The world around us is vibrating with sounds we can’t hear—Bats bang and scream in ultrasound. Elephants rumble infrasonic secrets between them, and coral reefs are underwater clubs, dancing through the cracks, hisses along with the clicking of sea life.
For a long time, we didn’t even realize that sounds existed as technology has improved, and so has our ability to hear. Nowadays, devices like drones, recorders with digital technology, and artificial intelligence help us hear natural sounds in an entirely new way, changing scientific research. It also raises the possibility that computers could enable us to communicate with animals very soon.
In a way, it is already happening.
“Digital technologies, so often associated with our alienation from nature, are offering us an opportunity to listen to nonhumans in powerful ways, reviving our connection to the natural world,” writes Karen Bakker in her new book, The Sounds of Life What’s Happening? Digital Technology Is Bringing Us closer to the worlds of Animals and Plants.
Automatic listening stations have been installed throughout the world’s ecosystems, from rainforests to deeps of the ocean. Miniaturization has enabled researchers to put microphones on creatures as small as honeybees.
“Combined, these digital devices function like a planetary-scale hearing aid: enabling humans to observe and study nature’s sounds beyond the limits of our sensory capabilities,” Bakker writes.
Each of these devices generates tons of data that would be difficult to sort manually. Researchers in the areas of bioacoustics (which examines the sounds produced by living things) in addition to ecoacoustics (which explores the sounds made by ecosystems in their entirety) are using artificial intelligence to sort through the mountains of audio recordings, looking for patterns that could aid in understanding the messages animals communicate to one another. There are databases of honeybee and whale dances, as well as other dances that Bakker says could, in the future, be “a zoological version of Google Translate.”
However, it’s crucial to remember that we’re not necessarily hearing these sounds for the first time. As Bakker notes in her book, Indigenous communities worldwide have been aware for a long time of the existence of animals’ methods of communication. In contrast, scientists in the Western science establishment traditionally rejected the notion of animal communication as a whole. Many of the scientists Bakker mentions in her book encountered massive opposition from scientists when they proposed that whales, turtles, elephants, and plants make sounds and might even be able to speak in their own language. They spent almost as much time fighting back against this resistance as they did conduct research.
However, while that is evolving with our growing awareness of animals, Bakker warns that the capacity for animals to talk can prove either a blessing or a curse. We must know how to use the latest technology to communicate with nature. It is possible to use our knowledge of the sonic diversity in our world to build a sense of connection to nature and repair some of the harm we’ve done in the past. Still, we also are at risk of using the new technology to assert our dominance over plants and animals.
Bakker explained to Recode that we’re at the beginning of a paradigm shift in how people interact with one another. We must now choose which direction we’ll take in the coming years. The interview was edited to ensure clarity and length.
Neel Dhanesha
Let’s begin with the central concept you’ve laid out in the first sentence of your essay: “We’re using technology such as AI to communicate with animals. What would that look like?
Karen Bakker
Artificial intelligence can be used to enable robots to communicate with animals and break down the barrier between species communication. Researchers are working on this in a primary method with dolphins, honeybees, and, to a lesser extent, elephants. This raises an ethical issue that is very important as the capability to talk to other species is intriguing and intriguing. However, it may be used to develop a more incredible feeling of kinship or to create a sense of control and manipulation to control wild animals that humans have never been able to handle.