CONCEPT
Translation (ANT)
The operation by which one actant speaks for, stands in for, or represents another — always transformation, never neutral transmission. The central mechanism by which networks are built and the analytic lens for what Claude actually does to human intention.
In actor-network theory, translation is the process through which heterogeneous entities are brought into alignment — where one actant takes up the cause, capability, or signal of another and carries it forward, modified by its own characteristics along the way. Translation is not a bug in networks; it is how they function. Every network is a chain of translations, and every translation introduces transformation. The designer's vision translates into a specification; the specification translates into code; the code translates through testing into a product. At every step, delay, distortion, and contribution. The AI moment has not eliminated translation — it has collapsed the old chains and concentrated the translation in a single powerful mediator.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The concept is the engine of actor-network theory. Michel Callon's 1986 analysis of scallops, fishermen, and researchers in the Bay of St. Brieuc identified four moments of translation — problematization, interessement,