Comments on: 'Who sees everything, becomes sad'

By: exurban escape

exurban escape — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:49:29 +0000

Came here from BLDGBLOG. Nice breakdown of the Die Welt article. And dang, Mr. Person Who Figured Out The ARD Problem… I’ve lived in Germany for 5 years and I had absolutely no idea what happened to Ballard’s name.

It definitely added a touch of surrealism to the babelese – as if a bunch of young, not particularly articulate broadcasting corporations were composing Ballard’s answers as a committee from the safety of their favorite ball pool!

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:59:41 +0000

Thanks, Bosse! but we’re already working on it.

More soon…

By: Bosse de Nage

Bosse de Nage — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:33:20 +0000

I could translate the interview, unless you prefer the Babelese version.

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:39:30 +0000

Tim: “it’s not ‘ard”. ‘arf ‘arf.

John: yes, exactly. And i still believe HAL 9000 is the perfect illustration of this difficulty. As for reading about a future where “computer translation is shoddy”, well that’s a story waiting to happen, isn’t it?

By: John Coulthart

John Coulthart — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:05:29 +0000

The difficulty–impossibility, even–of finding an algorithm for nuance is part of Roger Penrose’s argument against strong AI. Nuance and the things we know to be true about ourselves and the world but can’t render into mathematics. I can’t keep up with his maths to critique his argument but it makes a welcome corrective to the blithe and increasingly widespread assumption that AI is going to “kick in” at some point very soon.

That aside, it’s always fascinating seeing sf writers encounter the actual products of the future they used to imagine. I don’t recall ever having read of a future where computer translation is shoddy but provides just enough information to make sense.

By: Tim Chapman

Tim Chapman — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:25:22 +0000

An elementary deduction, Dr Sellars, once one deduced the logical error committed by the translation engine. It wasn’t ‘ard.

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 11:40:02 +0000

Tim, you’re a bloody marvel! How did you know that?

BallARD = Ball ‘pool of broadcasting corporations’. It makes complete sense, now!

See, this is how future wars will start: when machines acquire artificial intelligence and start to apply the law too literally. In Babel Fish’s mind, it has acted in a completely logical fashion, much like ED 209 in Robocop. Or Hal 9000 in 2001. Deep trouble will always ensue when humans attempt to convince the machines that language contains nuance…

By: Tim Chapman

Tim Chapman — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 11:15:40 +0000

ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland – “Consortium of public-law broadcasting institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany”), is a joint organization of Germany’s regional public-service broadcasters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARD_(broadcaster)

Shades of ‘Horselover Fat’?