Language finds a way

What can science fiction teach us about the origins of human language? In this talk, Hannah will take us on a quick comedic tour of how humans might go about solving the seemingly impossible task of communicating with aliens, and what this sci-fi themed thought experiment can tell us about how language may have originally come about in our ancestors. Considering this “language grounding” problem not only shines light on human origins, but also poses one of the most difficult problems for artificial intelligence. How can we communicate without any pre-existing communication system, conventions or shared knowledge?