The same way the doors know whether someone wants to go through them or not.
Universal Translator Conumdrums as bad as temp. cause. loops)
- Thread starter Meadowmorph
- Start date
And why shouldn't they? It's not much of a feat.
Back in the 1950s, it might have been a bit futuristic, what with door openers that only reacted to presence (pressure sensors), not to movement.
Back in the 1970s, it might have been a bit complicated, what with sensors that could track movement with ease, but with computing of movement paths slow and expensive.
Back in the 1990s, it might have been a bit expensive, with sensors and computers easily available but not trivially cheap.
Back in the 2010s, it was neither futuristic, complicated nor expensive. It simply wasn't needed.
But nobody needed cell phones, either. So why don't we have smart doors today? I could rig one with the right LEGO kit and a a hundred lines of code. But I don't want my doors to start thinking what I want.
Timo Saloniemi
Back in the 1950s, it might have been a bit futuristic, what with door openers that only reacted to presence (pressure sensors), not to movement.
Back in the 1970s, it might have been a bit complicated, what with sensors that could track movement with ease, but with computing of movement paths slow and expensive.
Back in the 1990s, it might have been a bit expensive, with sensors and computers easily available but not trivially cheap.
Back in the 2010s, it was neither futuristic, complicated nor expensive. It simply wasn't needed.
But nobody needed cell phones, either. So why don't we have smart doors today? I could rig one with the right LEGO kit and a a hundred lines of code. But I don't want my doors to start thinking what I want.
Timo Saloniemi
For the same reason the idiot ships can't figure out what a cup of tea is, yet they can know when to open doors and figure out language they haven't heard before except when it can't. The same mighty tech wizards that can't figure out the worth of seat belts.
So, do people hear the UT-translated words, as vibrations through the air, or do they perceive the translated meanings in their minds? One way or the other, untranslated words, the original words, are still there, that sound still exists. So you might end up with the impression of two people talking over each other...
Not if the UT intercepts stuff within our noggins, on its way from the ear to the brain.
Key here is that our brains are so delightfully easy to fool. Indeed, one of their primary functions to begin with is to fool - to simplify the world as presented by sensory input, to pretend that it makes sense. The UT wouldn't be tasked with much extra work there, then. Just provide a coarse translation, and the brain will pretend it's perfectly composed phrases spoken in one's native language, with good lipsync to boot.
Timo Saloniemi
Key here is that our brains are so delightfully easy to fool. Indeed, one of their primary functions to begin with is to fool - to simplify the world as presented by sensory input, to pretend that it makes sense. The UT wouldn't be tasked with much extra work there, then. Just provide a coarse translation, and the brain will pretend it's perfectly composed phrases spoken in one's native language, with good lipsync to boot.
Timo Saloniemi
In actuality; the conversations and the translations take more time and are more clumsy than shown on screen. When filming the documentaries of the starships enterprise and voyager, et al; the producers hired actors and built sets to represent the adventures of Kirk, Picard etc; and translated everything in the script to english.