Babel Fish

Seit ich ‚The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘ (Douglas Adams, 1979) um die Jahrtausendwende gelesen habe, wünsche ich mir einen Babel fish.

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So ein Babel fish gibt es auf dem Markt: TalkBuds. Ob dieser wirklich schon so gut funktioniert … Ich würde dies jetzt mal noch nicht bestellen.

Prompt OpenAI ChatGPT: Can you cite the first text passage where the Babblefish is introduced in the Hitchhiker’s Guide of the Galaxy?

Sure! Here’s the first passage introducing the Babel fish (note the correct spelling: Babel fish) in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams:

“The Babel fish,” said The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy quietly, “is small, yellow, leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its 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.”

This passage appears early in the book (Chapter 6 in many editions), right after Ford Prefect sticks a Babel fish in Arthur Dent’s ear so he can understand the Vogons. It’s one of the most iconic sci-fi ideas and often cited in discussions about universal translators in fiction.

Thanx!

You’re very welcome! 😊 If you ever want to talk more about Hitchhiker’s Guide, space dolphins, or improbable physics, I’m all ears (or maybe Babel fish 🐟). Don’t panic – and always know where your towel is! 🧣🚀

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