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The babel fish translated via brainwave energy and a telepathic matrix: > The Babel fish is small, yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the

The babel fish translated via brainwave energy and a telepathic matrix: > The Babel fish is small, yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with the nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.

jasomill 3y ago
“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God. “The argument goes something like this: ‘I refuse to prove that I exist,’ says God, ‘for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’ “‘But,’ says Man, ‘the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.’ “‘Oh dear,’ says God, ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. “‘Oh, that was easy,’ says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing. “Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo’s kidneys, but that didn’t stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book, Well That about Wraps It Up for God. “Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.”
- blooalien 3y ago
  I couldn't help but hear this in my mind as it was read in the voice of the narrator from the old BBC "Hitchhiker's Guide" mini-series.
geoelectric 3y ago
Well, then. Magic indeed!
passion__desire 3y ago
I think idea of Babel Fish might encroach on the computational complexity limit in some sense. Imagine a future "Theory of Everything" book written in alien language. The book has total of 1 million characters across its pages where each character is distinct. Now Babel Fish must be able to "translate" such a language to English given its oracle like powers? Can it do the job?
- civilitty 3y ago
  While Arthur Dent does read some stuff throughout the series that couldn't possibly be in English like signs on an alien planet, the full nature of the babel fish is rather vague and we don't know if it would work that way. As far as I can tell, all the written text it translates for Dent is in the context of living civilizations so the babel fish has brainwave energy to feed into the telepathic matrix - presumably telepathically using the knowledge of nearby persons for the translation. That said, given the Heart of Gold improbability drive, I don't think information theoretic violations are your biggest problems.

jasomill 3y ago

“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God. “The argument goes something like this: ‘I refuse to prove that I exist,’ says God, ‘for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’ “‘But,’ says Man, ‘the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.’ “‘Oh dear,’ says God, ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. “‘Oh, that was easy,’ says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing. “Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo’s kidneys, but that didn’t stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book, Well That about Wraps It Up for God. “Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.”

blooalien 3y ago
I couldn't help but hear this in my mind as it was read in the voice of the narrator from the old BBC "Hitchhiker's Guide" mini-series.

geoelectric 3y ago

Well, then. Magic indeed!

passion__desire 3y ago

I think idea of Babel Fish might encroach on the computational complexity limit in some sense. Imagine a future "Theory of Everything" book written in alien language. The book has total of 1 million characters across its pages where each character is distinct. Now Babel Fish must be able to "translate" such a language to English given its oracle like powers? Can it do the job?

civilitty 3y ago
While Arthur Dent does read some stuff throughout the series that couldn't possibly be in English like signs on an alien planet, the full nature of the babel fish is rather vague and we don't know if it would work that way. As far as I can tell, all the written text it translates for Dent is in the context of living civilizations so the babel fish has brainwave energy to feed into the telepathic matrix - presumably telepathically using the knowledge of nearby persons for the translation. That said, given the Heart of Gold improbability drive, I don't think information theoretic violations are your biggest problems.