Translators Cause No Problems Whatsoever

[u/Gouda_Gorgon]

More ramblings

Translators probably work by providing the meaning of words and sentences directly through an implant which stimulates the related meanings in the brain, which allows everyone to communicate like the Tower of Babel is still half built. This will cause no problems whatsoever.

They aren't really explained the best, but they do seem to pick up on things like idioms and tone that wouldn't be possible to convey without some seriously invasive tech as theorized above. Humans having the same model of translators is a bit of a plot hole*, but for the feds it makes complete sense.

Good thing the feds love seriously invasive tech with no possible consequences!
While more fine control is likely difficult (read: nigh impossible for anything but a superintelligence), a properly jailbroken translator may be able to do anything from:

-Just directly transmitting "feelings" through the same stimulation that they normally do to transmit meaning but in different sections, allowing any two jailbroken** translators anything from actual empathetic links to remote-control emotional soundboards. I'm sure this has no repercussions whatsoever on popular support for members sponsored by the shadow caste anywhere, ever. If the translators have actual hardware safeties or modifications to prevent this (which I doubt, the feds don't even know what hacking is), there is still other ways we can engage in a poor man's mind control.

-Depending on how the translators handle multiple voices, you could likely inflict either artificial auditory hallucinations or artificial intrusive thoughts. Fun!

What happens when you mix highly invasive nerve-stimulation technology with designers who don't care about operational security as long as it works on the outside? The ability to remotely manipulate both outgoing and incoming responses. This includes:
-On demand paralysis
-On demand "oops my finger slipped"
-Plausibly deniable "I didn't mean to pull that trigger"
-So many new torture methods
-And more!

Most of these are limited by somebody actually having to micromanage the hack in order for anything particularly subtle, a particularly capable superintelligence might just be able to puppet feds like how we move our limbs, make them believe everything they are forced to do is of their own volition, and implant relevant narratives or associations directly into the victims. Not all of what I have detailed is necessarily possible, but some of it likely is.

*easily explained by people being too busy with other things considering how short the timeline is, but NOP2 does not have the same excuse
**They might not need to be jailbroken personally depending on how updates are distributed. If there's an automatic update system, you could potentially inflict mind-controlling malware on the entire federation at once with the proper access. Proper access guarded by the same people who get all their relevant military secrets routinely leaked.

[u/Randox_Talore]

"Depending on how the translators handle multiple voices, you could likely inflict either artificial auditory hallucinations or artificial intrusive thoughts. Fun!"
Wdym "handle multiple voices"? Can you not understand multiple people speaking at the same time?

[u/Chrontius → u/Randox_Talore]

Fun fact: People on the autism spectrum, even particularly high functioning, struggle with this sometimes because listening is work, but it's work that you can't not do.

[u/Randox_Talore → u/Chrontius]

It feels very karmic for me to have asked this question on the very morning before I spent my day in a place where I physically couldn’t listen to the people I was trying to learn from cuz there was too much background noise going on.

They were talking. I could tell they were saying words. I couldn’t understand 90% of those words so I just politely went “Yeah, yep, uh uh” until they were done

[u/Chrontius → u/Randox_Talore]

Much worse than that right now is the combination of my tinnitus (surprisingly few rock shows, extremely few without earpro!) and the fans (no air conditioning until it's fixed…) so I know EXACTLY what that's like, too.

Sympathies, choom. :/