Alien Languages

One day humanity might make contact with an alien race, but will we be able to understand their languages?

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Credits:
Alien: Civilizations: Alien Languages
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur
Episode 290, May 13, 2021

Produced, Written, and Narrated by Isaac Arthur

Editors:
Alexander Long

Cover Art:

Music by:

[Crazael]

Fun Fact: the Mayan civilization believed that our sun was the fifth one, all the others having been destroyed in various disasters. Also, according to ancient Egyptian mythology, the sun very much did die upon setting, and was reborn each morning after traveling down a river through the underworld and fending off various threats.

[anarchyantz]

At least with the Babel fish we got to hear the wonderful Vogon poetry in all its glory.

[francoislacombe]

We have already translated an alien language, albeit a very simple one, the rythmic dances honeybees use to communicate the locations of resources to each other. It may not be seen as an actual language since it is genetically hardwired in their brains, but it functions as one, and the fact that we were able to decipher it makes me optimistic that we'll be able to cope with full fledged alien languages.

[talos_the_automaton]

4:57
A good example of this psychology may be the very fictional short story “Funes the memorious” in which the character Funes has a perfect photographic memory, and because of this he treats every object he sees as objectively different. For him, the concept of categorization of 2 elephants as the same thing seems like comparing apples to oranges.

[iamjetflight]

He sounds like he's reading the 500th version of the script for the 500th time, each time realizing something new about how to unpack and disassemble something as basic as language.

[AlaskanBallistics]

I've noticed how much better your speech impediment has gotten and I'm glad you don't apologize for it in your videos anymore. Keep up the good work

[joyempire]

Was going to watch this, Realised I forgot my drink and snack, came back and started watching

[ToqTheWise]

“They are standing on a relatively flat surface. I shall call that ‘the ground’.” XD

[sunlocked]

One of the series that does really go into this some is Uplift. One of the small things it does super well is having several Galactic Languages, with the idea being that they can be "spoken" in several different ways. Not just with differing types of vocal cords, Gal Three apparently requiring you to whistle in multiple tones at once, but a few are specialized for pheromones, lights or colors, a type of sign language, radio waves, and all sorts of different styles of communication. That way, if most species can perceive a few more languages than they can produce, they can all "speak" in the way that is most comfortable for them. It would be like me speaking in English, knowing that my friend can understand English but have a hard time pronouncing it, and them replying in Chinese, because I understand Chinese but also have trouble getting the pronunciation right.

[shanerooney]

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”~ Douglas Adams

[ferretappreciator]

As an aspiring linguist, I can't wait to be on the team that fails to decipher the first alien language (it would be my fault, I am horribly incompetent)

[gedgar]

3:57 actually in the amazonian language piraha there are no words for numbers, instead just words for “a small amount” and “a large amount”

[benthomason]

"the more advanced a civilization is, the more their signals will look like gibberish."

there you go, fermi paradox solved.

[codycoco]

Isaac I have been following you for 5+ years and have watched at least 95% of all the videos you posted. Your dedication to creating quality, thoughtful, and accurate content is unmatched on YouTube in the scifi/futurism department. Keep up the great work bro.

Also as an American native English speaker I've never found your "accent" confusing, only endearing.

[CoachCNY]

Isaac's sigh as he made the pun to switch to talking about Sign Language was real feel.

[ppenmudera]

18:25 that is actually a really controversial topic in linguistics: are blue and green the same colour? In English, they are not, but in Vietnamese for example, they are. Simmilarly, English says red and pink are different colours, but not light blue and dark blue, whereas Russian for example does the opposide. This is not just a different line on the wheel of hues, but it actually influences how we instinctually categorise the world (to what degree is still debated). So if something as basic as colour varies so much in one species, just imagine how different aliens categorise those same basic things...

[feryth]

There's a manga titled Heterogeneous Linguistic that tells the story of an apprentice linguist following on the steps of his professor on forging a relationship with the various beastly races that all have their own method of communication. It is a great read for inspiration.

typo edit

[SpecialEDy]

Happy Arthursday! I forgot what day of the week it was until I saw the notification

[Arcturus]

As someone with a wife who is not fluent in English I can tell you our LACK of ability to communicate has somewhat helped our relationship.

It forces us to really think out what we say BEFORE we say it, so there is far less "heat of the moment" things said that we later regret.

[hawkeyeplank]

there's a book called the sparrow by mary doria russel about first contact and trying to learn the alien languages of the planet they land on, also raises some other amazing ideas about consciousness and our human perspective- fantastic read