Re: replies to padraic brown and danny wier

Dan Sulani wrote:
>     Are we talking _language_ more or less as humans know it,
> or other possible alien communication systems?
>     Charles Sheffield, in his "Heritage Universe" series,
> has, as one of the main characters, an intelligent alien  something
> like a giant insect whose language consists of pheromone-like
> chemicals. By subtle changes in the molecules and mixtures of
> molecules produced, the alien is capable of extremely subtle
> communication (with those, of course, who are capable of
> intercepting and interpreting the chemical signals).
>     Question: would your idea work for them?
The same way.  They'd chose arbitrary scents for each of the
"phonemes".  Of course, humans wouldn't be able to understand it.
However, one could presumably build a machine that would automatically
"translate" between different systems.  So, it would pick up the
scent-phonemoids and translate them as sound phonemes.

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