Universal Translator

[Misfit Toy]

I guess I just don't like the 'what the writer wants' answer. Yes, ultimately, Star Trek is fiction, and so every answer can be given that the writer just happened to do it that way. But this website wouldn't be very much fun if that's the only response people gave for non-opinion questions.

It isn't very fun when you call someone's answer "non-intelligent" simply because it isn't the response you wanted. Please try to avoid that.

 

[Timo]

We may always try and invent our own rules and limitations for the UT tech even when we have zero idea of how it works - the evidence from the episodes allows us to establish such rules and limitations for warp drive, transporters and phasers easily enough even when those are fictional and contrary to modern scientific knowledge.

The problem with the UT is that even the tiniest thing it does is already fundamentally magic; it's very difficult to establish limits when the 1st Rule is "the possibilities are endless!".

This doesn't mean the UT would be particularly unrealistic, though. Computing would have been pure magic to us half a century ago, and even today the limits of its applications elude us, but it's not fiction, and in many ways surpasses fiction as far as limitless technologies go.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Captain McBain]

I never used the term 'non-intelligent.'

 

[The Wormhole]

Someone already mentioned that Chewbacca could be somewhat understood in the Star Wars universe. That's an objective fact.

Is it? In the onscreen version of that universe, Chewbacca doesn't really deliver any information to his fellow adventurers through his growls - except when pointing at a warning light on the Falcon's control panel at the same time, or suggestively waving a gun, etc. Sure, the heroes "answer" as if they understood what Chewbacca said, but the various handlers of Lassie did that a lot, too. Doesn't mean there'd be intelligence at both ends of the conversation.

Chewbacca fills Han Solo in on what he missed while being frozen when they're both in Jabba's dungeon in ROTJ.

 

[Timo]

Ah, right. Hard to see how Han could have gotten that figured out from mere Lassie barks. I mean, he could well get the "You were delivered to Jabba" bit figured out by himself while listening to Chewie's soothing but meaningless grunts, but he couldn't get Luke's name and the fact he's a Jedi now unless the growls really contained those bits of information.

Unless he got it out of Leia already and is merely ranting it out when paired with Chewbacca. Or unless the Force is strong with him or something.

Timo Saloniemi