Today my friend and I departed on quest to find a blank key for his American friend's Nissan Maxima. My heart was filled with hopeful skepticism that we would be able to do this, but after not one, but two closed Nissan dealerships, we happened upon a third within the same half mile that was open for business. Armed with the words for "key," "car," and the like we offered our smiles and apologies to the staff at the desk and presented the factory cut and parts number. And then the impossible slowly became possible. After telling us it could not be done, it miraculously became feasible, and after 20 minutes, a computer translating program, smiles and bows, and only 2400 yen (less than $30) two keys will be delivered to my door sometime around January 14th. Amazing. The power of numbers which can index something like a specific key. How many words are saved? How much communication made possible?
What if we could just present the world with numbers like this for communication? I supposed we would all become walking Dewey decimals. Our identity would be like books (I'd probably be somewhere in the 780s which is Dewey for music, with a more specific cutter number, for example) and the topics of conversation could follow the same system. There would be 10 broad categories, and each additional number would narrow the topic accordingly. Alphabet letters could be used as well.
The relative ease of the exchange this afternoon may also have been aided by some sketching and hand gestures and a steady pursuit of the goal by way of patience and politeness. But the idea that concepts can be filed away in a such a simple index of understanding certainly has some temptations. I'm just a little concerned about how music would sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment