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So here's a question that's been on my mind for 25 years: How the hell can Luke Skywalker understand what R2-D2 is saying? That beepity-boop "language" he speaks must be excruciating to learn, since it has no real "words" and is probably dependant upon all sorts of tiny variations in timing and pitch unlike any human language.

I mean it would take years to master that. Why the hell would anyone bother? I couldn't find anything about this on the R2-D2 Wookipedia article.

Isn't Anakin able to understand it a bit too?

Anyways that is sort of beside the point... I suppose he learns it over time just like over time you get to recognize certain things that your pet does that mean certain things. It doesn't have to be that he understands the language.

Wasn't he relying on a translator screen when talking with R2 in TESB?

Srelex wrote:Wasn't he relying on a translator screen when talking with R2 in TESB?

Yes.

On Dagobah, Luke replied to Artoo saying "if you're saying coming here was a bad idea, I'm starting to agree with you." He doesn't know exactly what Artoo said, but he can make guesses based on the droid's tone.

We as the viewers generally managed to get the basic gist of what R2 was saying for Valen's sake. As for the details I don't think ANYBODY ever got that in the movies without 3PO being there to translate.

Hmm, you guys are right. I looked at the ESB script just to be sure and his conversations with R2 never neccessarily imply literal understanding of the bleep-bloop outside of a cockpit. Oh well, question answered. Thanks guys. Still, odd that R2 can't speak English.

DudeGuyMan wrote:Still, odd that R2 can't speak English.

Not really, R2 units simply weren't designed with a human-accessible voice interface in mind, they're maintenance droids who do all of their communicating with other machines. R2-D2 is an exception to the rule considering his colourful history, and he managed to do fine without any language upgrades.

Other than protocol droids and medical droids (who need to communicate with people in order to fulfill their duties and programming) no other droid really needs to chat to anyone.

I always figured it was similar to morse code.

Stofsk wrote:Other than protocol droids and medical droids (who need to communicate with people in order to fulfill their duties and programming) no other droid really needs to chat to anyone.

Oh c'mon now, if a droid can receive verbal input it ought to be able to generate meaningful output. Especially when it generates audio output anyway and already includes the hardware to record and play animated holographic messages complete with sound. It has the capacity to understand language, and the ability to play back speech, but somehow it doesn't talk?

I mean you tell your droid to complete some task and it bloops at you with obvious annoyance. Does it require clarification? Is it unable to comply for some reason? You'll need to either bring a second droid over to translate or plug it into a monitor in order to find out. That's ridiculous interface design, worse than the usual Star Trek nonsense, even.

Oh c'mon now, if a droid can receive verbal input it ought to be able to generate meaningful output. Especially when it generates audio output anyway and already includes the hardware to record and play animated holographic messages complete with sound. It has the capacity to understand language, and the ability to play back speech, but somehow it doesn't talk?

Does your computer talk? I can talk to my computer, but can it talk back to me? I listen to video and audio on it, but does that equal a capability to make ordered conversation? Of course not.

I mean you tell your droid to complete some task and it bloops at you with obvious annoyance. Does it require clarification? Is it unable to comply for some reason? You'll need to either bring a second droid over to translate or plug it into a monitor in order to find out. That's ridiculous interface design, worse than the usual Star Trek nonsense, even.

What are you talking about? Robots today don't talk back, because they don't need to - they do a very specific set of actions related to what they've been programmed to do. An astromech droid is designed to be a roving repair droid that repairs things needing repairing. They don't need to talk back, or ask you to 'clarify' what their tasks are - they already know what it is, because of their programming.

You can't be a medic if you're not able to communicate with your patient. You can't be a protocol droid if you can't communicate with anyone. What does an astromech need to ask you in order to do its job? 'Want me to repair the hyperdrive? Sure, which one? We only have the one? That was easy. Oh by the way, have you seen the hydrospanners? Oh wait, I'm a walking toolbox, nevermind. Hey how about that Rebellion eh? Do you think they're gonna win? Am I too chatty?'

If the robot is autonomous and capable of doing its job without supervision, then you don't need that human to be in the loop. If the supervision is constant, then you also don't need the robot to communicate, because the human can determine what's at fault and take corrective measures or issue countermanding orders. EDIT: And if the robot does a lot of repairs in vacuum, like we see a stack of them do in TPM (fuck you for making me remember this film) then what exactly is it going to say to anyone when sound doesn't travel in space? Same goes for them being in the X-wing or Y-wing slots. Those are their primary roles, and in both circumstances they're going to be either plugged in to the fighter's computer and pilot interface, or will otherwise be directed by a starship's computer (like in TPM).

Srelex wrote:Wasn't he relying on a translator screen when talking with R2 in TESB?

Only when in his X-Wing, while R2 was in the socket, and because, y'know, the whole sound in a vacuum thing. Despite what special effects tell us.
But yeah, Luke had his most comprehensive conversations with R2 in this fashion.

Stofsk wrote:no other droid really needs to chat to anyone.

You forgot battle droids that need to transmit information to their biological commanders.

g_core18 wrote:I always figured it was similar to morse code.

According to EU sources it's 'binary'.

General Schatten wrote:According to EU sources it's 'binary'.

sigh.... Does the EU have to take every little piece of throw away dialogue from the movies to make crap?

It makes a little sense if ever bleep was a 1 and every bloop was a 0

Artoo makes more than two sounds.

Remember that R2 can display text on one of his small screens. Which is presumaly sufficient for communication in Astromech droids - they are not built to interact with humans all the time, obviously.

EVERY droid in Star Wars, if they don't speak, make their own sounds. R2 goes 'bleep bloop', gonks go 'gonk'. Maybe it's a galactic culture thing. Over the years, people have had the urge to give their droids personality, so they give each their own set of noises. Not everything has to have a technical or pragmatic explanation, the entire point of unique cultures is how and where they put form over function.

In ESB, didn't Han also spend a few moments chatting intelligibly with a random stick-like droid that made nothing but buzzing noises, prior to telling it to hold up while he chatted with Luke? Or is my memory failing?

Havok wrote:Artoo makes more than two sounds.

Yeah but the other sounds are gibberish

Stofsk wrote: Does your computer talk? I can talk to my computer, but can it talk back to me? I listen to video and audio on it, but does that equal a capability to make ordered conversation? Of course not.

Because we all know that your personal computer is as smart as R2-D2.

Lagmonster wrote:In ESB, didn't Han also spend a few moments chatting intelligibly with a random stick-like droid that made nothing but buzzing noises, prior to telling it to hold up while he chatted with Luke? Or is my memory failing?

No memory failure. A fairly complex conversation actually.

Bilbo wrote:

Stofsk wrote:Does your computer talk? I can talk to my computer, but can it talk back to me? I listen to video and audio on it, but does that equal a capability to make ordered conversation? Of course not.

Because we all know that your personal computer is as smart as R2-D2.

The point still stands.

Stofsk wrote:Does your computer talk? I can talk to my computer, but can it talk back to me? I listen to video and audio on it, but does that equal a capability to make ordered conversation? Of course not.

Does your computer accept complex instructions by voice thanks to it's excellent understanding of the English language, while possessing intelligence and personality on the level of a sentient being? If so, then yes, it should probably talk. If not, then I'm willing to bet it possesses a large and detailed video display which you're expected to sit directly in front of during normal operation.

It certainly doesn't make "bleep bloop blop" the totality of it's output and expect you to get by with that.

You can't be a medic if you're not able to communicate with your patient. You can't be a protocol droid if you can't communicate with anyone. What does an astromech need to ask you in order to do its job? 'Want me to repair the hyperdrive? Sure, which one? We only have the one? That was easy. Oh by the way, have you seen the hydrospanners? Oh wait, I'm a walking toolbox, nevermind. Hey how about that Rebellion eh? Do you think they're gonna win? Am I too chatty?'

"Sure man, I'll have this hyperdrive fixed in ten minutes. Er, I mean, beep boop."

"Okay, but it'll take me about six hours to fix the hyperdrive. It's pretty messed up. Uh, bloop beep I mean."

"The hyperdrive is fixed, but you should go easy on it and not take it above 100c until we get home and can do a full overhaul. By which I mean boop beep whistle."

"I can't repair the hyperdrive because the starboard phlebotinum coil is burned out. We'll need to call for help unless there's somewhere nearby we can limp to at sublight. Then again we might be able to cobble together a temporary replacement if we disassemble one of the... OH WAIT, BLEEP BLOOP BLEEP, WHY WOULD YOU EVER NEED TO HEAR ANYTHING I HAVE TO SAY? I'M ONLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE OF YOUR INTERSTELLAR SPACECRAFT!"

What exactly is your argument? It is factually fucking clear that people in the SW universe can understand droids just fine. The only time readouts are necessary, are as I said, when the droid is on the outside of the ship in space where sound can't travel and a cockpit is in the way.

Han can understand Chewie too... OH NO!!

Well excuse me jackass, when I walked in here with the understanding that people COULD somehow understand droid language I was "corrected" by several users. The fact that someone has thereafter managed to recall a scene where someone DOES understand droid language doesn't make Stofsk's "Why would you ever need to be able to freely exchange information with a droid when all it's doing is complex technical work on vital systems?" argument any less retarded.

Also, the fact that Han could understand that droid brings us back to the OP. Why would anyone ever possibly learn to understand droid language when it's likely a huge pain, it's used as a primary means of communication by only some droids, and any droid that can understand Basic AND speak ought to logically be able to speak Basic?

Han and Chewie understanding one another makes sense since they spend a lot of time together and neither seems to have the physical ability to speak the other's language. Someone learning to understand a series of bleeps and buzzes because a droid engineer somewhere went ahead and installed the Basic language pack but set it to "understand only, never speak" for some incomprehensible reason is vastly less sensible.