Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins • Hacker News Board

Re: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins

#21

Post by ChuckMcM » Fri, Jun 17, 2011, 4:59 PM UTC

lars wrote: post #7

From a machine learning perspective this doesn't seem like such a daunting task. We have pretty good speech recognition for human language (plus acceptable speech synthesis). Assuming dolphins have a smaller vocabulary than humans, speech recognition of dolphins should strictly speaking be a simpler problem (although it would be significantly harder to record the training data).

Of if dolphins have a sense of humor all bets are off.

Dophin 1, "Hey I bet we can get that thing to say 'bite me' when it greets someone!"

Dolphin 2, "You think? Ok, every time we meet in front of them you say 'bite me' and i'll say 'wheree?'"

Re: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins

#22

Post by pavel_lishin » Fri, Jun 17, 2011, 5:00 PM UTC

ghotli wrote: post #15

parfe wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously, "So long and thanks for all the fish." But more importantly communication is the first step towards mutual respect if dolphins are sentient.

A part of me feels like conscious, sentient beings should have equal protection under the law. Just because they don't encode knowledge in written language or make tools like we do doesn't mean that they may be any less sentient.

So, which part of you doesn't feel that conscious and sentient beings ought to have equal protection?

Re: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins

#23

Post by yannski » Fri, Jun 17, 2011, 5:06 PM UTC

So finally David Brin could be premonitory, cf http://www.davidbrin.com/upliftbooks.htm

Re: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins

#24

Post by Goladus » Fri, Jun 17, 2011, 5:09 PM UTC

hvs wrote: post #5

"May" in this case meaning "we haven't actually done any testing yet." Can't anyone wait until they have tested their theory before having an article written about it? This title could just as easily have been "Humans are going to record and play different sounds to dolphins with the hope that something happens."

My guess is that this article will help the project compete for funding. The name of the project (CHAT) and its principle investigators are very prominent in the article, as well as promising descriptions of the technology already developed.

Re: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins

#25

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jun 17, 2011, 5:11 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #22

ghotli wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A part of me feels like conscious, sentient beings should have equal protection under the law. Just because they don't encode knowledge in written language or make tools like we do doesn't mean that they may be any less sentient.

So, which part of you doesn't feel that conscious and sentient beings ought to have equal protection?

[deleted]

Re: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins

#26

Post by defen » Fri, Jun 17, 2011, 5:14 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #22

ghotli wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A part of me feels like conscious, sentient beings should have equal protection under the law. Just because they don't encode knowledge in written language or make tools like we do doesn't mean that they may be any less sentient.

So, which part of you doesn't feel that conscious and sentient beings ought to have equal protection?

The part that fears a warlike alien civilization.

Re: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins

#27

Post by ceejayoz » Fri, Jun 17, 2011, 5:27 PM UTC

defen wrote: post #26

pavel_lishin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, which part of you doesn't feel that conscious and sentient beings ought to have equal protection?

The part that fears a warlike alien civilization.

Our laws already cope with warlike human civilizations, why would an alien one be any different from an equal protection standpoint?

Re: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins

#28

Post by djcapelis » Fri, Jun 17, 2011, 5:29 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #22

ghotli wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A part of me feels like conscious, sentient beings should have equal protection under the law. Just because they don't encode knowledge in written language or make tools like we do doesn't mean that they may be any less sentient.

So, which part of you doesn't feel that conscious and sentient beings ought to have equal protection?

The part that knows some conscious and sentient things are delicious.

Barbaric, no?

Re: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins

#29

Post by Groxx » Fri, Jun 17, 2011, 5:35 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #9

dolvlo wrote: post #2

Somehow, this made me think of the Baby Translator from the Simpsons

I prefer the dog translator from the Far Side cartoon. It turns out every barking dog is saying "Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!"

also: Dexter's Lab. "Mooooooooooon!"

Re: Translation technology may let humans speak with dolphins

#30

Post by epochwolf » Fri, Jun 17, 2011, 5:41 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #22

ghotli wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A part of me feels like conscious, sentient beings should have equal protection under the law. Just because they don't encode knowledge in written language or make tools like we do doesn't mean that they may be any less sentient.

So, which part of you doesn't feel that conscious and sentient beings ought to have equal protection?

Probably the part that likes to eat meat.