MachineMachine /stream - tagged with speech http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com Physicists Discover Evolutionary Laws of Language http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/03/18/2146248/physicists-discover-evolutionary-laws-of-language/physicists-discover-evolutionary-laws-of-language-slashdot Physicists Discover Evolutionary Laws of Language - Slashdot - http://t.co/IzVdNxOz ]]> Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:20:23 -0700 http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/03/18/2146248/physicists-discover-evolutionary-laws-of-language/physicists-discover-evolutionary-laws-of-language-slashdot Digital tools 'to save languages' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17081573/bbc-news-digital-tools-to-save-languages Digital tools 'to save languages' http://t.co/Lsxwg8Bm ]]> Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:35:37 -0700 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17081573/bbc-news-digital-tools-to-save-languages RSA Animate - Language as a Window into Human Nature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU&feature=youtube_gdata ]]> Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:35:42 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU&feature=youtube_gdata Alvin Lucier: I am Sitting in a Room http://www.ubu.com/sound/lucier.html "I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any sem- blance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physi- cal fact, but more as a way to smooth… ]]> Wed, 16 Feb 2011 07:48:11 -0700 http://www.ubu.com/sound/lucier.html When new narratives meet old brains http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/11/storytelling-20-when-new-narratives-meet-old-brains.html We're hard-wired to turn our lives into stories - how will we cope with the dizzying digital fictions of the future, ask John Bickle and Sean Keating

"We are our narratives" has become a popular slogan. "We" refers to our selves, in the full-blooded person-constituting sense. "Narratives" refers to the stories we tell about our selves and our exploits in settings as trivial as cocktail parties and as serious as intimate discussions with loved ones. We express some in speech. Others we tell silently to ourselves, in that constant little inner voice. The full collection of one's… ]]> Thu, 25 Nov 2010 09:29:00 -0700 http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/11/storytelling-20-when-new-narratives-meet-old-brains.html Sacrifice, speech, writing and art http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/146805 Sacrifice, speech, writing and art: I am interested in the different ways in which a sacrifice, a sacrament, a spoken word and a written word act as signifiers. The notion for instance that the sacrament, at the point of its acceptance, is understood as becoming the signified. What can you tell me / what has been written about the notions of sacrifice and their relationship to speech, art and the technologies of writing? I am at the very early stages of writing on these themes (so forgive any gross generalisations I make here).

I have a sort of… ]]> Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:28:14 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/146805 A Reporter at Large: The Interpreter http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto In the wake of the controversy that greeted his paper, Everett encouraged scholars to come to the Amazon and observe the Pirahã for themselves. The first person to take him up on the offer was a forty-three-year-old American evolutionary biologist named Tecumseh Fitch, who in 2002 co-authored an important paper with Chomsky and Marc Hauser, an evolutionary psychologist and biologist at Harvard, on recursion. Fitch and his cousin Bill, a sommelier based in Paris, were due to arrive by floatplane in the Pirahã village a couple of hours after Everett and I did. As the plane landed on the water,… ]]> Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:00:00 -0700 http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto Sleep Talkin' Man http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/ My mild-mannered English husband Adam lives quite a colorful existence in his dreams. Having benefited from hours of delight at his dead of night musings, I thought it was only fair to share them with the world. ]]> Sat, 09 Jan 2010 07:24:00 -0700 http://sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/ A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/opinions/a_common_nomenclature_for_lego_families.php Every family, it seems, has its own set of words for describing particular Lego pieces. No one uses the official names. “Dad, please could you pass me that Brick 2x2?” No. In our house, it’ll always be: “Dad, please could you pass me that four-er?” And I’ll pass it, because I know exactly which piece he means. Lego nomenclature is essential for family Lego building. “Dad, I’m building a roof for the medical pod, but I need a hinge-y bit to make it open up. You know, one of those four-er flat hinge-y bits.” ]]> Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:01:00 -0700 http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/opinions/a_common_nomenclature_for_lego_families.php The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The Universality of English http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/2009%20-%20Fall/full-McWhorter-Fall-2009.html In depicting the emergence of the world’s languages as a curse of gibberish, the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel makes us moderns smile. Yet, considering the headache that 6,000 languages can induce in real life, the story makes a certain sense. Not long ago, 33 of the FBI’s 12,000 employees spoke Arabic, as did 6 of the 1,000 employees at the American Embassy in Iraq. How can we significantly improve that situation is a good question. It’s hard to learn Arabic, and not only because it’s hard to pick up any new language. Iraqi Arabic is actually one… ]]> Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:32:00 -0700 http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/2009%20-%20Fall/full-McWhorter-Fall-2009.html Serpentine Gallery: Poetry Marathon - Saturday and Sunday, 17–18 October http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2009/06/poetry_marathonsaturday_and_su_1.html The Serpentine Gallery Poetry Marathon is an ambitious two-day poetry event taking place in London during Frieze Art Fair week and featuring unique performances from leading poets, writers, artists, philosophers, scholars and musicians. An international group of major figures will be brought together to perform in the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009, designed by architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the acclaimed Japanese practice SANAA. The event will include performances of new work, collaborations, discussions and experiments. ]]> Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:04:00 -0700 http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2009/06/poetry_marathonsaturday_and_su_1.html Obama’s Address to the State of Non-belief http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2009/01/obamas-address-to-the-state-of-nonbelief.html

“We know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers.”

Barack Hussein Obama, 20th of January, 2009

Obama-non-believers

(Originally published at 3quarksdaily)

As a British citizen I watched the inauguration speech of America’s 44th President with a warm but distanced interest. But as someone who was brought up in a non-religious family, and has thrived without a belief in a deity, I listened to Barack Obama’s… ]]> Tue, 05 May 2009 08:31:00 -0700 http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2009/01/obamas-address-to-the-state-of-nonbelief.html A nation of nonbelievers http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/78458 "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." ~ George Washington / "I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature." ~ Thomas Jefferson / "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion." ~ Abraham Lincoln / "A just government has no need for the clergy or the church." ~ James Madison / "I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end... where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice." ~ John F. Kennedy /… ]]> Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:40:00 -0700 http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/78458