Topic: human language

Arik Kershenbaum examines what the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is actually seeking. Finding microbial life would be significant, but the desire for communication with another civilisation raises different questions. Human language already separates us from other intelligent animals on Earth, despite our ability to exchange some signals with them. The lecture compares those barriers with the challenge of recognising and understanding an alien civilisation, asking whether research on animal communication offers reasons for optimism about contact beyond Earth.