Beyond Human Conversation

Humans have long dreamed of communicating with other species, from plants and animals to extraterrestrial life — and now, thanks to new technology, scientists are gaining more insights at a faster pace. What can we expect in terms of breaking down that communication barrier? Will we be able to communicate, to understand what other forms of life are thinking and feeling?

On this episode, we explore vastly different efforts to bridge the communication gap. We hear stories about scientists who are using AI to decode animal communication, how SETI scientists go about their search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and one man who claims to have found a way to help plants make music.

ALSO HEARD:

• Host Maiken Scott meets Amber Guzzi’s talkative macaw named Baby, in hopes of having a human-animal conversation … but things don’t go as planned.
• We talk with Gavin Steingo, a professor of music at Princeton University, about past efforts to communicate with animals, from a “talking” horse named Clever Hans to an orchestral concert aimed at elephants, along with what both drives and limits those attempts. Steingo’s new book is called “Interspecies Communication: Sound and Music Beyond Humanity.”
• The desire to de-code animal language is often fueled by an appreciation for them. Author and naturalist Sy Montgomery tells us how she came to better understand her flock of chickens. Her new book is, “What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation for the World’s Most Familiar Bird.” 
• Sofia Sheikh, an astrobiologist and researcher with the SETI Institute in California, describes her work searching the skies for a different kind of “language”: a specific band of radio signals that can only be produced by humans — or other intelligent life.
• You’ve heard of people singing to their plants — but what if those plants could sing back? That’s what musician Tom Wall claims to have enabled with a device that he says is capable of transforming plants’ electrical impulses into music. This story was originally reported by Michael Livingston for the Points North podcast from Interlochen Public Media.