WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: "Tongue Mining" by Jack Morton 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:03.240 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:13.720 Book Club, book Club, book Club, book but no one 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:17.160 else can say it. That's a joke. There's no one 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:19.959 else on the call. It's just me. I'm your host, 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:22.480 Margaret Kildoy, and this is Cool Zone Media book Club. 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:27.400 And this week, dear listener, you're the guest, so I 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:29.760 hope you're going to okay, So let's chat it together. Okay, 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:34.320 you already book club, the Club, the club. What do 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.479 you mean you don't want to do it in public 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:40.680 with while you're listening to headphones on the bus. You 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:45.920 should be chanting with me. Well, either way, this is 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.400 the Cool Zone Media Book Club. I'm your host, Margaret Kildrey, 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.600 and every week I bring you a new story that's fictional. 0:00:53.800 --> 0:01:00.760 The opposite of the truth is fiction. This week we're 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.680 going to talk about well, I guess you're going to 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.160 hear what the episode, what the story is about when 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.640 I read it to you. This story is called Tongue Mining. 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.040 It was written by Jack Morton, and here's a bio. 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.720 Jack Morton was born in New Brunswick, Canada. He studied 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:20.640 theater and writing at the University of Toronto and carries 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:23.319 a knit and black belt in karate. He currently lives 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.800 in to Lose, France, where he writes and narrates audiobooks. 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:28.840 You can read more of his stories in rat On Journal, 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.680 The Woodward Review, Expanded Field Journal, or let Him read 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:36.320 one to you at Vast Literary Press. And this story 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.800 in particular first appeared in rat On Journal number four. 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:42.400 And if you like Coolsone Media Book Club, you'll probably 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.440 like rat On Journal r A Don which is a 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:53.520 anarchist fiction magazine, so might interest you. It might not. 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:56.640 I hope this story does though. It's called tongue Mining. 0:01:58.040 --> 0:01:59.800 Oh and the best part is there's a bunch of 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:03.560 like French and stuff in it, and other languages, and 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:07.160 I don't know how to speak them, so you can 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:10.320 hear my. I'm not even going to try into an accent. 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.560 I'm just gonna stumble through it. That's the way it goes. 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:21.320 Tongue mining, my ears sting, threatening to water, sweat beads 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.840 on my upper lip. I don't think anyone said not 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.040 to blink or touch. My face just remains still so 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.680 the camera can focus on my eyes. The word bird 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.359 appears plain white font on a black background projected onto 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.040 a fabric screen. My gaze flicks to the upper right corner, 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:42.480 and then back to center. Mountain comes up next upper left. 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.480 The man beside me coughs, I don't look. That could 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.520 throw off my results, but I'm distracted. It takes me 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.120 longer to place mole in the lower right. The words 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.880 disappear quicker, less time to read. I hear sharpened hails. 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:01.320 Tension fills the room. Relax, says the woman monitoring the test. 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.880 She paces slowly between the rows of desks, making me 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.480 feel like a school child, even though I'm probably older 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.520 than her. I break down and wipe the sweat, and 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.959 I'm able to breathe steadier. The words begin to fly naturally. 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:19.200 Tree upper right, stump, lower left, cloud, upper left, bat 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:24.440 upper right. Just as the monitor said, I relax. I 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.480 tell myself not to think about whether the object is 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:30.040 high or low, animate or inanimate. The meaning is contained 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.520 in my English speaking mind. I just have to let 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:36.320 it come out. Then something flashes on the screen. Poutik. 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:38.920 I think I didn't have time to reread it before 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.760 it disappeared. I'm lost for a moment, but suddenly a 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.920 voice in the back row said, booisit. I try to 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.680 keep focused forward. More words are coming, but I hear 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:51.120 a scuffle in raised voices. The man who shouted insists 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:55.200 he misread and doesn't speak to Gallic. The monitor points 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:58.280 out that nobody mentioned to Galic until him. When a 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.760 chair scrapes loudly against the floor, I turn around. Two 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:03.840 men with a symbol matching the one on the monitor's 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.960 lapel across their broad chests are physically removing a panicked 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.600 elderly man from the room. He's cursing now in English, 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.960 and what I assume is to Glic, resisting like if 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.080 he could regain his seat, it would undo all of 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:20.080 this and he could still take the test. Then I 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.080 realize he's reaching for his earbuds and glasses, lying to 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:25.520 the side of his desk. Like all of us, he 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.479 had to remove them to start the test. Please just 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.240 let me take my The monitor cuts them off. These 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.960 devices are not yours, they are the property of all talk. 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.960 She strides across the room and collects them. By refusing 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:41.720 to abide by the rules of the test and by 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:45.320 concealing language fluencies, you have violated our terms and conditions. 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:50.840 Your subscription to our translation service is terminated. He tries 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.200 to object again, but soon he's out of the room. 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.960 The monitor closes the door and all noise from outside 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:01.640 is silenced. Sorry for the dis option, everyone, please turn 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.520 to face the screen and we'll resume. I look at 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.680 the others. They mostly look as scared as me, but 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:13.280 one tall, blonde man's face shows indignance. We make eye contact, 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.279 and my meek cowed expression seems to motivate him further. 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:20.920 He stands, no, I'm not taking this. You can't treat 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.360 people that way, dragging him out like he's some criminal. 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.040 All Talk reserves the right to expel testers who disrupt 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:29.800 the process. You all saw him grab me when I 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.920 asked him to leave on his own. I'd seen nothing. 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.479 I don't know if anyone else had. The blonde guy 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.520 goes on, I'm a paying customer. I don't need to 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:43.159 put up with this treatment. Of course not, she replies calmly. 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.760 This test is completely voluntary, as you were informed when 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.159 your attendance was requested. You're welcome to leave at any time. 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.799 Simply leave any all Talk devices with the front desk 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.800 on the way out, and your subscription will be terminated. 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.279 And there it is. She has us or they do. 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.200 The corporation behind that symbol on her lapel because no 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.559 one would voluntarily give up their all talk. They'd venture 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:12.040 into the world with no translation tech, without the ubiquitous 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.120 glasses and earbuds. Maybe at work the next day they 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.280 discover their company was Russian and their boss gave instructions 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.600 in Arabic. Maybe at home they'd find out their partner 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.960 spoke mohawk. Half the signage in the city is probably 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:29.240 in scripts they couldn't name, much less read. The blonde 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.320 man's face still looks defiant, but he swallows whatever he 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:36.479 wants to say and sits down facing the screen. And 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.680 if you want to look defiant, dear listener, you can 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:47.960 buy our one hundred percent defiant ADS revenue. This is 0:06:48.000 --> 0:07:05.240 an AD pivot. Here you go, and we're back. We 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.600 all turn and resenter our eyes on the cameras as 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:10.560 the monitor scrubs. The test playback and we start at 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:15.120 bird again. My eye actions become jerky, trying not to 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.280 think about the Filipino man. At least I can vindicate 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.880 his loss by succeeding. Now that I know the real 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.720 point of the test. They don't care whether we correctly 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:28.040 identify objects as high or low, animate or inanimate. The 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.520 start of the test was mental training, getting us to 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.120 react instinctively to these concepts, so that when non English 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:38.240 words appear, we'll respond without thinking. They aren't testing fluency 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:42.640 in English, they're hunting for it in other languages. And 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.600 maybe my participation wasn't random selection, like they'd claimed. A 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.600 flash of Grandma's old place, the box she made us 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.960 put all our electronics in when we arrived, songs and 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.960 games in French as a child, stories about Champlin or 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.160 the Corie de Bois when I was older. But I 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.880 haven't used my French in years, not since Grandma died. 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:05.960 The test won't pick up on that, certainly, not if 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.840 I can help it. I banish Grandma's living room and concentrate. 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.720 Sure enough, after putik every few words, something appears that 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.400 I don't know. Often can't even read. Even if I 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.680 think I recognize something, I stare defiantly straight unless I'm 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.960 sure it's English. Anyone else try to fool them in 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:26.880 the room has an edge now, but it still won't 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.840 be easy. The words are getting trickier. Snow falls from 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.280 high to low. Brain could be animate or an inanimate 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.040 part of an animate whole. I have to think before 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.000 I can place mine as something low and inanimate. I 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.120 first think of the other meaning ownership, to which neither 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:48.319 of those ideas applies. Loon. My eyes flick up and 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.960 left slightly before I study them. But I hadn't been 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:54.360 expecting traps. I would have looked. A fluent French speaker, 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:56.720 already programmed by the start of the test to go 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.520 up and left for something high and inanimate, would have 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.800 had no chance. I hope I didn't react too much. 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:07.000 Surely English speakers know lune, they have lunar and lunacy. 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:10.280 I try not to think about it. More words are coming. 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.959 Apparently I succeed at the word recognition portion. At least 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.360 the monitor doesn't say anything to me before moving on 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.560 to the written composition. I stare at blank paper on 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:22.679 which I'm supposed to write a response of a few 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.720 hundred words to their prompt describe a wedding you attended 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.840 in the form of an email to a friend. Pens 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.280 move all around me, but I feel stuck. Images of 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.840 various weddings flashed through my mind. My cousin on the beach, 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.199 my sister at the old farmhouse, or I could invent 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.360 a wedding. It shouldn't matter. They're not judging my memory, 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:48.000 just my writing, Except now I know that's not really 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:51.319 the point, or at least not the only one. They 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.080 don't just want to evaluate my English. They also want 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:58.520 to know if I secretly understand anything else. I glance around. 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.640 The projection screen is rolled up, exposing writing on the 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.080 blackboard behind it. Some of it looks like a lesson, 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:07.840 a list with bullet points. Some of it could be 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.040 student graffiti. I turned quickly back to the paper before 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:14.360 I have time to take anything in. It wasn't in English. 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.240 It may be part of the test. I should write 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.840 in an anglophone way, use a variety of sentence structures 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:26.760 to showcase English's versatility. Maybe drop in some impressive vocabulary. 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:31.120 But trying too hard might seem suspicious. Everyone around me 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.360 is already writing. It's not that hard to write a 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.440 few hundred words in your native language. Simple off the 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.960 cuff writing is probably best. I squeeze out some details 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.120 from my cousin's wedding, mixed with a movie I saw 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:46.720 last week. Reading back, it feels clunky. Maybe that's okay. 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:49.120 Just because you're fluent in a language doesn't mean you 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:53.160 can spontaneously shit out beautiful prose especially in as synthetic 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:56.200 a situation as this. I write a few more trite 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.560 sentences and start counting words. The monitor cos all the 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.440 papers and directs us to the next haulover for the 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.920 oral communication portion. Everyone instinctively puts their glasses on and 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.280 earbuds back in. We move with the slow shuffle of 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.439 a group no one wants to lead. I have time 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:17.520 to check the blackboard. The writing and other scripts and 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:20.360 tongues has resolved into English. I read some of the 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.960 crassest and most abusive insults I've ever seen. The original 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.600 phrases could have been tough to ignore for someone who 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:31.760 understood them. I chuckle and glance around. No one else notices. 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:36.839 We sit in low plastic chairs waiting to be called 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.720 into one of the small rooms. When my name comes up, 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.720 I'm surprised by the man waiting for me. I'd prepare 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.560 myself to see the monitor from earlier, but of course 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.520 she couldn't run each individual test. My expectations of the 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.680 tight haired school teachery woman run up against a smiling, 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:55.880 balding man in his fifties, a red face and a 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.240 well fed build, plus a twinkle in his eye, suggests 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.800 as sort of bombon. I mentally chied myself for using 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.800 that phrase, but there can't be any harm in loanwords. 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.880 I don't know French speakers even say bon vivant. He 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.559 gestures for me to sit. I reach for my earbuds, 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.000 but he says to leave them in. He verifies my 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.200 name and all talk user information, then asks how the 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.680 written component of the test went. I explained my struggle 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.520 with what to write, how long I hesitated worrying about 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:29.160 the content of the response. Apparently it's a common problem. 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.120 The setting is so much like a school classroom that 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.400 people feel they're going to be graded on clever ideas, 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.720 when really we're just looking for comfortable use of the language. 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.600 The same goes for this test. No need to stress 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.920 about what you say. We're just establishing whether you speak naturally. 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.520 So let's chat. He takes out his earbuds and I 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.480 do the same. He's explaining why it was important that 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.640 we talked briefly before taking them out, something about hearing 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.480 changes in vocal quality or vocabulary. But I don't follow 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.280 because halfway through, both of our earbuds are out and 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.240 I suddenly hear a regional accent. I'm not sure where 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.920 from maybe northern England. I wonder what he'll make of 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.880 my accent now that all talk isn't filtering it for him, 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.320 He looks expectantly at me. We can talk about anything 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.319 at all. An awful pause follows, which he breaks by 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:21.400 bursting into laughter. Sorry that was mean, he admits. I 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.360 love how universal it is. Take the most talkative people 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.040 in the world. Ask them to speak, and they have 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.319 no idea what to say. Why don't you tell me 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.640 where you're from? As I described the small town I 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.559 grew up in, I get more comfortable. He must often 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:37.640 ask people about their home to put them at ease. 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.200 I wonder if that gets boring. I meet people from 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.600 all over the world in the city. All talks have 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.400 eliminated one of the biggest barriers to integration. But for him, 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.560 always testing in English speakers, they must have a more 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:56.080 limited range of backgrounds. It might surprise you how many 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.880 places people have learned English as a first language. The 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.080 British Isles and North America, but also in Australia and 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.760 Pacific Islands, Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean. There are pockets 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.240 of it everywhere. That's without all the people trying to 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.880 pass it. Off as their mother tongue. We sell someone 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:14.760 ejected for that during the word recognition test. Why would 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:18.400 they do that? Silly, isn't it? The whole point of 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:20.920 all talk technology is everyone can use their own language. 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.480 A major selling point when we first pitched to governments 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.280 was preserving minority languages while giving their speakers the same 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:30.440 opportunities as people with one of the big colonial international languages. 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.360 I noticed you didn't answer my question, So why do 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:39.160 they object? All talk only translates into the wearer's first language. 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.000 People raised multi lingual get a choice. But you can't 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.520 get translation to English if you didn't grow up speaking it. 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.480 But why would someone choose English over their first language? Oh? 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.480 There are some complaints that the AI interface, designed by 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.680 Anglos and first adopted in the US, has been trained 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.720 to perceive the world with an anglocentric lens. Whatever that's 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:02.280 supposed to mean. He's frowning at the table as he speaks. 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.520 It's all nonsense. There's more data coming in from Mandarin 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.400 than English these days. Honestly, I think English has become 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.880 sort of fashionable. But not knowing all our customer's fluencies 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.240 messes with our data collection. It lowers the quality of 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:19.040 the translation. He hastily adds, as if clarifying was important, 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:21.600 we wouldn't want the AI to start thinking that the 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:25.600 way that non native speakers use English as normal, he chuckles. 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:29.640 I decided to push a little further. Outside. I saw 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.440 a few people picketing the building. A few is understating it. 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:35.920 They outnumbered those of us coming in for the test, 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:40.000 people of all ages, holding signs, shouting. None had warn't 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:41.760 all talks, so most of what they said as I 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.640 walked in with gibberish, but my glasses decoded the signs. 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:48.600 My words are not all talks property. You are a 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.520 police camera now mining your tongue to sell to my ears. 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:57.600 Monopoly on translation equals monopoly on the truth. The bearer 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.960 of the last one stepped in front of me, shouting. 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.600 I realized I could understand him. His shouts were English 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.040 is a multinational corporation. States have to work together to 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.480 regulate it. But all talk translates to international law. They're 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:12.920 writing their own rules while they harvest your voice as 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.560 data and decide how you interpret everything you hear or read. 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:22.160 They are your oppressors. Your mind is being colonized. I'd 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.440 push past him without really taking in what he said. 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.080 Voices that aren't filtered through the all talk speakers sound 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:30.200 a little fainter, less real when the earbuds are in, 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.040 but his wrinkled, angry face stuck with me. Something about 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:38.360 oppressors colonizing the mind. I say to the monitor. We 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.040 don't tell anyone what to do, he starts off angrily. 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:43.840 We offer a service, they're free to use it or not. 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.360 How could we possibly be oppressors? Then he laughs again, 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:49.880 but it doesn't have the same full throated ease of 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.880 the first time. We're a private company. We're not the state. 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.880 We exist to liberate people. There was a time when 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:01.080 national governments could make language competency a requirement for so citizenship, employment, 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.920 or access to services. Not anymore, just a bunch of 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.960 nut jobs, I guess. He concurs, reassured and happy to 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.720 finish with the subject. He asks me some more about 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:14.840 where I grew up, before saying he's heard enough, so 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.879 did I pass? Then he chuckles, there's no passing or failing. 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.159 We just want to evaluate our customer's facility with the 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.560 language to better meet their needs. I stand up and 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.119 shake his hand before heading to the door. I fiddle 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:32.400 with my earbuds and thank him thoughtlessly. He answers mercier who. 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:34.760 I turned back to him, frowning and ask him to 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.919 repeat himself. He shakes his head. Never mind, thank you. 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.840 I exhaled deeply as I make my way out. They 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.280 were specifically checking me for competence in French, and I 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:50.000 don't think it was to better meet my needs. The 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.240 crowd of protesters has gone when I leave the All 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.800 Talk office. A few police cars park nearby suggest it 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.200 might not have been their idea. As I turned the corner, 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:01.840 the same wrinkled face from before confronts me. He has 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.280 a stack of papers in one hand and holds one 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.600 out to me with the other. I turn my head 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.000 and my All Talk glasses with their built in cameras 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.320 away from him. Without looking. I take the paper and 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:17.040 stuff it into my bag. At home, Louise asks how 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.720 it went. I tell him it seemed fine, and mention 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.720 about the Filipino man getting thrown out. He doesn't know 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:25.200 what to make of it either. I say nothing about 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:27.800 the French. When we head for the kitchen, I continue 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.240 to look after him, but I reach blindly into my 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.119 bag and move the crumpled up paper into my pants pocket, 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.679 still not looking at it. In the kitchen, when Louise 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.280 is facing the other way, I feel around inside the 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:41.919 drunk drawer until I find a small flashlight and pocket 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.920 that too. In bed, later, we say good night before 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.000 taking off our ear pieces and glasses, mounting them on 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.840 their chargers. When I hear Louis's breath coming deep and regular, 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.280 I reach down to my pants on the floor and 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.199 retrieve the paper and flashlight. I turn my back to 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:02.200 my glasses, ostensibly deactive while charging. Then I duck under 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.280 the covers and unfold the paper. It's covered in writing 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:09.080 dozens of scripts. I don't know. Even the stuff in 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.320 Roman letters is mostly meaningless to me. At the bottom, 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.040 there's one phrase written over and over in different languages. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:20.560 I spot the French vou valais resiste a prem un languis, 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:25.080 and then the English want to resist learn a language. 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.720 How could learning a language be resistance? I think back 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:32.119 to practicing French. There were fun games than boring memorization 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.280 of conjugations and genders. It got better when I could 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:38.320 read books or I have conversations and started noticing the 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:42.399 differences embodied by the languages. It felt fun naughty, maybe 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:46.920 to learn the swear words calise, tabernac, but never felt 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.280 like an act of rebellion. I was just hanging out 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:53.159 with Mammy. Mammy. I hadn't thought of her by that 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.600 name earlier. When I had my all talk head set 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.240 on Grandma what my parents called her in English, not 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.840 what I'd addressed in French. The screen from the word 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:06.040 recognition test flashed into my mind. In ten minutes, they 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.240 could train my brain to react in a specific way 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.720 to certain concepts. How many hours of wearing glasses and 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.840 headsets had taken to implant Grandma and erase Mamie, or 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.960 to erase harvest to use later with native French speakers 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.080 mining your tongue to sell to my ears a sign 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.000 had read no wonder. They couldn't stand even a passing 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.240 competence in a language to go unreported. The service they 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:31.719 sold and all the power and influence that went with it, 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:36.479 was built from the voices of linguistic minorities. I suddenly 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.640 noticed an absence. Louis has stopped snoring. I look up. 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.520 He's ducked under the covers as well. His dark eyes 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:46.639 are wide staring at me. In the paper and the torchlight. 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.399 I position it between us. Can you read any of this? 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:55.119 I whisper quissoldu? He whispers back. It almost sounds like French. 0:20:55.960 --> 0:21:01.600 I don't quite understand, but I want to the end 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:04.640 and I'm going to talk about it. But first I'm 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:08.120 going to talk about how lucky you are to have 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:29.280 this podcast interrupted by capitalism right now and we're back 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:35.440 that we in this case, it is either royal or 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:41.359 I'm including you. Everyone's back. We're all back. So I 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:43.520 clearly like this story, oh as I want to read 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:45.119 it to you. And at first I wasn't sure how 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.040 I was gonna feel about the story, because the idea 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:52.879 of a universal translator is one of the positive things 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:55.719 that we can imagine to come out of AI and 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.120 that we can imagine to come out of technology, right, 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:01.719 And that's what interests me so much about this story 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:03.960 is it talks about the way that that would be 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:13.720 developed within our current capitalistic ecosystem economy, economy. And to 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:18.800 toot my own horn, yeah, that's the expression. I once 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:23.240 wrote a story called one Star that ran on Vice motherboard, 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.840 and it was a story about a self driving car 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:29.760 that drives you to jail and when it came out, 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:32.239 a lot of people were like, yeah, Margaret Kiljoy Hill 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.159 hate self driving cars just like us. And I'm like, 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:37.679 I lived in a van at the time. It's like, 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:39.879 I would have loved if my van drove me places 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:43.080 while I hung out in the back and read books. However, 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:46.439 that doesn't mean that I'm not capable of putting two 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.680 and two together to say that within our current society, 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:52.239 if you had a self driving car and you had 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:55.480 a warrant, your self driving car would drive you to jail. 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:02.920 Because technology. While some of the concepts embedded within technology 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:06.080 could be applied in lots of different ways, the ecosystems 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:10.560 in which technologies develop do not lend themselves to creating 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:14.120 neutral technologies. So I don't want to specifically say it's 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:17.359 like bad to have translation I think it's good to 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:20.880 have translation services. Not everyone's going to learn every single language, right, 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:25.359 But talking about the way that these things that seem 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:28.600 like they would be really good would get twisted is 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:33.359 really interesting to me and to I actually asked the 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:37.159 author what he had to say about this particular story, 0:23:37.760 --> 0:23:41.359 and he mentions radon the journal that it was published in. 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:45.240 He says, it's cool how Raydon brings transhumanism into conversation 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:49.359