1. The Synoptic Translation Prototype as a practical solution to the Tophoven version of transparency as ethical accountability : potential possibility to ‘reanimate’ translation processes to ‘watch them happen’... however, there exists the opposite ethical concern of a right to privacy for translators and their processes

2. The conceptual/theoretical apparatus of ethical/strategic layers. Firstly, dealing only with the usual specialist translation ethics of relative fidelity etc., it allows a text to be conceived as having different layers that can be treated separately and according to different strategic and ethical criteria, based on their different skopoi. Secondly, it is crucial to the theory that translation (whether or not specialised, though it is much clearer in specialised translation) is always dealing with ethical realms that are not specific to translation. So, you can also create a ‘layer’ or ‘layers’ for revisions/adaptations based upon ‘external’ ethical concerns (medical, journalistic, legal, intercultural, etc.). These can be organised according to a hierarchy based upon a synthetic skopos (itself obviously subject to ethical criteria).

3. A combination of the above means that the STP could provide multidimensional visualisation and searchability of translation databases, which are traces of multiple versions and translation possibilities, altered over time. It presently allows static visualisation (with dynamic and modifiable interaction between the original and a chosen version), but in the future might even be programmed to animate time-lapsed translation procedures, thus adding a fourth dimension.

4. The key thing is that the STP is designed as a tool for translation practice, not primarily for ethical oversight of translation (though the Tophoven angle means that it could well be used for this). The idea, though, with regard to ethics, is that it can be adapted as a pedagogical or working tool to heighten translators’ awareness of particular ‘ethical layers’ in practice.