User:Giovanni.lostumbo
A book I'm not writing is not called Age of Liaisons. It's not the second in a trilogy, the first not being called Age of Information. It's not about information being present in centralized directories, and it's not about a Tower of Babel, where multi-lingual scientists from outside lands are refused entry to Pisa. The Babel clerks maintain that while Pisa itself tolerates and encourages speakers of different languages, they are not allowed to understand each other. Thus they roam the hallways and stairwells and speak in sign-language when possible. Outsiders- multilingual scientists- are from the countryside, call themselves polyglots, and look for ways to gain access to Babel and the needs of the residents. One device they carry is a Rosetta Stone. It has wi-fi. It reaches the windows of Pisa and language translations are transduced onto indoor wallspace. However, even between specialties/languages, the Rosetta stone is limited in application. Homonyms frequently stall time in interpretation, such that communication becomes more about affirming background and syntax than carrying out a task. This worries the clerks, because although the residents still don't get anywhere beyond developing products (such as researching them to do new functions), they are starting to develop a new culture within Babel that is more about socializing as an activity and an end in itself rather than using only semiotic communication to increase harvests (vertical farming is a popular industrial activity in Pisa). Harvests are already abundant, but the excess produce keeps Pisa busy. The excess harvest is tossed out or traded for room window vanity plates, a favorite item of the DMR (Department of Motor Rooms). Meanwhile, the polyglots have invented a wireless electricity docking station and plan to use it to transmit power to the rooms so the residents can use an even newer device, which is heavier than the Rosetta Stone, which discerns homonyms on-the-fly. This saves the polyglots some time as they don't have to serve as live interpreter-translators and won't have to use the Rosetta Stone for each conversation. The 1:1 interpreter(polyglot)-resident ratio, while very friendly, will be also an option in a p2p society, but the residents want to leave Babel to do that.
(Babel is Pisa, in a checkered (half-parallel- spanning two realities) world)