well i wouldn't literally think "thing i was on before...", i'm translating for you.
does translation require the source to be in language? to use the idea of trees/computers(ai)/etc you mentioned below- if I scan a page from a textbook into the computer, is that image in language? I do not think it is. However, if I want it translated, I can run software that will 'translate' the pattern of light and dark into something that the human user will recognise as language (the computer, does not have to even understand that translation as language- it is just assigning the codes after all and those words mean nothing to it. i think that is somewhat similar to my not being able to hear half the sounds most people do, not making sense of phonetics, etc but having learned how to move my tongue and throat (like computers assigning character codes) that someone else can understand, even if I cannot.
no subject
does translation require the source to be in language? to use the idea of trees/computers(ai)/etc you mentioned below- if I scan a page from a textbook into the computer, is that image in language? I do not think it is. However, if I want it translated, I can run software that will 'translate' the pattern of light and dark into something that the human user will recognise as language (the computer, does not have to even understand that translation as language- it is just assigning the codes after all and those words mean nothing to it. i think that is somewhat similar to my not being able to hear half the sounds most people do, not making sense of phonetics, etc but having learned how to move my tongue and throat (like computers assigning character codes) that someone else can understand, even if I cannot.