Hypothetical Question: What Would Happen to Human Society if a Universal Translator was Invented?

[Riedquat]

Also, my first stop in Portsmouth was for coffee. They asked me white or black. Had no idea what white meant, and I asked. She gave me that look that you give to dumb Americans, 'it's with cow's milk'. Here I was thinking I was about to have a interesting new take on coffee. Nope it's just coffee with milk.

Coffee now seems to come with a hundred different types instead of the "white" or "black" that was all I ever understood it to be. But then I drink tea. Never was that keen on coffee (which is why it's doubly weird that I acquired a taste for small, strong espressos when I was in France).

[Riedquat]

The American scone looks like it could be the same basic sort of base, albeit slightly more pastry-like and with a different sort of fruit in it (British scones can be sweet or savoury - plain, fruit, but not as much as that, or cheese are the most common - wouldn't have jam and cream on the cheese scones though, that sounds stomach-curdling!)

[hammerofglass]

So for one that's the same cultures but isn't the word being the same: I had zero idea what "brown sauce" actually is until I tried HP a few weeks ago. I had always assumed it was something like ketchup but it's not remotely similar, I don't have anything to really compare it to. Definitely getting added to my standard condiment selection, it's delicious.

[clearspira]

So for one that's the same cultures but isn't the word being the same: I had zero idea what "brown sauce" actually is until I tried HP a few weeks ago. I had always assumed it was something like ketchup but it's not remotely similar, I don't have anything to really compare it to. Definitely getting added to my standard condiment selection, it's delicious.

You can't go wrong with HP sauce.

Speaking of ketchup, I grew up watching shows like The Simpsons where they took the piss out of something called ''catsup''. It took me about 25 years to learn that this wasn't some obscure American sauce and is in fact still just ketchup lol. These little regional variations would be a serious issue for a real UT.

And speaking of regional and country variations of food, we have a traditional dish in the UK called a faggot. It consists of minced pork wrapped in bacon with onion and breadcrumbs. It is normally served with mash potato and peas. I don't know how a popular British meat dish ended up becoming a deeply offensive American insult but it causes ALL SORTS of issues. It is incredibly hard to use this word on forums or social media sites without getting auto-banned. I just tried putting it into Google and the AI generator won't touch it nor will the search bar auto-complete it. The word ''fag'' is also a popular slang term for a cigarette - you'll hear it a lot in old British sitcoms.

Classic Darmok effect once again only this time a common word in one language becomes a deeply offensive slur in another. To cycle this back around to Winter's original question, a true universal translator would seem to require a homogeneous culture to go along with it.

[hammerofglass]

That could be how they got there in Darmok. Just a bunch of different but connected cultures so they ended up doing their equivalent of "okay The Illiad and Odyssey are something that's been popular consistently to most of us for thousands of years, we're just going to use references to that since everyone gets it. Nothing Hessiod, Ovid, or Virgil added that'll just confuse things. And if you bastards Achilles, in his tent over this I'm going to personally Odysseus, with the suitors".

[McAvoy]

So for one that's the same cultures but isn't the word being the same: I had zero idea what "brown sauce" actually is until I tried HP a few weeks ago. I had always assumed it was something like ketchup but it's not remotely similar, I don't have anything to really compare it to. Definitely getting added to my standard condiment selection, it's delicious.

You can't go wrong with HP sauce.

Speaking of ketchup, I grew up watching shows like The Simpsons where they took the piss out of something called ''catsup''. It took me about 25 years to learn that this wasn't some obscure American sauce and is in fact still just ketchup lol. These little regional variations would be a serious issue for a real UT.

And speaking of regional and country variations of food, we have a traditional dish in the UK called a faggot. It consists of minced pork wrapped in bacon with onion and breadcrumbs. It is normally served with mash potato and peas. I don't know how a popular British meat dish ended up becoming a deeply offensive American insult but it causes ALL SORTS of issues. It is incredibly hard to use this word on forums or social media sites without getting auto-banned. I just tried putting it into Google and the AI generator won't touch it nor will the search bar auto-complete it. The word ''fag'' is also a popular slang term for a cigarette - you'll hear it a lot in old British sitcoms.

Classic Darmok effect once again only this time a common word in one language becomes a deeply offensive slur in another. To cycle this back around to Winter's original question, a true universal translator would seem to require a homogeneous culture to go along with it.

Never heard of the dish. Just heard the usual fag for a cigarette.

In actuality the universal translator would have to extremely sophisticated to figure out English language no matter which country to begin with. It would have to have a pretty good context algorithm.

"I am going to check the boot". For example. In the US you are checking a shoe. In England you are checking what Americans call the trunk.

"I am going to check the trunk."

Again in the US that's the back of the car to store stuff. But at the same time but far less likely you could be saying you checking out the trunk of a elephant. Or a tree.

[stryke]

There's also the usage of that work in the uk for a bundle of wooden sticks used in fire lighting. There's a pretty dark joke about that in the book of Good Omens.

[hammerofglass]

TV Tropes has a whole page of these, and this is just English.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... ge/English

[Riedquat]

That could be how they got there in Darmok. Just a bunch of different but connected cultures so they ended up doing their equivalent of "okay The Illiad and Odyssey are something that's been popular consistently to most of us for thousands of years, we're just going to use references to that since everyone gets it. Nothing Hessiod, Ovid, or Virgil added that'll just confuse things. And if you bastards Achilles, in his tent over this I'm going to personally Odysseus, with the suitors".

I like that theory!

[Riedquat]

So for one that's the same cultures but isn't the word being the same: I had zero idea what "brown sauce" actually is until I tried HP a few weeks ago. I had always assumed it was something like ketchup but it's not remotely similar, I don't have anything to really compare it to. Definitely getting added to my standard condiment selection, it's delicious.

I've never been all that fussed about brown sauce to be honest. Don't mind it but I never buy it.