Universal Translators are very common in science fiction stories. Whether it is an ancient civilization or aliens; the Universal Translator can translate anything into anything from the moment someone opens their mouth.
Like Otto explains in today’s comic; a Universal Translator like that would be impossible because words are simply made up by humans for communication purposes. Without a full list of words, their pronunciation and their meanings you probably couldn’t translate a single sentence. And what to think of words that have no representation in the other language? How would a universal translator say the word ‘computer’ in Ancient Egyptian? …and then I’m not even starting on grammar rules or dialects.
My conclusion is that if we ever meet an alien race, we’d first have to sit down and figure out each other’s language before any kind of communication is possible. …unless all aliens speak English like in the movies.
112: Universal Impossibility, 4.4 out of 5 based on 10 ratings
