There seems to be a misconception about Grace's translation software that is bothering me more and more and we need to address:
It is *not* AI. It is not """interpreting""" Rocky's words/meaning. It only picks up literal words.
Eridian words are musical notes/chords
Soundwaves are physical, and at different frequencies they make different patterns! These physical patterns, and therefore Eridian language, is formulaic and repeatable. This is easily processed by computers in a reliable way. This is also lucky for Grace!!
Grace and Rocky create a database that maps notes/chords to words
When Rocky speaks, the computer looks up the exact notes in their pre-made database and returns the associated word
It is a FORMULAIC LOOKUP, NOT AI
Rocky isn't saying "My loneliness knows no bounds, and I have forgotten my soul in the endless abyss" which the translator outputs as "Rocky in space too long"
Rocky is literally saying "... Rocky in space too long" knowing that that's the only words the translator has to draw from.
It's a bit terrifying to me how quickly people are just accepting "yeah computers must be intuiting basic meaning" because that's the opposite of how it works. They don't "understand" anything. They take gads of data and turn it into something that looks like it has meaning, not the other way around. I know I'm fighting a losing battle here, and maybe I'm just being a pedantic asshole, but god do I hate how pervasive this misconception is.
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