Artificial organisms with human language

Abstract

If artificial organisms are constructed with the goal to better understand the behaviour of real organisms, artificial organisms that resemble human beings should possess a communication system with the same properties of human language. This chapter tries to identify nine such properties and for each of them to describe what has been done and what has to be done. Human language: (1) is made up of signals which are arbitrarily connected to their meanings, (2) has syntax and, more generally, its signals are made up of smaller signals, (3) is culturally transmitted and culturally evolved, (4) is used to communicate with oneself and not only with others, (5) is particularly sophisticated for communicating information about the external environment, (6) uses displaced signals, (7) is intentional and requires recognition of intentions in others, (8) is the product of a complex nervous system, (9) influences human cognition. Communication presupposes a shared worldview which depends on the brain, body, and adaptive pattern of the organisms that want to communicate, and this represents a critical challenge also for communication between robots and us. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.