Posted: Apr 25, 2017 4:14 pm
tuco wrote:Indeed, the series reflects segment of technological progress quite well.
Universal translator. I mean wtf? That aliens got technologies we can understand because of laws of nature alright, but how can it decipher alien language in real time without a doze of misunderstandings is beyond me.
Of course, this remains science-fiction ultimately, but the excuse was that most, if not all languages, operate on the same basic principles, such as grammar and that if a computer heard enough of a language spoken, it could, after a while, create a translation.
This was demonstrated in at least one DS9 episode where they meet a new race from the Gamma quadrant, which had such a different language it took the universal translator quite some time to create a fully function translation.
It is also implied that langauges need to be programmed into the translators.
In the episode where the Damar first meets the Breen; he remarks that if he'd known they'd meet the Breen, he would have adjusted his translator.