The act of teaching human language to animals based on this fact
For example, teaching sign language to the genius gorilla Coco to communicate with her.
A close example is of communicating with a dog by teaching it simple words such as sit and wait.
I’ve tried doing something like that.
However, with advances in biology, ethology, linguistics, and computer technology and AI,
Attempts to interpret the language itself used by animals are continuing.
To give two representative examples:
1. Project CETI
In 2017, while Dr. David Gruber was studying the calls of sperm whales,
Shafi Goldwasser, cryptographer and Turing Award winner.
When they heard the crying sound, they said it was similar to Morse code.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/2ShE9zULOY0
(Speech Behavior of the Sperm Whale – Coda)
Based on this idea, scientists studied the sperm whale’s verbal behavior-coda.
Turning to AI machine learning
Decided to find a pattern.
Based on their research
In 2019, about 50 experts in biology, behavior, linguistics, computers, and AI gathered together to
As a result of discussion, it was concluded that there was a possibility of interpreting the sperm whale’s language.
So Project CETI was born.
The official name is the Cetacean Translation Project.
The research team found underwater near an island in Dominica in the Caribbean.
A huge recording studio measuring 20km by 20km was prepared. Literally installing a recorder under the sea.
So I started collecting sperm whale codas.
Using a drone, various sensors such as recorders and trackers are attached to the whale’s body.
We studied the situational context when uttering the coda.
The vast amount of data collected this way
Results run by AI
Discovering four levels of speech behavior in sperm whales
The first layer is the coda’s pace-words
The second layer acts like a click-suffix in the coda.
The third layer regulates the pauses between clicks – expressing emotions.
The fourth layer is the fine timing control of the coda – it acts like a human vowel.
The data created this way is
It acted like a dictionary of the sperm whale language.
Through this, sperm whales can be divided into each family group (clan).
It has its own culture and dialect.
Moreover, as young whales in childhood and adolescence learn language,
It was even discovered that new dialects were being created.
Based on these research results
In 2023, the research team sent a coda to the sperm whale informing it of its location.
In fact, several sperm whales approached the human researchers who shot Koda.
After that, there was active language behavior among the whales.
It is said that it seemed as if they were discussing a two-legged beast from land.
2. Earth species project (ESP)
ESP started as a non-profit research foundation in Silicon Valley in 2017.
ESP maps specific utterances – ‘words’ – of the language used by animals.
It is implemented on multidimensional coordinates.
What does this mean?
After coordinating each word of human language,
If you take this picture in a computer-simulated multidimensional space, it will look like a map of a galaxy.
The important thing is that when taking the coordinates of a word, you do not take them randomly.
It means placing things that are similar in context close together.
For example, a dog and a wolf are close together.
A dog and a refrigerator are very far apart.
What is surprising about the multidimensional space-language map of coordinates created in this way is that
The relationship between words shows constant geometric direction and distance.
For example, if you subtract the coordinate value of [Man] from the coordinates of [King] and add the coordinate value of [Woman],
Strangely, we arrived at the coordinates called [Queen].
The meaning of a word is preserved in its location and direction.
(If you have a background in the humanities, you may think of structuralism. In fact, the ‘vector space model’ used by ESP is closely related to the ‘distribution hypothesis’, a linguistic idea of structuralism)
A hypothesis can be made here.
If other animals also share concepts such as ‘sadness’, ‘hunger’, ‘mother’, and ‘cub’
Wouldn’t it be possible to see the animal’s language map overlapping with the human language map?
For example, if the whale said ‘Kiluk’ in the ‘mother’ position of the human data,
Then, even without a dictionary of ancient languages, we can deduce that the word ‘kiruk’ means ‘mother’.
If you keep overlapping the maps like this,
The concept is that it will be possible to interpret animal language.
Of course, all of the above projects CETI and ESP
Due to differences in Umwelt (the subjective world based on the senses and cognitive abilities of each individual)
It is still unclear whether accurate translation is possible.
But the reason for research is still
1. If an extraterrestrial intelligence is discovered, experience in interpreting entities other than humans is needed before doing so.
2. Because it is possible to break away from a human-centered perspective and confirm the reality of non-human persons.
It can be summarized as