UNIOS The United Nations Institute of Object Studies First Translation Team Department of Theoretical Linguistics CUNY, New York

Date: 17 September 20--
Subject: Interpretation of symbol-sets originating in the South-polar Object
To: Prof. Ernst Altmann, Translation Co-ordinating Committee,

I wish to place on record my concerns about the direction which the Object Studies Project appears to be taking. The Object clearly represents an unprecedented opportunity for mankind to encounter and come to terms with a technology beyond our current capacities. If such a unique confluence of events is allowed to succumb to mysticism and flawed scholarship, then we may lose all of the gains hinted at by its presence. Who knows where it came from, or, indeed, how long it will remain with us?

The following points summarise our position:

1. In spite of a precise duplication of her material technology as well as full replication of the AIVE (Artificially Intelligent Virtual Environment,) Team One have been unable to replicate Dr. Zaar's results.

2. Without such replication, we strongly feel that there is still no justification for associating specific symbols or symbol strings with particular linguistic commodities in English or any other Earth language. 3. We therefore reject the "translations" offered by Team Seven, and augmented, we understand, by members of several other teams, as being premature at best or probably spurious.

4. Dr. Zaar has offered in support of her "translations" a model of a "lexical net" which we find to be quaintly similar to the work of Aujourdhui on consociational theory which, as you may be aware, has been regarded for several years as a seriously limited and flawed depiction of the linguistic process.

5. We have reached, with some reluctance, the conclusion that Dr. Zaar's translations are a figment of her own mind, and that the translation matrix used by her, while consistent and able to yield texts in English, is a hoax. We do concede the possibility that Dr. Zaar may be acting unconsciously, and that others have followed her lead mainly because the project has generated such a great pressure to produce results.

6. On studying the content of the "translations" offered, we have concluded that they are, in some part, politically motivated. They represent a facet of the theoretical bias so dearly loved by radical intellectuals in liberal-arts faculties of universities world-wide, but rejected, in the main, by ordinary citizens. We note that the detection of such a bias implies, of course, a refutation of any idea that they are the productions of the alien Object.

7. We urge that Dr. Zaar's ideas be comprehensively re-examined by an international panel of competent systems- and linguistic scientists. Until such time as this has been done, we cannot place any confidence in her work. We further urge that Dr. Zaar and her supporters should have reduced access to the "unlimited" funds which their project has managed to soak up.

We hope that you will table this memorandum as Team one's official position, and that you will give urgent consideration to its content.

Yours Sincerely

Prof. Ivan Cutler Ph.D. FSLR, FLAA.
Chairman, First Translation Team