Universal language translator

The chirping of birds that we hear all around us, especially in the early morning hours, cannot be considered primitive sounds that only consist of a couple of quack-quacks, woo-woos or cock-a-doodle-doos. Akin to the symbols of Morse code, the chirping, which we commonly regard as unsophisticated and therefore mostly overlook, may in fact communicate a huge bulk of valuable messages.

For instance, the nightingale that we keep in a cage for its beautiful songs, which we may find entertaining and comforting, may in reality tell us a completely different story. Thus, limiting the language of animals to simple signals of warning, happiness, coupling and so on can be likened to the tip of the iceberg and is a mistake. I firmly believe that, just like the human species, animals have been given language, though its purpose and use is different.

Human-animal talk in the Quran

King Solomon, known in Islam as Prophet Suleyman, was endowed with the miracle of communication with all animals, including birds. Let me draw your attention to some related verses of the Holy Quran:

“… O ye people! We have been taught the speech of birds, and on us has been bestowed [a little] of all things: This is indeed Grace manifest [from God].” (27:16)

Another verse in the Quran tells of a story where Prophet Suleyman came upon a colony of ants while on a military campaign with his great army.

“At length, when they came to a [lowly] valley of ants, one of the ants said: ‘O ye ants, get into your habitations, lest Suleyman and his hosts crush you [under foot] without knowing it.” (27:18)

Upon hearing the ants talk, Prophet Suleyman addresses God:

“So he smiled, amused at her speech; and he said: ‘O my Lord! So order me that I may be grateful for Thy favors, which Thou hast bestowed on me and on my parents, and that I may work the righteousness that will please Thee. And admit me, by Thy Grace, to the ranks of Thy righteous servants.” (27:19)

Though these examples from the Holy Quran may be sufficient, I cannot help but share with you another remarkable example, this time between Prophet Suleyman and the hoopoe bird, whose job was to find water for the formidable army but which instead went somewhere else without permission.

“And he took a muster of the birds, and he said: ‘Why is it I see not the hoopoe? Or is he among the absentees?’ ‘I will certainly punish him with a severe penalty, or execute him, unless he bring me a clear reason [for absence]’.” (27:20-21)

In verses that follow, we learn about the return of the hoopoe bird, whose reasonable excuse the Prophet Suleyman accepts.

Speaking gorilla

Given this, I would like to make mention of the movie “Congo” (1995). It wasn’t a particularly good movie, but I found the high-tech gorilla in the main role quite interesting. Amy, the name of the cute female gorilla, was trained to communicate using 620 words of sign language. These signs were translated into human speech by a translator attached to her arm. If I can recall correctly, Amy was expected to talk to other gorillas to search for King Solomon’s treasure in the deep dark jungles of Africa. Even though “Congo,” directed by Frank Marshall and written by John Patrick Shanley, has been criticized by countless movie reviewers, it receives my full credit for its inspirational and well thought out translator between different species: human and ape.

Universal translator

Most of you will also remember the original “Star Trek” TV series a couple of decades ago in which Captain Kirk never spoke a foreign language but was able to communicate with different life forms in the galaxy. He used a universal translator, a device that translates various languages by using his spaceship’s complex linguistic databases. The translator then instantly converted the language of all life forms in the universe into standard English. I wonder how much closer we are today to a universal translator than we were in the 1970s -- a time when cell phones, iPhones, netbooks, laptops, the Internet, etc., were only part of our dreams. Similar to Captain Kirk and his crew, which bravely welcomed unknown space aliens in English, I expect that with the present ever-growing computing technology, we will sooner or later understand and perhaps talk to other life forms on this planet, including birds and dogs.

Linguistic expectations

Even though I support and appreciate research informing us about animal communication, such as the dances of bees and the chemical language of ants, I find them unsatisfactory and encourage scientists to continue in their quest to crack the linguistic code of various life forms in this world. That is, when we think of the life of the entire bee colony, it is unreasonable to restrict their communication to merely finding food by signaling direction, taste, flower, time, etc. Imagine what a universal translator, once invented, could tell us by converting all these animal signals into human speech. Its impact on human life will be unquestionably groundbreaking. For example, the ability to talk to animals could enable us to shed light on unsolved crimes, find lost people and children, locate herbal medicine and many other promising benefits. The more one contemplates, the more thrilling the idea of a universal translator becomes. What do you think?