Talk to the animals

 

 

I was brought up short by an item in the Christmas edition of New Scientist. In an item entitled “talk to the animals” it suggests a way in which this might be done. Essentially the proposal ( not yet implemented ) is that by feeding artificial intelligence computers with lots of human language. without any  knowledge of how language works it is possible to create what are called “clouds” of words in a mathematical multi dimensional space. Then if the same thing is done with animal language  and comparing to the human “cloud” it might be possible to see where overlaps occur and then be able to translate.

Wow

My first thought was that this may be a hoax. I’m fairly sure it isn’t because New Scientist corrals its jokes into a separate section and otherwise keeps reports straight. Now I think I’m a fairly savvy chap. I have a decent scientific background and I keep up with science and technology as it evolves but this was completely out of left field.

I can start to see that reality as a concept could be slightly fuzzy. This article on talking to animals wasn’t asserting a new reality but rather giving a method by which that new reality could be attained. The reality would be when something like whale clicks could be understood and some kind of two way communication established with a whale.

I suggest that reality is that phenomenon for which strong evidence exists. By strong evidence I mean that the phenomenon can be studied, that it fits with all known physical laws, and the evidence can be replicated by many observers.

For example many super natural phenomena cannot be studied. I always find it amusing that all the TV ghost hunting programmes never actually find a ghost. Telepathy can be studied, and has been, most famously by Rhine at Duke University in the US. Essentially this used patterned cards with the telepath communicating the pattern to a remote receiver. No change from chance was observed in experiments conducted over many years. Rhine did at times think that an effect was seen only to find it disappeared when experimental conditions were tightened.

Stage magic can be very impressive. The late “Amazing Randi” undertook to expose charlatans relying on stage magic to impress observers. Interestingly Randi was rather contemptuous of scientists who he thought were rather easily hoodwinked. His proud boast was that he could explain all “supernatural” tricks.

In the case of (prospective ) talking to the animals credibility is added because the way in which it could conceivably be done is briefly described. I may not understand the method in more than outline but the outline does carry some conviction.

Some beliefs can be tracked to some sort of source. For example the belief that the Apollo moon landings were a hoax  probably derives from the film “Capricorn One” a 1978 thriller based on that premise. The anti vax belief probably stems from some debunked scientific work. The suggestion that MMR vaccine was linked to autism has been comprehensively disproven

Some more blatant theories such as belief in a flat earth are more difficult to understand. There may be some story that was the original derivation; if so I don’t know what it was. It seems to me that more likely it is derived from a need to have faith in something. As belief in conventional religion has waned it is no co-incidence that faith has switched to a belief in other evidence free zones. It has been said by psychologists that there seems to be a human need to have faith in something. Put another way it looks as if there is a god shaped hole in mankind’s psyche.

It was Arthur C Clarke who said any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I’m sure my grandparents would think a smartphone magical but because we have seen it evolve from the walky-talky, via the mobile phone and microelectronics we see it as a useful personal tool ( as well as being great technology )