Google – AFP, 1 March 2013
 |
British
singer Peter Gabriel performs in a music festival in Paddock Wood,
Kent, on
June 29, 2012 (AFP/File, Ben Stansall)
|
LONG BEACH,
California — Peter Gabriel joined big thinkers and one of the Internet's
founding fathers Friday in launching an "Interspecies Internet" for
animals to communicate with us and each other.
"Perhaps
the most amazing tool man has created is the Internet," the famous British
singer said.
"What
would happen if we could somehow find new interfaces -- visual, audio -- to
allow us to communicate with the remarkable beings we share the planet
with?"
His allies
in the effort include Vint Cerf, a revered father of the Internet, along with a
cognitive psychologist and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.
Gabriel
showed a video of a jamming session he had with a bonobo playing the keyboard.
The bonobo used one finger to improvise a tune that the singer overlaid with
his distinctive voice.
"She
did good," Gabriel said with a smile.
He told of
growing up on a farm and often looking into the eyes of animals and wondering
what they were thinking.
"What
was amazing to me was that they seemed a lot more adept at getting a handle on
our language than we were at getting a handle on theirs," Gabriel said.
"I
work with a lot of musicians from around the world... Often we don't have any
common language at all. We sit behind our instruments and it's a way to
connect."
His
curiosity led him to Diana Reiss, a psychologist known for dolphin intelligence
research.
"Animals
are conscious. They have emotions. They are aware," Reiss said. "One
of my biggest dreams is that we give them the respect and attention they
deserve."
MIT
professor Neil Gershenfeld signed onto the effort after seeing a video of
Gabriel's jam session and concluding that leaving the rest of the planet out of
the Internet was an omission in need of correction.
"What
is important about what these people are doing is they are beginning to learn
how to communicate with species who are not us but share a sensory
environment," said Cerf.
"These
other sentient species should be part of the network too."
Cerf, now
chief Internet evangelist at Google, spoke of an inter-species Internet as a
test run for communicating with life encountered while exploring space.
"These
interactions with other animals will teach us, ultimately, how we might
interact with an alien from another world," he added. "I can hardly
wait."
Seed money
for the project will be used to develop a touchscreen device that dolphins can
use to connect to the Internet.
"We
want to engage people here to make smart interfaces to make this
possible," Gabriel to a TED audience know for brilliant scientists and
exceptional entrepreneurs.
"We
are almost ready to turn it on."
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“... Perhaps
this is a timely reminder for mankind to respect all life forms. All play a
part in the consciousness evolution of man and the planet. As you prepare to
enter a year of Unity, of stepping forward in respect of one another, I ask you
remember the many kingdoms who also share the planet- the elemental, plant,
mineral and animal. I ask you develop a new awareness for these. It is not all
about you - the human. No it is not. You must now begin to awaken your
consciousness to sharing - with all. For all is part of God's great
creation.
Update from Ashtar via Mike Quinsey: Obama’s State of the Union Address – (Ashtar channeled by Susan Leland, February 12, 2013)
“… It is
Freedom in every aspect of the lives of all humans on Planet Earth; it is Freedom
for the animal and the plant kingdoms, and for the mineral kingdoms who are
deemed to serve the humans. You know, it’s the humans who think all of the
other kingdoms are here to serve. If you ask members of the other kingdoms what
they have to say about that, they would take a different perspective and voice
a different point of view which is true and appropriate, and as you like to
say, it is high time because we are in High Times and we are continuing on this
Path! ..."
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