wonder what happened to the Skrreea during the Dominion War. Maybe, the Jem'Hadar slaughtered all of them.
I wonder what happened to the Skrreea during the Dominion War. Maybe, the Jem'Hadar slaughtered all of them.
But... but... I can see their lips moving in English!!!
What he said.
The aliens, you see, are metaphors of...ready for this?
Us.
What he said.
The aliens, you see, are metaphors of...ready for this?
Us.
I liked the UT problems part of Sanctuary. The rest of the Skrreean storyline sucked.
I wonder what happened to the Skrreea during the Dominion War. Maybe, the Jem'Hadar slaughtered all of them.
Yeah, that was the part I liked. I don't really remember the rest of the episode, I was just thinking "Cool, finally the UT doesn't get it!"
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