> Second, since much of the information content
> of something like a movie or television show is not expressed in
> the mere language used, such recordings will have to be archived in
> their original, complete form, so that transhumans who study these
> fossils will be able to see the tones, facial inflections, music,
> lighting--and cultural idiom--contained in them. To deliberately
> abandon English rather than keeping it alive along with whatever
> native transhuman communication we develop would be to smash the
> Rosetta stone, limiting our ability to learn from the past.
Whoa! We aren't talking transhumans here; transhumans would simply
communicate *thought* directly without need for language. Telepathy, in
a word. After all, (your) thought to English to (your friend's)
thought... there's a wasted step here.
Similarly, of course a television show contains information other than
direct semantic content... the synchronization of that language, rhyming
poetry, and so on. So you have one transhuman who understands English,
and then you transmit his thought and poetic admiration and whatever to
the French-speaking transhumans. (Assuming we haven't abandoned
language. And, as always, assuming enhanced humans but no Singularity.)
While if we're dealing with fallible mortals, they might perfectly well
choose to abandon the Rosetta stone in favor of automatic translators.
Why go to all the work of maintaining a language not suited to your
personality, simply so that you can read Shakespeare in the original,
when a mechanical translator can effortlessly make it all so clear?
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html
http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.