Last week I was surfing through Netflix and came across an intriguing program. The series was called “The Future of”. It is a series that explores a lot of different subjects like: Dating, Houseplants, Gaming, Space Vacations, Cheeseburgers, Death, Fashion, Skyscrapers, Sports, Health, and Headphones. All of these are fascinating subjects, and I have watched a couple of them and look forward to seeing more. But the first one that caught my interest was about dogs.
Now dogs have been around for all of recorded history, so what could be different about dogs in the future? Digging back into my memory I recalled reading a remarkable and disturbing book around 1987 by a relatively new author (in 1987) named Dean Koontz. As I recall, it was a Sci-Fi book about a young couple named Travis and Nora thrown into a horrific encounter with a beast known only as “The Outsider”, that had been genetically altered with human intellect and had escaped from a top-secret government research facility.
Not to give the story away but The Outsider isn’t the only genetically altered escapee, and two strangers who become a couple are befriended by the smartest Golden Retriever on Earth. His name is Einstein and as you might have guessed, Einstein is also the product of experimentation in the lab and possesses a high degree of human intellect. Even though I read the book thirty-five years ago, the memory of Einstein and the possibility still haunts my mind, especially when I play with our little dog Toby and several other dogs we have had through the years.
It is that look they give me when I talk to them and they cock their head to one side as if to communicate, “What are you thinking?” Or better yet, “If you’re so smart, why can’t you understand what I’m communicating?”
With the memory of Koontz’s book and Einstein, I began watching the Netflix show with interest. The possibilities that the show opened up have haunted my memory for the past week. I’ll cut to the chase; there are people actually working on an app for you smart phone that will translate what your dog is communicating. Take a moment to let that sink in.
Now I have traveled to Europe and used a translation app before with very limited success. In France I found that a lot of people (not all) are annoyed that I don’t speak French and using a translation app just seemed to annoy them more, but on the whole a translation program is useful.
The most intriguing part of the show is that I could really see that it might be possible to develop an app that could tell you what your dog is saying. After all, there are apps that can tell you what a plant is just by pointing your camera at it. There is an app that can tell you what mountain you are looking at from a picture and GPS position. Why wouldn’t it be possible to communicate with dogs?
Now for some big “what if’s”: What if the app can tell your dog what you are saying? I’m taking about actual two-way communication. Now an even bigger what-if. What if that communication causes a break-through moment and heightens a dog’s ability to learn and evolve? Not just that, how much can we learn from our dogs, and not just them but other animals too. It is truly something to think about.
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