All living things communicate, including plants and insects. While the richness and complexity of human language appears to be unparalleled, there are animals that have communication systems which incorporate some language-like elements. Relevant examples come from birds (especially songbirds),¹⁸ cetaceans¹⁹ and great apes.²⁰ Recent research has focused on structural similarities. For example, distributional semantic analysis suggests that bonobo calls show “compositionality”,²¹ a key feature that enables open-ended communication in language.

Future Horizons:

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5-yearhorizon

Structure and form of animal communication better understood

Research achieves an improved understanding of the structural complexity of vocal sequences in a number of well-studied species, including primates, cetaceans and birds, revealing the degree of overlap with human language. Integrated datasets reveal how vocal communication is combined with other systems such as gestures. Automated systems help scientists decode basic emotional states such as valence and arousal in some animal calls.

10-yearhorizon

AI generates calls that convey meaning

AI is used to generate animal calls that convey meaning, enabling communication with some animal species in some contexts. A significant increase in comparative research, especially outside primates, begins to capture the full breadth of animal communication strategies and regularities, including their basic units and rules. Detailed descriptions of the precise social and ecological drivers of complex communication and language are achieved, improving theories of language evolution. Technological developments enable investigation of the neurobiological basis of communication in socially interacting animals. Bioacoustic recordings enable real-time tracking of animal adaptations to changing environments.

25-yearhorizon

Neuroscience gives insight into animal communication

Historical and developmental datasets of animal communication become available and are used to compare signal transmission and socially driven change in a variety of animal species. Improved understanding of signal meanings facilitates research on the impacts of interaction with human communities and of environmental change on animal societies. Communication with animals expands in a variety of modalities, including vocal, chemical and visual.

The increasing availability of rich field data is allowing researchers to make rapid strides in analysing animal communication, and data analysis tools including machine learning have the potential to help unravel the communication systems of a plethora of species in the coming years.²² Some researchers argue that this could lead to systems that allow us to communicate directly with animals, using their own signals While AI can be used to generate signals such as fruit-bat sound sequences, it is an open question whether communication with animals will ever become feasible.²³ Improvements to our understanding of animal signals already has clear practical implications: tracking changes to animal calls in real time can help us understand how animals adapt to environmental change and provide an early-warning sign of declining ecological health.²⁴

Studying diverse animal communication systems, their cognitive and genetic underpinnings, and the social and environmental contexts that support them will drive new theories of how our own communication system — language — evolved. For example, vocal learning is one of the key capacities that underlie our complex language and is being studied in a range of animals including elephants and bats.²⁵ In terms of representational capacities, some linguists have argued that the hierarchical structure of language represents a discontinuity between animal and human communication. However, there is growing evidence of “deep structure” in some animal communication systems, which may be a precursor to hierarchy.²⁶,²⁷ Finally, there are growing attempts to understand the specific cognitive and neurological constraints that prevent non-human animals from developing language.²⁸

Communication beyond language - Anticipation Scores

The Anticipation Potential of a research field is determined by the capacity for impactful action in the present, considering possible future transformative breakthroughs in a field over a 25-year outlook. A field with a high Anticipation Potential, therefore, combines the potential range of future transformative possibilities engendered by a research area with a wide field of opportunities for action in the present. We asked researchers in the field to anticipate:

The uncertainty related to future science breakthroughs in the field
The transformative effect anticipated breakthroughs may have on research and society
The scope for action in the present in relation to anticipated breakthroughs.

This chart represents a summary of their responses to each of these elements, which when combined, provide the Anticipation Potential for the topic. See methodology for more information.