A "Foreign Language" Not Really Understood

Suppose we meet a man who speaks in a language that is not our own. We understand only a few words here and there when he is speaking to us. But that person seems to understand our language perfectly.

We think so because when we ask a detailed question, we understand enough words in his reply to realize that he is addressing our topic. This is true whether our topic is a complex mathematical question or it concerns obscure historical facts.

We realize a couple of things after awhile. First, he is speaking in some kind of intentional language, not in gibberish. Second, he is extremely bright and also has an amazing knowledge of history. We realize these things without ever understanding a full sentence that he speaks.

This is exactly the case when we "converse" with the Coder. We can not interpret a single sentence, but we see that the words are intentional - not gibberish; and we see the unbelievable things that the Coder knows by the very few words that we can reliably pick out.

Of course, what makes this all the more extraordinary is that the words we are "listening" to were pre-recorded 3,300 years ago!

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