Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Unexplained Mysteries -> Extraterrestrial Life & The UFO Phenomenon -> 'Babelfish' to translate alien tongues
Post Info TOPIC: 'Babelfish' to translate alien tongues
vinitjain


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 442
Date:
'Babelfish' to translate alien tongues
Permalink  

If we ever make contact with intelligent aliens, we should be able to build a universal translator to communicate with them, according to a linguist and anthropologist in the US.

Such a "babelfish", which gets its name from the translating fish in Douglas Adams's book The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, would require a much more advanced understanding of language than we currently have. But a first step would be recognising that all languages must have a universal structure, according to Terrence Deacon of the University of California, Berkeley, US.

How language develops is highly controversial. Some theories argue that the process has been built into the human brain through evolution, and that the sounds we use to communicate are arbitrary.

If that is true, there could be an infinite set of possibilities for expressing an idea through language. An alien race that developed through a completely different process of evolution would probably speak a language indecipherable to humans.

But Deacon argues that all languages arise from the common goal of describing the physical world. That limits the way a language could be constructed, he concludes.

Scented words

An alien race could use a strange medium like scents as their language, Deacon says, but the scents would still describe objects in their world. An odour that communicates "rock" or "tree" would be analogous to our words for the same objects. So there must be an underlying universal code that can be deciphered, as in mathematics.

"In Carl Sagans book Contact, aliens communicate to humans through prime numbers," says Deacon. "Why? Nature doesn't use prime numbers. But the numbers are intrinsic to the mathematical system, just as certain structures are intrinsic to language."

One of our most basic forms of communication is pointing, he says. Pointing directly references a physical object. When we invent a word for that object, that word is a symbol. Symbols can then convey meaning about objects even if they're not present in our immediate environment.

Abstract symbols

Deacon argues that no matter how abstract a symbol becomes, it is still somehow grounded in physical reality, and that limits the number of relationships it can have with other symbol words. In turn, this defines the grammatical structure that emerges from stringing words together.

If that is true, then in the distant future it might be possible to invent a gadget that uses complex software to decode alien languages on the spot, Deacon said. He presented his ideas on Thursday 17 April at the 2008 Astrobiology Science Conference in Santa Clara, California, US.

Testing the theory might be tough because we would have to make contact with aliens advanced enough to engage in abstract thinking and the use of linguistic symbols. But Denise Herzing of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, US, points out that we might be able to test it by studying dolphins.

Read more at http://theunexplainedmysteries.com/alien-tongue.html

__________________

Webmaster
(http://theunexplainedmysteries.com)
beingoflight


Newbie

Status: Offline
Posts: 2
Date:
Permalink  

I think music such as harmonics is universal and that would be the basis of communication. I would think certain harmonics resonating would or could be put through a computer and able to be read as a language.

When I first studied with the OU back in 2000-20001, I suggested that DNA could be read harmonically and later a way was developed using laser technology about five years later.

As DNA has a harmonic code, maybe DNA in itself could be the basis of language throughout the universe,as DNA is found in all forms of life, and RNA is as well.

By combining the harmonic codes of DNA, and adjusting the frequency it might be a universal code like SOS or other universal codes known the world over.

__________________
vinitjain


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 442
Date:
Permalink  

Very interesting thought indeed .. Have you reaserched or have done a paper on DNA and harmonics.. luks like a interesting read to me

__________________

Webmaster
(http://theunexplainedmysteries.com)
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.
Unexplained Mysteries -> Extraterrestrial Life & The UFO Phenomenon -> 'Babelfish' to translate alien tongues
Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse 		Powered by ActiveBoard