“The Babel fish is a small, bright yellow fish, which can be placed in someone’s ear in order for them to be able to hear any language translated into their first language”. Ford Prefect puts one in Arthur Dent‘s ear at the beginning of the story so that he can hear the Vogon speech. “Probably the oddest thing in the Universe.”
When reading this book, I thought to myself “how interesting would it be to actually be to have a device that could do that!” Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we would develop a product that can simulate the job of many individuals. The Pixel buds from Google can now do this. With the use of the Google translate app, the buds produce practically real time translation. The way it works is one person wears the earbuds, while the other holds a phone. The earbud wearer speaks in his or her language—English is the default—and the app translates the talking and plays it aloud on the phone. The person holding the phone responds; this response is translated and played through the earbuds. While you don’t exactly get to stick a little fellow in your ear, the idea is somewhat the same.
How does this impact communication ethics, integrity, and the art of persuasion? What responsibility you have as a global, universal, content creator and communicator? These questions are best answered by saying that there is no ‘lost in translation” excuses. While there may be some issues involving semantics, there is the less confusion. More opportunity to connect and really bond whereas without something like this, it would take months, maybe years. The responsibility in creating and communicating means we just have to put all our cards on the table and be transparent, be real. Be our true selves. And that, is a beautiful concept, just like the Babel fish.
In 1965, Gordon Moore, while working for Fairchild semiconductor articulated a principle where, the doubling every year of the number of transistors on a microchip was extrapolated from observed data. What that meant was that microchips would get smaller and twice as many transistors would fit on a chip. He went on to claim how this would lead to smaller computers that would fit in homes, cars, etc. The doubling number now has been expanded to every 2 years but still remains close to accurate. It has lead to smartphones, tablets and readers, which all utilize microchip technology. At some point it will turn, it must, you can only go so small. At which point, there is a prediction of a swing from a “top down” technology to a “bottom up” one. And that is where AI will start to play a prominent role. I hope that I am around to witness it!
Credits (Intel Corp, 2000) (Gianfagna, 2021) On Moore’s Law
(https://www.technologyreview.com/technology/babel-fish-earbuds/)( https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish) On the Babel fish