<nettime> Sense Experiment #1

[McKenzie Wark <mwark@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au>]

Sense experiments log #1

Goal: Experiment in the destruction of sense by use of repeated
machine translation.

Method: Phrase was repeatedly translated from English to French
and from French to English using babelfish
<http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate>

Result:

1. we no longer have roots we have aerials

2. nous n'avons plus des racines que nous avons des antennes

3. we do not have any more of the roots which we have of the antennas

4. nous n'avons pas davantage des racines que nous avons des antennes 

5. we do not have more roots which we have of the antennas 

6. nous n'avons pas plus de racines que nous avons des antennes

7. we do not have more roots than we have antennas 

Conclusion: machine translation an efficient process for the destruction
of sense. 

Note for further research: attempt to translate through three languages
in rotation.

McKenzie Wark
11.35PM EST 23/5/98
---
#  distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/  contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl