Movie Gadget Friday: The Babel fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
posted March 18th 2005 6:04PM
As a warm up to the impending (end of April in the UK) release of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the
original film of the videogame of the television series of the stage production of the towel of the radio plays –
action figures and plush assortment already available) this week
I'm taking a look at the Babel fish.
One of the many finest figments of the late, great Douglas Adams's
fantastic imagination, Babel fishes are naturally occurring biologically based gadgets. The fish lives in your ear
canal feeding off the energy you use to speak, and excreeting translations of others utterances.
The fish is a cert for an appearance in the upcoming movie since it’s the device that allows all races and species
to understand one another – Adams’s ingenious solution to the conundrum of why the science fiction universe appears to
be full of English speakers. As a device that enabled everyone in the universe to finally understand what everyone else
was going on about, it was also legendary for being responsible for “more and bloodier wars than anything else in the
history of creation”.
The unlikelihood of the fishes extraordinarily useful existence is also used in the stories
as an absolute proof of the non-existence of God – an explanation probably inspired by Adams, like the rest of us at
some point in our lives, being subjected by the dubious argument that the eye is such a thing of wonder that it proves
Gods existence.
While you’re waiting for the film you can play Martin Freeman’s Babel
fish game, or try out the award winning and time
devouring 20th Anniversary Issue of
the original text based Commodore 64 Hitchhikers
game.
I think I need a babel fish to translate what this post is trying to say. What are you talking about???
seriously -- who wrote this?
What's going on here?
don't tell me you havent read THHGTTG
original text from 1st book in the increasingly inncacurately named hitchhiker's trilogy
"
The Babel Fish
The Babel fish... is small, yellow and leechlike, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on the brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centers of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.
Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this:
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed at the next zebra crossing.
Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book, 'Well That About Wraps It Up for God.'
Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation. "
Josie Fraser wrote it...
It seems coherent to me. Maybe your babelfish is out of whack?
Cant wait for the movie to come out.
I guess you people really need the fish.
He's explaining the concept of the "Babel Fish", an organism that makes an appearance in Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". In the story, the main character needs to be able to understand the rest of the various inhabitants of the Galaxy, thus requiring the installation of a "Babel Fish", a universal translator (a la Star Trek) that resides in your ear canal.
I guess it's not really funny in and of itself, but it's all about the context.
Lol @ Blue Nile
To those confused read the book.
btw: I really hope the movie can hold it's own.
"Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of god.
The argument goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'
'But,' says Man, 'the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'
'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next pedestrian crossing."
for anyone who still is still confused heres the babel fish explanation from the TV series in horrible realmedia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/babelfish.shtml
The man's name was Douglas AdamS, for the love of God. That needs to be corrected throughout the article.
Iambic: Thanks for the helpful reminder.
The article is not a stunning display of writing virtuosity, but it tells a funny tid-bit from HHGttG, later ripped off by Farscape in the form of their translator microbe.
Iambic put it better.
Iambic put it better because he just copied out Adams's text. Josie Fraser has taken various approaches to this column , all of which have been criticised by someone for some reason. I for one am glad she's back.
Note that the classic Infocom game has the most egregious example of mother-may-I that I've encountered in an adventure game; if you don't perform a particular action within the first scene that you have no clue about, you will fail a test about 3/4 of the way through the game, with no recourse but to start over
Excuse me, but does not the image show the Babel fish inserted -- backwards ?!
How can you say the Babblefish isn't funny?! It's the height of absurdity! It proves god doesn't exist by proving that he has to exist when faith says you either have to believe in him based on nothing or he doesn't. It's an iron clad assessment in the insanity of human logic. Or at least the logic of overeducated pinheads who like to endlessly bicker over every stupid little detail until all meaning as been rung out of everything they say and do...
Oh ya, that's just what we're doing here! Yah for the Human Race! Can we all die off now?
Ooo, everyone's a critic aren't they? One wonders if the first few bemused comments were made by that ubiquitous internet species, the American teenboy skater who insists on wearing trousers three sizes too big...
And I wouldn't blame the poor Babel Fish for causing all the conflict - we sentient beings appear to be able to do that quite well without any gadgets, biological or otherwise.
When are you going to do Hellboy's corpse compass, Josie ??
For those of you whom are still confused by what appears to be literary license. Relax have a drink.
Here is one I think you might enjoy;
Pan Galactic Gargleblaster
Juice from 1 bottle of the Ol’ Janx Spirit
Combine with one measure of water from the seas of Santraginus
3 Cubes of Arcturan Mega-gin melted into mixture (it must be properly iced or the benzene is lost)
4 liters of Fallian Marsh gas
Use the back of a silver spoon to float a measure of Qualactin Hypermint extract
Drop in a tooth from an Algolion Suntiger and watch it dissolve
Sprinkle with Zamphuor
Add an olive
Drink.
For those of you whom are still confused by what appears to be literary license. Relax have a drink.
Here is one I think you might enjoy;
Pan Galactic Gargleblaster
Juice from 1 bottle of the Ol’ Janx Spirit
Combine with one measure of water from the seas of Santraginus
3 Cubes of Arcturan Mega-gin melted into mixture (it must be properly iced or the benzene is lost)
4 liters of Fallian Marsh gas
Use the back of a silver spoon to float a measure of Qualactin Hypermint extract
Drop in a tooth from an Algolion Suntiger and watch it dissolve
Sprinkle with Zamphuor
Add an olive
Drink.