cat, who is cleaning himself on the front steps. Henry pauses only for a moment with annoyed interest to watch Ms. Donnelly race sobbing to her Ford before he returns to his more important business. Ms. Donnelly, once safely entombed in her car, screeches down the driveway.
Inside the house, David, his arms folded sternly across his chest, stares at the three dogs. Chip and Bernie are now quiet and contrite under his gaze. I could swear, however, that Skippy is smirking. “That was your best behavior?”
David grabs the legal pad off the table in the hallway and scratches out Ms. Donnelly’s name so hard his pen gouges the paper.
My definition of a bad day is one spent trying to pound square pegs into round holes. Measuring David’s subsequent five interviews against that yardstick, David has had a very bad day.
When Congressman Wolfe arrives at the lab for Jaycee’s presentation, he is accompanied by a staff aide, a photographer and—to Jaycee’s obvious alarm—Scott Jannick.
After brief introductions by Jannick, Wolfe says, “You’ve got thirty minutes, Dr. Cassidy. Then I need to head back to the city. So, show me what Cindy can do.”
Jaycee clears her throat and then begins her well-rehearsed remarks. “As I explained in my letter to you, we have known for decades that chimpanzees are capable of acquiring and using human language. The problem is that physiologically, they are not capable of producing human speech sounds. So we’ve always had to use a substitute for human speech—principally American Sign Language and lexigraphy. But both those forms of language have their problems. Lexigraphy is far too limiting and rigid. ASL is preferred because it is more flexible and allows for spontaneous conversation except it requires advanced manual dexterity. Unfortunately, the chimpanzee hand was not made for the nuances of ASL. Chimpanzee ASL work before ours was criticized on the grounds that the chimpanzee gestures or attempted gestures allowed too much room for interpretation or manipulation by the tester.
“So, that’s the bad news. The good news is that there have been some extraordinary advances in technology and computer modeling in the last few years. We believe we can now overcome those limitations and literally unlock the language potential of the chimpanzee.”
Wolfe shifts impatiently in his seat as Jaycee continues. “My research assistant, Frank Wallace, was working on his PhD in a relatively new field called computer-assisted linguistics when I co-opted him for my research. Basically, the theory is to develop computer models for those with speech impairments in an effort to augment the speaker’s own capabilities. For example, a stroke victim wants to say ‘give me the apple,’ but may only have the physical capability to say ‘gif ma aal.’ By mapping the individual’s specificimpairment against a normal speech function, we can then plug that into the computer model so that it compensates for the gaps between what the speaker wants to say and what he or she is physiologically capable of saying. This is called interstitial linguistic programming or ILP. And yes, that is a mouthful.”
Jaycee hands the congressman a thick PowerPoint presentation book. “This describes in detail the theory and programming behind ILP and how we applied it here.”
Wolfe passes the book to his aide without looking at it. “My staff will read the documentation later. I suggest you just tell me what you think I need to know so we can get on with the demonstration, Dr. Cassidy.”
“Of course. We began with the idea that we could use ILP for other parts of anatomy besides the vocal apparatus. We modified the ILP for Cindy by treating the differences between her hand and a human hand as an impairment. We created a computer model of a human hand and then superimposed a computer model of Cindy’s hand over it. There were obvious differences. We programmed the ILP to compensate for the differences. Then
Inside the house, David, his arms folded sternly across his chest, stares at the three dogs. Chip and Bernie are now quiet and contrite under his gaze. I could swear, however, that Skippy is smirking. “That was your best behavior?”
David grabs the legal pad off the table in the hallway and scratches out Ms. Donnelly’s name so hard his pen gouges the paper.
My definition of a bad day is one spent trying to pound square pegs into round holes. Measuring David’s subsequent five interviews against that yardstick, David has had a very bad day.
When Congressman Wolfe arrives at the lab for Jaycee’s presentation, he is accompanied by a staff aide, a photographer and—to Jaycee’s obvious alarm—Scott Jannick.
After brief introductions by Jannick, Wolfe says, “You’ve got thirty minutes, Dr. Cassidy. Then I need to head back to the city. So, show me what Cindy can do.”
Jaycee clears her throat and then begins her well-rehearsed remarks. “As I explained in my letter to you, we have known for decades that chimpanzees are capable of acquiring and using human language. The problem is that physiologically, they are not capable of producing human speech sounds. So we’ve always had to use a substitute for human speech—principally American Sign Language and lexigraphy. But both those forms of language have their problems. Lexigraphy is far too limiting and rigid. ASL is preferred because it is more flexible and allows for spontaneous conversation except it requires advanced manual dexterity. Unfortunately, the chimpanzee hand was not made for the nuances of ASL. Chimpanzee ASL work before ours was criticized on the grounds that the chimpanzee gestures or attempted gestures allowed too much room for interpretation or manipulation by the tester.
“So, that’s the bad news. The good news is that there have been some extraordinary advances in technology and computer modeling in the last few years. We believe we can now overcome those limitations and literally unlock the language potential of the chimpanzee.”
Wolfe shifts impatiently in his seat as Jaycee continues. “My research assistant, Frank Wallace, was working on his PhD in a relatively new field called computer-assisted linguistics when I co-opted him for my research. Basically, the theory is to develop computer models for those with speech impairments in an effort to augment the speaker’s own capabilities. For example, a stroke victim wants to say ‘give me the apple,’ but may only have the physical capability to say ‘gif ma aal.’ By mapping the individual’s specificimpairment against a normal speech function, we can then plug that into the computer model so that it compensates for the gaps between what the speaker wants to say and what he or she is physiologically capable of saying. This is called interstitial linguistic programming or ILP. And yes, that is a mouthful.”
Jaycee hands the congressman a thick PowerPoint presentation book. “This describes in detail the theory and programming behind ILP and how we applied it here.”
Wolfe passes the book to his aide without looking at it. “My staff will read the documentation later. I suggest you just tell me what you think I need to know so we can get on with the demonstration, Dr. Cassidy.”
“Of course. We began with the idea that we could use ILP for other parts of anatomy besides the vocal apparatus. We modified the ILP for Cindy by treating the differences between her hand and a human hand as an impairment. We created a computer model of a human hand and then superimposed a computer model of Cindy’s hand over it. There were obvious differences. We programmed the ILP to compensate for the differences. Then
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