Automated Translators?

[Jak Nazryth]

Do Star ships have automatic translators as part of the Communication systems?
If you are hailed by a Vargr, Aslan, Solimani, etc... and you can only speak Vilani (yes I now Galanglic is "common").... will the ships communications computer automatically translate to a predetermined language?
Reason I'm asking is that at least one of my players has skill in "language/Dryone". I'm assuming Vilani, Solimani, Zhodani, and numerous other minor human-based societies have different languages not to mention non-humans like the major races, and huge amount of minor races.

A language barrier is about to play a major role in an encounter with my players in the game tomorrow evening... most likely ship-to-ship communication.

The U.S. army today has rudimentary hand held translators. Just curious if this kind of thing is standard as part of the Comms suite on board star ships, I've never even thought of it before. Or is that too "Star Trek"?

 

[Anonymous]

I have a friend works for a company that's currently developing a real time translator app for your phone. He seems to think its viable today, I'd see no problem with a 57th century computer being able to do it, especially if it has the intelligent interface option.

If that puts a spanner in the works for creating a language barrier, you could always have it malfunction or say the computer doesn't recognise a dialect or a particular language.

 

[wbnc]

Oh Yeah by the time 3I is taking place in,you cna bet real time translators are around. I'd even go so far as to say they can even mimic the general tone and pattern of the speaker to some extent.

However what a computer would "hear" would not be the same a what a Trained speaker int he language would hear. Subtle inflections, slang, context, even those tricky little words that have several meanings when used in a certain way.

For example "Yeah, Right. Whatever you say"

a computer might only hear "Yes Correct, I accept your proposal."

Where a someone who knows the language hears <Dismissive contempt, or sarcasm>

that's why someone came up with the idea of emoticons. when filtered through a completely fat, unemotional medium communication becomes buggy. so we add little tags to our words so people get the emotional/contextual information the text strips off. :shock: 8) :x :roll: :evil: :|

Now it would be possible to program a system that can read emotional cues, but contextual cues would be a huge problem. :shock:

That requires an intimate understanding of the language as well a how native speakers use it..Hence a language skill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSRDWcEm1GA

 

[Anonymous]

Careful there, this could turn into an argument about expert systems and AI if we're not careful...

:roll:

:wink:

That does give you the leeway to have the language barrier problem play into the game tho

 

[dragoner]

Do Star ships have automatic translators as part of the Communication systems?

I have it IMTU, it is only literal translation, like in the campaign right now, the players are concealing their identity as a Vargr raider, and they have a Vargr pilot to speak for them when they need to play the part and be believed, something a translation program can't do. The major languages will have a better translation, just because the sample is larger if nothing else.

 

[Reynard]

Specialized computer with Translator tied into your bridge communication system. Works for TL 9+, just in time for star travel.

 

[wbnc]

Careful there, this could turn into an argument about expert systems and AI if we're not careful...

:roll:

:wink:

That does give you the leeway to have the language barrier problem play into the game tho

Precisely :twisted:

I like to encourage players to develop skills other than the bang bang, swoop swoosh skills. If they have to work through problems using their skills, and wits, the scenario can be infinitely more enjoyable...well unless they have only gunnery, pilot and handgun..... :roll:

Having some degree ofconfusion in communications is a universal stumbling stone....See "To Serve man"

Do Star ships have automatic translators as part of the Communication systems?

I have it IMTU, it is only literal translation, like in the campaign right now, the players are concealing their identity as a Vargr raider, and they have a Vargr pilot to speak for them when they need to play the part and be believed, something a translation program can't do. The major languages will have a better translation, just because the sample is larger if nothing else.

yeah, a native speaker would be quick to pick up on a canned response..they'd know it was a translator and be suspicious of a Vargr using a translator to speak with other Vargr...I recall a scene from One star trek movie( one of the older ones) where Uhura had to try and talk her way past a Klingon patrol....using only a phrase book and some awkward phrasing....lucky for her the writer was on her side.

 

[AndrewW]

One could limit it to only languages the computer knows about. Could always through a language the computer doesn't know at them.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Voice recognition to language translation would be a thing in Traveller, assuming Traveller is not an alternate future or something else from ours, assuming we still have workable tech in our own future.

 

[Reynard]

"I like to encourage players to develop skills other than the bang bang, swoop swoosh skills. If they have to work through problems using their skills, and wits, the scenario can be infinitely more enjoyable...well unless they have only gunnery, pilot and handgun..... :roll:

Having some degree of confusion in communications is a universal stumbling stone....See "To Serve man"

My aslan character, a very brilliant and educated chief engineer for Pirates of Drinax, had only Anglic 1. She carried a portable TL 8 hand computer with Translator 0 to 'assist' with her conversations so I would have her speak a broken Anglic much to the confusion and consternation of the Referee and other players. Made the game... interesting and often humorous. You don't always need the best of the best to have a fun game. Star Trek needed universal translators because the show was only an hour long each week.

 

[Condottiere]

Should have no issues internally, between most known language variants of a specific race; requires careful programming interspecies.

So translating between English and Mandarin shouldn't be a problem, between Japanese and K'Kree, probably.

 

[Epicenter]

However what a computer would "hear" would not be the same a what a Trained speaker int he language would hear. Subtle inflections, slang, context, even those tricky little words that have several meanings when used in a certain way.

If you really want to throw yourself for a loop ...

Try imagining the effect of ... universal translators on widely spoken languages. If enough people use them, they're going to have an impact on the language as it adapts to be more easily understood by the UTs.

Sarcasm as a method of expression might disappear entirely, simply because it's very hard for translators to catch and could lead to very bad unintentional misunderstandings; people might actually move to other forms of passive-aggression. (Believe it or not, many RL languages / cultures don't feature sarcasm.)

 

[Jak Nazryth]

Andrew touched on it.
May assumption was that all 3I comm systems had basic translators for all the major and most minor races.
Tonight they will meet a race that their translator will not comprehend.

 

[Reynard]

"May assumption was that all 3I comm systems had basic translators for all the major and most minor races."

No mention anywhere that it is while the electronics and software for translators are available in the Core Book and Central supply. More probable than not people aren't going to waste money unless there's an actual need for it. If you're never going to speak to one or more races or local human languages why bother? Like adding a cigarette lighter in a car when you don't smoke. It's not an expensive option so go have your cheap players buy the units if they feel it's an absolute necessity.

And, as always, Traveller is also Your Traveller Universe. It doesn't have to be 3I so universal translators can go Star Trek and be in every personal communicator and there is no language barrier. Makes a game and a show run smoother. I don't mention Star Wars because they do have language barriers and universal translators are bipedal and metallic with butler accents.

 

[AndrewW]

Like adding a cigarette lighter in a car when you don't smoke. It's not an expensive option so go have your cheap players buy the units if they feel it's an absolute necessity.

Think these days they are used more for power ports then lighting anything...

 

[Reynard]

Considering how much time has passed since they became universal power ports, do many younger people know that slot is the descendent of the cigarette lighter? Feel old, feel very old.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

IMTU there are enough encounters with Major Races (and cultures) that basic translators are standard on 3I comms systems, no special requirements to take up slots on a computer... "dang, we cant understand the Vargr... ok, disconnect Jump 1 and activate translator..." nothing like that. (especially in the Spinward Marches and Trojan Reach where my game is set). Hand computers/comms might be a different issue though.

 

[Matt Wilson]

If translation software is readily available, I think it'd be more likely that individual 3I planets would develop their own particular dialects, and finding software might occasionally be difficult, or expensive, for a less-traveled world.

 

[CosmicGamer]

I also think people speaking the same language could be problematic with different systems having regional dialects and localized slang.

 

[Anonymous]

Tell me about it, nearly two years working here with the same people and some of them still struggle with my London accent...

:roll: