http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/ Engadget Comments for Movie Gadget Friday: The Babel fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/
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. "

]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/It seems coherent to me. Maybe your babelfish is out of whack?
Cant wait for the movie to come out.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/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.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/
To those confused read the book.

btw: I really hope the movie can hold it's own.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/
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."]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/babelfish.shtml]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/
Iambic: Thanks for the helpful reminder.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/
Iambic put it better.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/
Oh ya, that's just what we're doing here! Yah for the Human Race! Can we all die off now?]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/
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 ??]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/
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.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/18/movie-gadget-friday-the-babel-fish-from-em-the-hitchhikers/
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.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM