Molasses Pie and Blue Skies Podcast Transcripts

Episode 1: Universal Translators

The following is a transcript of Molasses Pie and Blue Skies Episode 1: Universal Translators

Tamara: Hello, I am Tamara Zook Smith, but you can call me Tommy, you're favorite out-of-touch football fan, and you're listening to Molasses Pie and Blue Skies, where we learn everyday history to make up for my terribly limited childhood education.

T: On Earth, most people end up getting their subcranial universal translator, their UT, around thirteen or fourteen, maybe younger if your parents travel a lot. That's why it always really surprises people when I tell them that I didn't get mine until I was nineteen. This was because I grew up in a secluded area to a family that was heavily involved in some messed up stuff. I won't go into now, but needless to say, getting a universal translator helped me leave and start my own life. I know I didn't pay enough attention in school nor did I read the literature before I got my universal translator installed, and so today we're talking about universal translators, and I have a very special guest on here who knows a lot about them, so I'd like you all to meet Joyful Boston, an expert on the history of universal translators and THE android to go to for all things linguistic.

Joyful: Thank you for having me on today, Tommy, and please, just Joy is fine.

T: No problem, I'm glad you agreed to be on, so Joy, can you introduce yourself to the audience, maybe give them a bit about what you do?

J: So, just like you said, I'm a linguist, and if my name was any indication, I'm a Boston android, and I currently work on maintaining the BITA system, that's the Boston Interpretation and Translation Authority system, and in developing new translations for the Universal Translation Catalogue.

T: That's hella impressive

J: *laughs* thank you

T: So, to start off, can you give us, and I know this is a bit of a big ask because there's a lot of ground to cover here, but can you give us a brief overview on the history of the universal translator, and how we got to a point where the BITA system is as accurate as it is.

J: Sure, so universal translators, as a technological concept, have been around in a simple form since the early 21st century, but they had a high degree of inaccuracy that hindered true real-time interpretation; you could get the gist of what was being said, but it left out the nuances and it didn't consider the cultures that spoke the languages being translated, so towards the end of the 21st century, we see a huge increase in demand for more precise interpretation software.

T: Did they ever reach the accuracy of the BITA system even with just Terran languages?

J: I will say they got...close

T: *chuckles* They get a consolation prize, they get a, like a "you tried sticker"

J: *laughs* yep, it was commendable, but it was ultimately easier to use human translators and interpreters. There's actually a really funny anecdote involving an early UT that interpreted the German word Schadenfreude as the English word sadomasochism in the middle of a world summit

T: What? No?!

J: Yes, it was bad, a human interpreter had to clear up the confusion, but today it's a classic example of some of the early blunders of real time UT interpretation.

T: And so, how does this change after the Android-Organic War?

J: Yeah, after Androids become established as a sapient class capable of self-determination, we see huge leaps and bounds forward because artificial intelligence was already heavily involved in translation and interpretation, but once that base code was in the care of the androids, they really took that and optimized it based on what we needed to understand humans and our new relationship with humans