Universal Translators

Called the Vari Egsane (Sapient Drink) by the Regalti, This Cybernetics technology is their version of a universal translator, and uses sponge-like micromachines injected directly into the brain. Its primary purpose is to assist in language comprehension and learning. When someone hears a word, the Vari Egsane will inject a thought into the mind, creating a temporary mental image of the word, greatly assisting in understanding a new language. The devices have onboard storage and can store hundreds of thousands of images, but can also interface with external computers to generate much more detailed imagery.

Year Invented:

74 After Exodus

Userbase:

97 Billion Regalti

100 million from other species

Compatible Languages:

All Regalti Languages[

How it Works

The Vari Egsane is first injected into the brain of a compatible species, generally through the base of the neck, or depending on species, an opening around or behind the eyes. To date, the Regalti, with assistance from the Vusinor, have developed this tech to be compatible with around a dozen species, including humans.

Around 50 million individual processor cells are injected. These artificial cells will find neurons to attach to, specifically in the Broca (speech) and Wernicke's (language comprehension) part of the brain, as well as neurons in the visual cortex.

Whenever the subject hears a word in the selected language the processor cells will work together to generate a mental image inside the brain, creating the briefest of thoughts. Upon seeing this image, nearly all subjects will have the basic understanding of what was said, seeing an image in their minds as naturally as they would from any other word spoken to them.

Above: Individual Processor Cell of the Vari Egsane injection. As many as 50 million can be injected in the brain, providing as much as a Gigahertz of processing power between all of the cells, ensuring that a mental image is almost always created when slected words are heard.

Examples of images generated

All Example words are from the Vevari language, spoken by the Fevarik Regalti. The images generated in the mind are roughly 240 x 180 pixels in size and have a limited color palette. Nearly everyone who has these mental images doesn't notice the resolution or have a reference of the size of the image. These images are meant to evoke the same mental imagery that the mind naturally generates on hearing a word.

Kellar (World)

Hearing this word will give the image of a planet. To non-Regalti, this world might look like to their own, but it will seem off. The continents will be out of place. To Regalti, this world should be immediately recognizeable as the one their species originates from, Kellentar or Collena.

Egan (Water)

Every sentient species in the galaxy, no matter the language they speak or what world they originated, will almost always recognize this blue rippled surface as water, and is very often the first word they will memorize when learning a Regalti language.

Galin

The Galin is a very common domesticated species of Jinani or Bird on Collena. Nearly any Regalti that sees this image will immediately recognize what the word is for. For anyone who has never seen these creatures before, they will likely associate it with a similar animal they have seen on their homeworld.

Limitations

There are several limitations to this type of universal translator. First is that it doesn't actually translate anything directly. It displays images of the word the subject hears, in an attempt to directly convery the meaning of the word. It is up to the individual user to interpret the images shown in their head and learn the language and the words.

Second is that concepts and ideas are harder to get across. If the word "Vennek" is said for example, it will show a lower resolution version of the image to the right. This image will also show if the word "Ventar" is said. No one is going to know that Vennek is the word for a religion and way of life for the Fevarik Regalti by seeing this image in their head. They aren't going to know that Ventar is the supreme being in that religion. Because of this, language comprehension and learning goes a lot smoother if a user has access to other materials or a person that can speak their language to explain more difficult to learn concepts. This also means that words like "and", "with", "to", "The", "of", and more have no associated image. Those words need to be learned.

Third is that due to the small structure and storage capacity of the individual processor cells, only three to five languages can be loaded in at any time, making it rather useless as a 'universal translator' unless you think ahead and load the language you need at any time.

Lore, Story, and Extras

((click to expand))

Vusinor Research Log 1

VMN 68
I will never understand the Regalti's relationship with technology. When we first made contact with their species, we offered them our universal translator tech, but they felt it took away their 'free will'. Their reasoning was that the Universal Language Chips we have implanted in the temporal lobe forces the user to speak and interpret a language as if they spoke the language their whole lives. I suppose I can understand the issue one would have with this, but it makes diplomacy and interaction so much easier when you can speak a thousand languages! You can even install new languages and remove unneeded ones at any time simply by using a Vusinor terminal!

Instead of using those chips, the Regalti spent a few decades developing their own technology that will instead generate images in their minds when hearing spoken words. This allows them to understand languages on the most basic levels, but doesn't allow them to speak it unless they learn it themselves.

One feature their technology does have over ours is that they can selectively turn off words as they learn them using an external system. This way their minds are not continuously forced to imagine a word as exactly one thing. A Regalti I work with says this is because no one interprets a word in the same way, so no one should be forced to. I'm not convinced yet...

- Zilda Marn, Class B Researcher

Vusinor Research Log 2

VMN 680
I've lived among the Regalti for over a century now and I still don't understand why this technology is called a 'drink', but I actually quite like the Regalti's Language translator now. The issue with our technology is that it forces us Vusinor to speak and understand language in exactly one way, and now that I have witnessed it from a different point of view, it does make us all sound like robots!

Worse was that when I transferred between clone bodies (It's a Vusinor thing!), I opted to not have the language chip installed...I had no memory of ever knowing or speaking any of the thousands of languages I know I spoke in the years before this! Instead I opted to use this 'Sapient Drink' that's not a drink, and manually re-learned (or I suppose learned for the first time) around a dozen languages. By the time I transferred to my third clone body while living on the Planet Collena, I retained memory of all of them!

- Zilda Marn, Class B Researcher

Vusinor Research Log 2: Addendum

VMN 680.1
So that's why it's called the Sapient "Drink". The word Egsane is an old vevari word with multiple meanings depending on the context. It can mean 'drink' or 'injection' or 'serum' or just 'liquid', very broadly referring to a liquid put into the body.

And the word Vari also has multiple meanings depending on the context. As a noun, it means person in the context of thought or wisdom and many words use it as a root. Vari itself when used as a verb means "To Think".

Based on this, another way to think of the phrase Vari Egsane is as a 'thought injection' because it literally injects thoughts into the mind when words are spoken! I'm glad I decided to learn the Vevari language in this way rather than using the Vusinor Universal Translator. I would have never figured this out otherwise!

- Zilda Marn, Class B Researcher

Story Connections

All four human characters get the Regalti's language translator injected directly into their brains not long after they are abducted, even though most of the aliens on board the ship were either taught English and can speak it fluently, or in the case of non-Regalti, have the Vusinor's universal translator chips installed and have a version of English loaded on it.

In the weeks aboard the Starship Void Chaser, the humans were taught Vevari, the language of the Fevarik Regalti, as well as useful pieces of the common language. This learning was accelerated using other pieces of technology.

The human character Juan wants to have the Vusinor's universal translator installed when they get to Collena and not have to worry about learning a new language, but backed out when he was warned the chip forces him to speak languages in a certain way, even languages he already knows.

Kaline Serna, despite being a Regalti, is incompatible with Regalti cybernetic technology. She has a Vusinor Translator installed, but only has three languages loaded onto it. With this, Kaline is able to speak the languages necessary to do her job.