The Telegraph has an interesting article on a computer program that can identify and potentially even translate alien languages.
It is basically a pattern recognition algorithm that would compare the alien language to a database of 60 human languages. We are getting ever closer to creating a real babel fish.
I think that the new global protocol is already TCP/IP and because “language is a virus” it is only a matter of time before we infect the universe with it.
- Related Stuff
- Found in Translation – An earlier article about the DARPA translator initiative
- BBC article on the “Tower of Babel” device
- GALE [Global Autonomous Language Explitation]
- IraqComm
- Boing Boing tv episode about the Military Translator
- more on Burrough’s “Language is a virus from outer space” quote