Nacktmull will come get you if you take the easy way out The Mountain in the Sea, 229 "In movies, communication with alien species is usually achieved by means of some amazing technology. Translations are fluid, immediate, and accurate. This idea rests on the false assumption that all languages have a single conceptual foundation. But we know this is not the case, even in human societies. Languages are not based in universalities: they reflect national traditions, ethnocentric worldviews, the specific histories of their societies. Imagine, then, how many obstacles there will be to interspecies communication, when even the physical metaphors of life, and the species' sensory apparatus, differ. From the most complex to the simplest of our communicative acts, there will be endless opportunities for misinterpretation." The Mountain in the Sea, 239 "What we must look for, to be successful in interspecies communication, are starting points: commonalities of perception where we can begin the difficult work of translation between two fundamentally different ways of being in the world. We must look for concepts that approach the universal. Concepts such as 'shelter,' 'safety,' 'community,' and even complexities like 'cooperation' and 'communication,' which would have to exist for any society. When we--if we--determine the signs that represent these concepts, we may find a foothold."