Babel 17, Language that Kills

What interested me about Babel 17 going into it, was the idea that language can be used as a weapon. This is such a unique and interesting concept, and a bit surreal to think about. It’s a little unnerving when you try to wrap your head around it. 

Babel 17 is almost like profiling. You read every change in facial expressions and body languages to see what the person is thinking about or what their emotions are. Just like behavior science, it’s rating body language, predicting what someone is thinking and feeling, but with the added ability to predict events like a psychic ability. 


I’m curious about how the system Babel 17 works. I know the point isn’t to know, but how knowing the language allow you to predict an impending attack at a port? Unless further in the novel it sets up more rules for Babel 17 (which I’m sure it does) then I don’t get the whole scope of how this language is actually being used as a weapon. I’m imagining it to be similar to how the force works in Star Wars, but with understanding language rather than believing or having faith. 

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