Name: Alien Language
Start: 2024-08-18T10:00:00-0600
End: 2024-08-18T10:50:00-0600

Welcome to When Words Collide 2024!

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Sunday August 18, 2024 10:00am - 10:50am MDT

Fairview

Animals make sophisticated calls but only humans – and now AI chatbots! – talk. No other creature on Earth – ape or bird – has mastered syntax: structured sentences with a subject, verb and object. Dinosaurs had over 200 million years to acquire language, but probably didn’t. Did Neanderthals talk? Today, 8.1 billion chattering humans are the masters of the planet. But what about sentient aliens? Could language evolve differently on one of the estimated 40 billion Earth-like habitable exoplanets in the Milky Way? Does speech need words? How does language shape culture? A science fiction author Guy Immega (Super-Earth Mother, EDGE SFF 2023) examines some of the myriad possibilities, including radio and light languages. [His talk will NOT be a lesson in Klingon or Chakobsa!]

Speakers

Guy Immega

I am a retired aerospace engineer and entrepreneur, living in Vancouver, Canada. My company, Kinetic Sciences Inc. built experimental robots for the space station, robots to clean up nuclear waste and miniature fingerprint sensors for cell phones. In 2005, I sold the corporate intellectual... Read More →

Sunday August 18, 2024 10:00am - 10:50am MDT
Fairview

Lecture, Science Fiction, Fantasy

When Words Collide 2024

Guy Immega

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