Mr. Odd Job Says:

Translation is tricky and imprecise.

Roger Ebert has a new computer voice that translates his written text into something spoken so we can hear him. Some engineering wizards took hundreds of samples of his old voice, lost to cancer, and built the sound blocks that will allow him to speak again.

But somehow, I don't think Ebert will ever be completely happy with his new voice. I'm sure his gratitude is unending, but there will be times often enough when that computer translation of his text, itself a translation of Ebert's thought, will miss his intent. He'll formulate words, hear the alien strangeness of a machine with his voice repeat those words, and then find the spaces where the machine's voice -- his voice -- got it wrong. It will have messed up the emphasis. It will have lost the pause and or wry sarcasm or bored vocal shuffle that he heard in his head. And then he'll fight to find the words that communicate his feelings without being reliant on the context of human expression.

And that fight can't be won.

In the search for the proper collection of letters to communicate reality to someone else, we have to give up some of our meaning, just as Ebert has to give up some of his expression to the bytes and limitations of the marvel that gives him speech. We have to collect the words that match our experience closest and hope that we can find enough of a connection with the audience that they read those words and hear our voices and intent. Of course the audience will add something at times and miss something at times. But when the mesh occurs, something beautiful happens.

Communication is faith. Blogging is a prayer to humanity. Hear me, o reader, hear my voice and let your spirit merge with mine. Let my words touch you as your act of listening and translating has touched me. Let us reside in our world of cooperation for a moment so that we can all know that we are not alone. Amen.