Don't wake me up

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[animate-mush]

Here's what I mean by talking about all the decision points in the translation problem in Project Hail Mary (which includes all normal translation problems and then some).

There's a lot of Rocky utterances in the movie that are likd: "Grace Stupid." Non-standard sentence of English, perfectly normal sentence of, say, Arabic. Rocky's translated speech doesn't use the copula (be-verbs). The problem is, where in the process does this fact originate? There are a number of possibilities:

Eridian has no copula

Eridian has a copula but Rocky is choosing not to use it

Rocky is using a copula but it is marked in a way that the translation program can't recognize

There is a copula but Grace hasn't recognized or elicited it yet

There is a copula but due to linear placement translating it as such would make Rocky's utterances less comprehensible

Grace doesn't think the copula is linguistically necessarily and so doesn't bother

So for every linguistic feature we can derive, we have to ask (and I think mostly we can't know) - is this a fact about Eridian, is this a choice Rocky is making, is this an artifact of the technology, or is this a choice Grace is making?

What would be really interesting is if it changes over time. I haven't read the book but if it were me I would make it change over time.

[sleepymarmot]

The translation software is supposed to just match each Eridian word with its English equivalent.

All of the grammar adjustments come from Rocky, as explained in the book:

Rocky has picked up the basic word ordering of English. I think he realized early on that I can’t automatically remember stuff, so he works with my system rather than trying to teach me his. I probably seem pretty stupid, honestly. But some of his own grammar sneaks in once in a while. He always ends a question with the word “question.”

One of the things that I think are important but the movie unfortunately left out is that Grace also makes an effort to simplify his speech for Rocky. In the beginning, he speaks in very short sentences with limited vocabulary. Later he starts talking in more complex or casual ways, but the level and style of his speech always match Rocky's pretty closely. This post collected some good examples.

Here are a few other book quotes in chronological order, showing the evolution of Rocky and Grace's dialogue:

Chapter 12 (at the very beginning of their verbal communication):

“Human bodies must sleep. Sleep is this.” [...] “Humans sleep for twenty-nine thousand seconds.” [...] “Many seconds…” he says. “Why be still so many seconds, question…Understand!”

Chapter 13:

“Yes. No understand why Tau not sick but Eridani is sick. If Astrophage no leave Eridani, my people die.” “Same!” I say. “Same same same! If Astrophage continues to infect Sol, all the humans will die.” “Good. Same. You and me will save Eridani and Sol.” “Yes yes yes!”

Chapter 16:

“I not understand science. I just use. Apology.” “That’s okay. I can’t explain how to make a thinking machine. I just use it.”

Chapter 21:

“We are much much smarter than animals.” “We’re as smart as evolution made us. So we’re the minimum intelligence needed to ensure we can dominate our planets.” He thinks it over. “I accept this. Still not explain why Earth intelligence evolve same level as Erid intelligence.”

Chapter 24:

I put my chin in my hands. “Maybe I can filter out the toxins.” “Maybe you can concentrate on Taumoeba.” There’s a special warble that Rocky does when he’s being snarky. That warble is especially present right now.

Chapter 30 (epilogue, after a 16 year long timeskip):

“Think we’ll find more of them? Intelligent species?” “Who knows?” I say. “You and I found each other. That’s something.” “Yeah,” he says. “It really is something. Go do your job, old man.”

[manyblinkinglights]

why am I so bad at math. Eridian atmosphere is 29 times 0.33atm because that’s what the Hail Mary is pressurized to when Rocky does the necklaces thing. Erid’s only 9 or 10 times Earth’s ~1atm standard pressure. No hope for me even at all.

[sleepymarmot]

That's Andy Weir's mistake in the tunnel scene. Apparently people bring it up to him a lot? There are many threads about this on the subreddit, in some of them people say Weir admitted the mistake in interviews.

It's supposed to be 29 atmospheres; the number 29 shows up in the book several more times, and the worldbuilding doc names it as 28 or 29. For the other numbers in the Eridian worldbuilding to work, the boiling point of water should be above 210C; an online calculator tells me it's 21atm and above.

Relevant quotes from the book:

I don’t know how thick that wall is—half an inch, maybe? Less? But it’s holding back a relative pressure of 28 atmospheres. (Chapter 10)

I hope that means there isn’t 29 atmospheres of ammonia in there at the moment. (Chapter 11)

Just a centimeter of transparent material separates my one-fifth atmosphere of oxygen pressure from Rocky’s 29 atmospheres of ammonia. Not to mention my 20 degrees Celsius from Rocky’s 210 degrees Celsius. (Chapter 16)

I hope Rocky’s little cells are doing their thing in there. And I hope they know how to fix damage done by: (1) dropping air pressure to one twenty-ninth what he evolved to live in, (2) being suddenly exposed to a bunch of oxygen, and (3) being almost 200 degrees colder than his body expects. (Chapter 20)

Webcams aren’t designed to work at 210 degrees Celsius and 29 atmospheres. (Chapter 20)

At 29 atmospheres, air acts almost like water. (Chapter 20)

One centimeter of that stuff can effortlessly hold in Rocky’s 29 atmospheres of pressure! (Chapter 28)

From the doc:

Surface atmospheric pressure: 28 atm

The ACS temperature is maintained at 210°C, which is about the average outdoor temperature. The boiling point of water in their atmospheric pressure is 230.2°C, meaning every muscle action must first heat the vesicles 20°C and only then does the heat energy start working toward the state change.

Eridians evolved to exist in 28 atm of pressure. A pressure below 19atm is fatal.

The ship is made of their advanced materials and holds their 28atm pressure.

The ship provides 29 atmospheres of ammonia at a comfortable 210C.

[lewadny]

happy june to everyone, especially my fellow aroaces

[lewadny]

Listen

LISTEN

I'M SCREAMING THE MAIN SEQUENCE *IS* THE AROACE FLAG WHAT

[to-orrr]

summer sketches 🌾

[mollybeenoel]

[chick-it-out]

Visit Original Link

see him sing

now see him thrushin

[herpsandbirds]

Blood Pheasant (Ithaginis cruentus), males, family Phasianidae, order Galliformes, Laojun Mountain, Lijiang, China

photograph by Wild Safari Saga

[scromch]

i think maybe we could spend less time thinking about things that make us angry and more time thinking about other stuff

[scromch]

YEAH EXACTLY HOLY SHIT

[scromch]

oh my god hes perfect. replace the faces on us currency with him

[kerink]

to me, grace's house on erid looks like it was inspired by organic modern/japandi interior design styles with industrial elements. which makes sense from a set designer's stand point because it has to look like it was made with both natural materials and metals.

but i have so many questions about it. is this grace's interior design style? is this how interior design is on erid? did grace and rocky set up a joint pinboard and spend the trip chucking jpegs in there? he has so many vases, are they gifts from the eridians? is it an eridian cultural thing? did grace take up pottery?

i also adore how many windows he has and how big they are. the house is physically small (which makes sense, grace doesn't seem like the type of guy to want a bigger space than he needs) but having so many large windows makes it feel bigger than it is. it also allows him to enjoy the ocean views, provide lighting (it's possible he has recessed lighting, but i didn't see any lamps), and help him feel less trapped. after being kidnapped and forced to live in such a small space for so long, it would be good for him to feel physically safe but not contained, and this is a great way to do it.

[is-that-sand-in-my-waffles]

hey rocky you watched this man trip over his own feet for four years. why is there a giant-ass rail-less staircase going from his house to the beach, question?

[shrimpbog]

grace: im scared of elevators!

yao: that’s good because there are no elevators in space

meanwhile eridians with their space elevator:

[kerink]

this morning i'm thinking about grace teaching the eridian scientists about evolution on earth, more specifically how some animals on earth have echolocation and that's why he had an easier time understanding their primary sense than they did his. and also that some animals that live in no light environments evolve to stop having light sensing entirely and animals who live in both high and low light environments can have both.

which makes grace wonder if there are eridian upper-atmosphere life forms that have light sense, and if any of the species that travel between the biomes have both.

the next thing rocky knows grace and the eridian scientists are conducting all kinds of experiments on upper-atmosphere life forms trying to see if there's something eridian biologists missed because they couldn't conceptualize a biological process.

rocky about to beat skulls in because they need to become human experts first so they can keep grace alive permanently and with confidence! the eridian scientists only survive because grace plays the "it's enrichment" card and rocky has to grumbly relent.

[salvaation]

Eridians are apex predators. Humans, despite considering ourselves the top of the food chain, actually fall into the same trophic level as pigs and anchovies—tertiary omnivores.

But humans are pursuit predators. And Eridians seem more likely to be ambush predators.

What I'm saying is on that years-long trip to Erid there were absolutely several instances of Rocky & Grace doing something that was absolutely terrifying to the other one and then having to be like "oh yeah no that's normal. Sorry."

[blinker-fluid]

@shastafirecracker this is funny holy shit

[burnersfandomblog]

[kerink]

i can't stop thinking about this part from the eridian lore bible

the biodome team watching grace get up in the middle of the night and easily navigate his hut without turning any lights on:

[kerink]

so how much showing off do you think he's doing in the biodome?

[going-dead]

Humans being persistent predators is probably a terrifying concept to Eridians. A creature that slowly follows you until your body forces you to sleep knowing you will be unable to wake up as they inevitably get closer and closer.

Grace’s explanation of old human hunting practices probably spawned a whole new genre of horror on Erid.

[thisusernameisunique]

It spawns a whole new genre of horror in the scientists studying Grace.

Scientist: Rocky. You let this creature watch you sleep!

Rocky: Grace watch Rocky sleep for years.

Scientist: Persistence Predator Grace, who's claim to being an apex predator is to kill creatures when they sleep... that Grace.

Rocky: yes? I'm gonna introduce Grace to pebbles. Grace be good teacher to young.

Scientist: You want Grace, who eats sleeping creatures, to watch over children!

Rocky: yes?

[thisusernameisunique]

Grace breathes rocket fuel

Grace's atmosphere is so scant that Erdians puff out of their carapace like blobfish taken from the depths of the ocean.

Grace can survive brief exposure to the vacuum of space.

Grace can see light so he can see an eridian when its hiding among rocks

Grace can walk any Eridian to exhaustion and then kill them

Grace can float, see, and swim, in water, so Eridians have no hiding spots on their entire planet.

Grace can adapt. Grace is human and humans have learned echolocation.

Grace: "that last one's not true. I cannot echolocate."

Scientist: "wikipedia on think machine says humans have done it."

Grace: "blind humans."

Scientist: "you said our planet is pitch black to you. Pitch black meaning you cannot see anything. You are blind outside your habitat."

Grace: "I mean. Yeah. But Rocky gave me a flashlight. So I'm not blind outside."

Scientist: "This flashlight. Stops you learning echolocation?"

...and thats how all of Erid lines their city streets with bright lights.

[avoid-avoidance]

I wonder if Eridians would develop a genre of 'Chuck Norris'-type jokes about humans..

[kerink]

i like when eridians describe grace in other-worldly, incorporeal, eldritch ways. that he's beautiful and terrifying at the same time. a horror you can't look away from because you don't want to miss a thing.

you can never get a clear listen to him. his primary sense node is covered in "hair" and the part that isn't is hidden by two crystals that refract sound waves in a pleasing but disorienting way. he covers his body in billowy cloth at all times. not snug and sensible and unobstructive like eridian coverings, but loose and layered, draped and flowing.

the most clear part of him are his internal organs. because yes, the alien's carapace isn't sound-proof. his single heart beats insistingly in his core, his lungs exchanging gas constantly, his long digestive tract always bubbling and contracting. his thorax is packed impossibly tight and it's all moving and singing.

and it shouldn't be possible, with how fragile he is, for that internal pressure to maintain. how does the thin membrane of his external organ (another horror that sends eridians reeling) keep it all contained? his "skin" is so easily pierced, cut, bruised, burnt, how does he not split open under his own mass?

when savior rocky first arrived home and described the environmental needs of his alien, the scientists thought he'd made a mistake in his frantic panic to get everything out. it isn't possible this being lives at such low atmospheric pressure, at half the gravity, and in a gas that's nearly double the weight of ammonia. in a gas so dangerous, so caustic. and if it does then how is it obligately terrestrial like rocky claims? shouldn't it fly or float instead? (and then to see it in the water, learning that it can float or sink at will.)

and this alien has come bearing gifts that will not only save your species but launch it into impossible heights of technological and intellectual advancement. he has discovered the solution to astrophage and bred it to thrive on threeworld and translated his instructions into eridian. he has given your people the complete sum of his people's knowledge, advanced in ways the eridians can't believe and behind in ways that seem ludicrous. and he has given his life for your people to have these things.

he knows how your solar system was formed. he knows how the universe started.

his name means beautiful and generous and relieving.

the eridians experiencing cosmic bliss.

be not afraid.