You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Language' category.
So today I’ve been updating my blog and putting together a grant proposal for the forthcoming Interspeech expo and I ended up thinking about how this whole ‘public engagement’ gig started. After all, shockingly, there is no real incentive for me to talk to the wider public about my research or about science in general. As a young Postdoc my career is entirely based on my ability to communicate my research to my ‘peers’, a very small set of experts.
But I then remembered how it all started: with the story of Nkisi the Parrot. You see as a young, naive, PhD student I read on the BBC about this bird’s amazing linguistic talents, with a 950 word vocabulary and an ability to express new concepts it certainly seemed impressive. After all animal communication systems can give us a real insight into the evolution of our own linguistic abilities. So I conscientiously chased up the references and was startled to discover that this parrot could not only conduct lengthy conversations but that it was also psychic!
Now even back in 2004 I wasn’t entirely innocent, I was aware of spin and sensationalism, but the fact that a BBC science journalist could take a look at the Journal of Psychic Animal Research (or wherever) and think: “Yes, that looks fine to me I’ll write about this instead of all of the other valid and interesting studies on animal communication” shook me up a bit.
Anyway, the whole episode left me convinced that scientists really should tell the general public what they’re up to and hopefully raise the bar when it comes to critical thinking. The modern scientific method means that groundbreaking discoveries are being made on an astoundingly regular basis and these have implications for the whole of society. Not all of these discoveries are put to good use, but hysteria, sensationalism and an apparent willingness to simply make stuff up isn’t helping anyone.
Wouldn’t it be great if you had a personal trainer available 24/7. Well that’s one of the potential applications of my work at Sheffield University. Over the next three years I will be developing artificial companions that are able to talk about specific topics. So you could soon spend the morning discussing your diet and fitness plans with a robotic bunny rabbit and the evening talking about what’s on the T.V. This presents all sorts of challenges, how can we simulate the emotive content of a conversation? Could a robot ever tell if you’re in a bad mood? How can it get to know you? Remembering your likes, dislikes and habits. We’ve still got a long way to go as you can see from the video our current generation of companions are a little “intrusive”.
