Maybe it was letting a dog know it was a good dog or asking a cat where it's been.

Maybe you gave words of encouragement to an elephant or scolded a sheep.

Whichever animal it was you talked to, one thing is for sure; it probably didn't talk

back.

But what if it could?

Scientists are working on ways to not only understand what animals are saying, but to

one day talk back, forever changing the way we think about them.

So, how close are we to talking with animals?

Okay, I know what you're all saying, animals do “talk”, just not with words.

They make noises, they have facial expressions and body language.

But, this isn't exactly what we're talking about.

I think it's important to distinguish between what we call communication and language.

Communication is the more general term and it really refers to this exchanging of signals,

sharing and exchanging messages or signals in a meaningful way.

Language is a word that is fraught with interpretations and involved in many debates, whether other

animals have language or they're communicating.

Well the truth is that we suppose that animals have language, but in a lot of cases, we have

to actually prove this experimentally.

But a lot of people are enchanted with the idea of animals having language.

No one has yet proven that an animal or a species has language, partly because the idea

of what constitutes a language hasn't really been established.

But in the broad sense, language should be a distinct and organized pattern of communication,

with a near infinite number of combinations, that has been learned and used voluntarily,

not in a reactionary or instinctual manner.

When your dog barks when a squirrel runs past, this is a predictable and instinctual response,

so we don't consider it language.

But there have been studies that have shown some do communicate in a very complex manner

that show traits of language.

Now we just have to figure out how to decipher what they're saying.

I think the possibility of us having a Rosetta Stone with an animal is very real.

What we have to do is we have to do the experiments to determine the context in which animal signals

are given.

That context is going to give us the Rosetta Stone.

And that's exactly what's happening.

Dr Con Slobodchikoff has been studying prairie dog calls because within those high-pitched

chirps, they actually are saying a lot.

They are able to tell each other what the species of predator is, and the alarm calls

are given in response to a predator.

The prairie dogs tell each other whether the predator is a red-tailed hawk, is a coyote,

is a domestic dog, or is a human.

They can describe the physical features of the predator.

With humans, they can tell each other about the color of clothes that the person is wearing,

about the general size and shape of the person, something about the speed of travel of the

person.

Combining years of recorded prairie dog alarms with AI technology, he may one day be able

to create a prairie dog to English translator.

Unfortunately, determining that animals have language is a difficult process.

It's not an easy one.

It takes a lot of effort and time, and it takes a certain amount of money.

One of the main obstacles that slows us down from communicating with other species is that

we don't have a shared code.

While Dr Slobodchikoff is trying to use prairie dog language as the shared code, others are

looking to create a new code, one that can hopefully bridge the gap between humans and

animals.

We've now created a four by eight foot touchscreen, an interactive underwater touchscreen for

dolphins that will allow them again choice and control and it will allow us to try to

understand what the kinds of signals they're using and their own interests, more about

their cognitive abilities.

Dr. Reiss and her team will observe the dolphin's choices and compare that to their vocalizations

and mannerisms with the hope of decoding some parts of the dolphin's speech.

Again, to create a Rosetta Stone to help translate and hopefully one day talk to dolphins using

their language.

In our lab, we try to give the dolphins a means of communication using a keyboard so

that they could request and identify different objects and that's what we're working on now

so that they can produce a code themselves.

Again, it's such a challenge though to come up with a shared language.

Well, if it's so hard to learn their language, can't we just teach them ours?

Isn't that an easier way to have an interspecies conversation?

Well, maybe.

 For decades scientists have been working with apes to teach them American Sign Language

in order to learn more about both the species and the origin of human language.

8:00 - “So the first Chimp was Washoe, she was wild caught by the Air Force.

They were collecting chimps for the space program...instead of going into space she

joined this sign language project.

She was raised like a human child...all over her caregivers used American sign language…”

Washoe was able to learn over 200 signs, talk to scientists and even taught another chimp

how to sign.

More studies popped up, most famously with Koko the Gorilla, and for a moment the lines

between human and animals blurred ever so slightly.

Some were still skeptical, arguing that these apes were just mimicking signs for a reward

instead of voluntarily conversing.

But other studies were done that showed apes talking amongst themselves with signs and

having private conversations with each other.

They seemed to be using language voluntarily.

Now, even though great progress has been made, some in this field feel uncomfortable with

the idea of bringing in new apes, or any animal, into captivity.

As someone that's been doing this for a long time, I feel that this research should

never be repeated...but the chimps that do have sign language, i feel it's important

for us to continue to document it, study it…i feel that it's important work because it helps

us understand more about chimps and see the continuity between our species and other species

on the planet and i feel that if we understand them better we're more likely to treat them,

and the rest of other beings on the planet in a better way.

And that is what may be at stake here.

That's why scientists are interested in studying interspecies communication and closing

that gap between us and them.

I think if we could talk to animals, it would really change our relationship with them because

people would realize that they are much more like us in many respects.

They have emotions.

They have thoughts...It becomes much more difficult than to treat these animals as property,

as disposable creatures…

MJ “We are taught with our culture...that we're so special and superior to other beings...when

people see the chimps signing, it's like the chimps are reaching across that imaginary

boundary that our culture has put up...for a lot of people that helps them widen their

circle of compassion…

.it's going to really perhaps end what Loren Eiseley has called The Long Loneliness of

us being the only species that can communicate with each other.

That would be very exciting to be able to communicate with other species on this planet.

If we were ever able to have a conversation with an animal, we first need to decode every

sound and movement they make when communicating.

This would be our Rosetta Stone, the groundwork for being able to talk back, a scenario that

might change how we think, govern, work, innovate and of course, eat.

So, how close are we to talking to animals?

We really have to abandon our arrogance, and it's our arrogance that keeps us from communicating

with other humans in other cultures...and it's our arrogance that has probably slowed

our progress in understanding what non-humans are talking about.

We're already communicating with animals in simple ways.

If we then ask the question how close are we to having a more sophisticated dialogue

or exchange with other animals using a shared set of symbols in sophisticated ways, I would

say, we still have a long way to go and we're just in the infancy of understanding how to

do it.

I think it really requires decoding more of what they're doing in their own natural systems

and finding ways of incorporating that into what we want to create as a shared code.

It's complicated but it's intriguing.

Thanks for watching How Close Are We, let us know in the comments what topics you want

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