Last night Peter Gabriel gave a TED talk announcing the launch of his most recent labor of love: The Interspecies Internet. Seriously. Are you ready to talk to dolphins, apes, elephants, and other “self-aware” animals online?
“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?” the “Shock the Monkey” singer asked the crowd.
The ultimate goal is an internet where animals can communicate with humans and with each other. Peter Gabriel and his cohorts have already made some serious progress, presenting a video of a bonobo jamming out on keys to Peter’s accompaniment (the theme of the Bonobo’s original piece, she communicated, was “Grooming”), as well as video conferences of zoo animals communicating with their keepers. One of the project’s innovators, psychologist/dolphin expert Diana Reiss, also just received funding for the development of a “Dolphin Touch Screen”. Also backing the project is Vint Cerf, AKA “The Father of The Internet,” meaning shit’s about to get real(er).
First mind-melded rats, and now this. Let it be known that we call dibs on the first dolphin blogger!
