If you ask evolutionary biologists when did humans become humans, some of them will say that, well, at some point we started standing on our feet, became biped and became the masters of our environment. Others will say that because our brain started growing much bigger, that we were able to have much more complex cognitive processes. And others might argue that it's because we developed language that allowed us to evolve as a species. Interestingly, those three phenomena are all connected. We are not sure how or in which order, but they are all linked with the change of shape of a little bone in the back of your neck that changed the angle between our head and our body. That means we were able to stand upright but also for our brain to evolve in the back and for our voice box to grow from seven centimeters for primates to 11 and up to 17 centimetres for humans.
Ako pitate evolucijske biologe kada su ljudi postali ljudi, neki će vam reći onda kada smo počeli stajati na nogama, postali dvonošci i gospodari naše okoline. Drugi će reći da zato što su nam mozgovi postajali veći, postali smo sposobni za složenije kognitivne procese. Ostali će reći onda kada smo razvili jezik koji nam je omogućio da evoluiramo kao vrsta. Zanimljivo, te tri stvari su povezane. Nismo sigurni kako ni kojim redoslijedom, ali povezane su promjenom oblika male kosti u stražnjem dijelu vašeg vrata, koja je promijenila kut između vaše glave i vašeg tijela. To znači da smo mogli uspravno stajati, ali i naš se mozak mogao razvijati i naš grkljan je narastao za 7 cm kod primata, preko 11 do 17 cm kod ljudi.
And this is called the descent of the larynx. And the larynx is the site of your voice. When baby humans are born today, their larynx is not descended yet. That only happens at about three months old. So, metaphorically, each of us here has relived the evolution of our whole species. And talking about babies, when you were starting to develop in your mother's womb, the first sensation that you had coming from the outside world, at only three weeks old, when you were about the size of a shrimp, were through the tactile sensation coming from the vibrations of your mother's voice.
To se zove spuštanje grkljana. A grkljan je mjesto gdje nastaje vaš glas. Kada se bebe rode, njihov grkljan se još nije spustio. Do toga dolazi u trećem mjesecu starosti. Dakle, svatko od nas ovdje je, metaforički, proživio evoluciju cijele naše vrste. Kad smo već kod beba, kada se počnete razvijati u majčinoj utrobi, prvi doživljaj vanjskog svijeta dobivate u trećem tjednu, kada ste otprilike veličine škampa, preko osjeta dodira koji dolazi od vibracija majčinog glasa.
So, as we can see, the human voice is quite meaningful and important at the level of the species, at the level of the society -- this is how we communicate and create bonds, and at the personal and interpersonal levels -- with our voice, we share much more than words and data, we share basically who we are. And our voice is indistinguishable from how other people see us. It is a mask that we wear in society. But our relationship with our own voice is far from obvious. We rarely use our voice for ourselves; we use it as a gift to give to others. It is how we touch each other. It's a dialectical grooming.
Vidimo da je ljudski glas jako značajan i važan na razini vrste, na razini društva. Tako komuniciramo i povezujemo se i na osobnoj i na međuljudskoj razini. Glasom dijelimo puno više od samih riječi i podataka, dijelimo ono što jesmo. A nema razlike između našeg glasa i načina na koji nas ljudi vide. On je maska koju nosimo u javnosti. No, naš odnos s našim glasom nije toliko jednostavan. Rijetko koristimo glas za sebe; koristimo ga kao dar koji dajemo drugima. Na taj način dodirujemo jedni druge. To je dijalektičko njegovanje.
But what do we think about our own voice? So please raise your hand if you don't like the sound of your voice when you hear it on a recording machine.
No, što mislimo o vlastitom glasu? Molim vas dignite ruku ako ne volite čuti svoj glas na snimkama?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Yeah, thank you, indeed, most people report not liking the sound of their voice recording. So what does that mean? Let's try to understand that in the next 10 minutes. I'm a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, part of the Opera of the Future group, and my research focuses on the relationship people have with their own voice and with the voices of others. I study what we can learn from listening to voices, from the various fields, from neurology to biology, cognitive sciences, linguistics. In our group we create tools and experiences to help people gain a better applied understanding of their voice in order to reduce the biases, to become better listeners, to create more healthy relationships or just to understand themselves better.
Da, hvala vam, doista, mnogo ljudi kaže da ne voli svoj glas na snimkama. Što to znači? Probajmo to shvatiti u sljedećih 10 minuta. Istraživač sam u MIT Media Laboratoriju, koji je dio grupe Opera budućnosti i moje se istraživanje bavi odnosom ljudi prema njihovom glasu i prema glasovima drugih. Proučavam što možemo naučiti slušajući glasove, i to na raznim poljima, od neurologije do biologije, kognitivnih znanosti, lingvistike. U našem timu stvaramo pomagala i iskustva da pomognemo ljudima kako bi bolje razumjeli svoj glas, kako bismo smanjili predrasude, naučili bolje slušati, stvorili zdravije odnose ili jednostavno bolje razumjeli sebe.
And this really has to come with a holistic approach on the voice. Because, think about all the applications and implications that the voice may have, as we discover more about it. Your voice is a very complex phenomenon. It requires a synchronization of more than 100 muscles in your body. And by listening to the voice, we can understand possible failures of what happens inside. For example: listening to very specific types of turbulences and nonlinearity of the voice can help predict very early stages of Parkinson's, just through a phone call. Listening to the breathlessness of the voice can help detect heart disease. And we also know that the changes of tempo inside individual words is a very good marker of depression.
A to sve dolazi s holističkim pristupom glasu. Razmislite o svim primjenama i posljedicama koje glas može imati kako naše istraživanje napreduje. Vaš glas je jako kompliciran fenomen. Zahtjeva sinkronizaciju više od 100 mišića u vašem tijelu. A slušanjem našeg glasa možemo razumjeti moguće nedostatke onoga što se događa iznutra. Primjerice: slušanjem vrlo specifičnih vrsta turbulencija i neravnomjernosti u glasu, mogu se predvidjeti počeci Parkinsonove bolesti, i to već kroz telefonski razgovor. Osluškivanjem zadihanosti u glasu mogu se otkriti srčane bolesti. A znamo i da je promjena ritma unutar pojedinačnih riječi dobar pokazatelj depresije.
Your voice is also very linked with your hormone levels. Third parties listening to female voices were able to very accurately place the speaker on their menstrual cycle. Just with acoustic information. And now with technology listening to us all the time, Alexa from Amazon Echo might be able to predict if you're pregnant even before you know it. So think about --
Vaš glas povezan je i s razinom hormona. Kada su ispitanici slušali ženske glasove, mogli su vrlo precizno odrediti osobu vezano za menstrualni ciklus. Samo pomoću zvučnih podataka. A danas kada nas tehnologija stalno sluša, Alexa iz Amazona mogla bi predvidjeti jeste li trudni prije negoli vi to sami znate. Razmislite o...
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Think about the ethical implications of that. Your voice is also very linked to how you create relationships. You have a different voice for every person you talk to. If I take a little snippet of your voice and I analyze it, I can know whether you're talking to your mother, to your brother, your friend or your boss. We can also use, as a predictor, the vocal posture. Meaning, how you decide to place your voice when you talk to someone. And you vocal posture, when you talk to your spouse, can help predict not only if, but also when you will divorce.
Razmislite o etičkoj primjeni. Vaš glas vrlo je povezan s time kakve odnose stvarate. Imate drugačiji glas za svaku osobu s kojom razgovarate. Da uzmem djelić vašeg glasa i analiziram ga, mogu znati razgovarate li s majkom, bratom, prijateljem ili sa svojim šefom. Kao pokazatelja možemo koristiti i postavu glasa. Znači, kako odlučite postaviti svoj glas kada razgovarate s nekim. A vaša postava glasa kada razgovarate s partnerom može predvidjeti ne samo ako, već i kada ćete se razvesti.
So there is a lot to learn from listening to voices. And I believe this has to start with understanding that we have more than one voice. So, I'm going to talk about three voices that most of us posses, in a model of what I call the mask. So when you look at the mask, what you see is a projection of a character. Let's call that your outward voice. This is also the most classic way to think about the voice, it's a way of projecting yourself in the world. The mechanism for this projection is well understood. Your lungs contract your diaphragm and that creates a self-sustained vibration of your vocal fold, that creates a sound. And then the way you open and close the cavities in you mouth, your vocal tract is going to transform the sound.
Dakle, možemo puno naučiti slušajući glasove. Mislim da to mora početi razumijevanjem da imamo više od jednog glasa. Govorit ću o tri glasa koje većina nas ima, prema uzorku kojeg nazivam maskom. Kada pogledate masku, vidite projekciju karaktera. Nazovimo to vašim vanjskim glasom. To je, također, i najčešći način razmišljanja o glasu, način na koji se prikazujete svijetu. Mehanizam za tu projekciju je vrlo jasan. Vaša pluća stežu vašu dijafragmu i to stvara neovisnu vibraciju vaših glasnica, što stvara zvuk. A i način na koji otvarate i zatvarate šupljine u ustima odredit će kako će vokalni trakt oblikovati zvuk.
So everyone has the same mechanism. But voices are quite unique. It's because very subtle differences in size, physiology, in hormone levels are going to make very subtle differences in your outward voice. And your brain is very good at picking up those subtle differences from other people's outward voices. In our lab, we are working on teaching machines to understand those subtle differences. And we use deep learning to create a real-time speaker identification system to help raise awareness on the use of the shared vocal space -- so who talks and who never talks during meetings -- to increase group intelligence.
Dakle, svatko ima isti mehanizam. No, glasovi su jedinstveni. Zato jer će i najmanja razlika u veličini, fiziologiji, razini hormona, proizvesti jako male razlike u vašem vanjskom glasu. A vaš mozak je jako dobar u primjećivanju tih malih razlika u vanjskim glasovima drugih ljudi. U našem laboratoriju radimo na tome da strojeve naučimo kako razumjeti te male razlike. Koristimo duboko učenje da stvorimo sustav identifikacije govornika u realnom vremenu kako bismo osvijestili upotrebu djeljivog vokalnog prostora - tko govori, a tko nikada ne govori na sastancima - za povećanje grupne inteligencije.
And one of the difficulties with that is that your voice is also not static. We already said that it changes with every person you talk to but it also changes generally throughout your life. At the beginning and at the end of the journey, male and female voices are very similar. It's very hard to distinguish the voice of a very young girl from the voice of a very young boy. But in between, your voice becomes a marker of your fluid identity. Generally, for male voices there's a big change at puberty. And then for female voices, there is a change at each pregnancy and a big change at menopause. So all of that is the voice other people hear when you talk. So why is it that we're so unfamiliar with it? Why is it that it's not the voice that we hear? So, let's think about it.
Jedan od problema kod toga je i taj što vaš glas nije statičan. Već smo rekli da se mijenja ovisno s kime razgovarate, ali se općenito mijenja i tijekom života. Na početku i na kraju putovanja, muški i ženski glasovi su jako slični. Vrlo je teško razlikovati glas male djevojčice od glasa malog dječaka. No između, vaš glas postaje pokazatelj vašeg promjenjivog identiteta. Općenito, muški glasovi jako se mijenjaju u pubertetu. A kod žena dolazi do velike promjene tijekom svake trudnoće i u menopauzi. Dakle, to je sve glas koji drugi čuju kada govorite. Pa zašto nam je onda toliko nepoznat? Zašto to nije glas koji mi čujemo? Razmislimo o tome.
When you wear a mask, you actually don't see the mask. And when you try to observe it, what you will see is inside of the mask. And that's your inward voice. So to understand why it's different, let's try to understand the mechanism of perception of this inward voice. Because your body has many ways of filtering it differently from the outward voice. So to perceive this voice, it first has to travel to your ears. And your outward voice travels through the air while your inward voice travels through your bones. This is called bone conduction. Because of this, your inward voice is going to sound in a lower register and also more musically harmonical than your outward voice. Once it travels there, it has to access your inner ear. And there's this other mechanism taking place here. It's a mechanical filter, it's a little partition that comes and protects your inner ear each time you produce a sound. So it also reduces what you hear. And then there is a third filter, it's a biological filter. Your cochlea -- it's a part of your inner ear that processes the sound -- is made out of living cells. And those living cells are going to trigger differently according to how often they hear the sound. It's a habituation effect. So because of this, as your voice is the sound you hear the most in your life, you actually hear it less than other sounds.
Kada nosite masku, zapravo ne vidite masku. A kada je pokušate proučiti, vidjet ćete samo unutarnju stranu. I to je vaš glas iznutra. Da bismo razumjeli zašto je drugačiji, pokušajmo razumjeti mehanizme percepcije tog unutrašnjeg glasa. Vaše tijelo na mnoge načine taj glas filtrira drugačije od vanjskog glasa. Kako biste uočili taj glas, on prvo mora putovati do vaših ušiju. Vaš vanjski glas putuje zrakom, a vaš unutrašnji glas putuje kroz kosti. To se zove koštana provodljivost. Zbog toga će vaš glas iznutra zvučati dublje i melodioznije nego vaš glas izvana. Jednom kada doputuje, mora ući u vaše unutarnje uho. Ovdje je na djelu drugi mehanizam. To je mehanički filter, mala pregrada koja štiti vaše unutarnje uho svaki puta kada proizvedete zvuk. Dakle, umanjuje ono što čujete. Postoji i treći filter, biološki filter. Vaša pužnica - dio vašeg unutarnjeg uha koji procesira zvuk - sastoji se od živih stanica. Te žive stanice aktivirat će se drugačije, s obzirom na to kako često čuju zvuk. To je efekt navikavanja. Zbog toga, kako je vaš glas zvuk kojeg čujete najčešće tijekom života, zapravo ga čujete manje nego ostale zvukove.
Finally, we have a fourth filter. It's a neurological filter. Neurologists found out recently that when you open your mouth to create a sound, your own auditory cortex shuts down. So you hear your voice but your brain actually never listens to the sound of your voice. Well, evolutionarily that might make sense, because we know cognitively what we are going to sound like so maybe we don't need to spend energy analyzing the signal. And this is called a corollary discharge and it happens for every motion that your body does. The exact definition of a corollary discharge is a copy of a motor command that is sent by the brain. This copy doesn't create any motion itself but instead is sent to other regions of the brain to inform them of the impending motion. And for the voice, this corollary discharge also has a different name. It is your inner voice.
Konačno imamo i četvrti filter. To je neurološki filter. Neurolozi su nedavno otkrili da kada otvorite usta da proizvedete zvuk, vaša se slušna moždana kora gasi. Dakle, čujete svoj glas, ali vaš mozak, zapravo, nikada ne sluša zvuk vašeg glasa. Evolucijski to možda ima smisla, jer znamo kako ćemo zvučati pa možda ne trebamo trošiti energiju na analiziranje signala. To se zove posljedično pražnjenje i događa se za svaki pokret kojeg radi vaše tijelo. Točna definicija posljedičnog pražnjenja je "kopija motoričke naredbe koju šalje mozak." Ta kopija ne stvara pokret, već se šalje u ostala područja mozga da ih obavijesti o sljedećem pokretu. Za glas, to posljedično pražnjenje ima drugačiji naziv. To je vaš unutarnji glas.
So let's recapitulate. We have the mask, the outward voice, the inside of the mask, your inward voice, and then you have your inner voice. And I like to see this one as the puppeteer that holds the strings of the whole system. Your inner voice is the one you hear when you read a text silently, when you rehearse for an important conversation. Sometimes is hard to turn it off, it's really hard to look at the text written in your native language, without having this inner voice read it. It's also the voice that refuse to stop singing the stupid song you have in your head.
Pa ponovimo. Imamo masku, vanjski glas, unutarnji dio maske, unutrašnji glas i imamo unutarnji glas. Na taj gledam kao na lutkara koji drži konce cijelog sustava. Vaš unutarnji glas je onaj koji čujete kada čitate u sebi, kada vježbate za važan razgovor. Nekada ga je teško isključiti, teško je pročitati tekst na vašem materinjem jeziku, a da ga ne čita taj unutarnji glas. To je i glas koji odbija prestati pjevati onu glupu pjesmu koja vam je u glavi.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
And for some people it's actually impossible to control it. And that's the case of schizophrenic patients, who have auditory hallucinations. Who can't distinguish at all between voices coming from inside and outside their head. So in our lab, we are also working on small devices to help those people make those distinctions and know if a voice is internal or external.
Nekim ljudima ga je, zapravo, nemoguće kontrolirati. I to je slučaj kod oboljelih od šizofrenije, koji imaju slušne halucinacije. Oni ne mogu razlikovati glasove koji dolaze izvana od onih koji su im u glavi. U našem laboratoriju razvijamo male uređaje koji će pomoći takvim osobama da shvate razlike i prepoznaju je li glas unutarnji ili vanjski.
You can also think about the inner voice as the voice that speaks in your dream. This inner voice can take many forms. And in your dreams, you actually unleash the potential of this inner voice. That's another work we are doing in our lab: trying to access this inner voice in dreams. So even if you can't always control it, the inner voice -- you can always engage with it through dialogue, through inner dialogues. And you can even see this inner voice as the missing link between thought and actions.
Unutarnji glas je i onaj glas koji govori u vašim snovima. Taj unutarnji glas ima mnogo oblika. U snovima, zapravo, oslobađate potencijal tog unutarnjeg glasa. Na tome isto radimo u laboratoriju: pokušavamo pristupiti tom unutarnjem glasu u snovima. Čak i ako ga ne možete uvijek kontrolirati, unutarnji glas - možete ga uvijek iskoristiti kroz dijalog, kroz unutarnje dijaloge. Možete taj unutarnji glas vidjeti i kao kariku koja nedostaje između misli i radnji.
So I hope I've left you with a better appreciation, a new appreciation of all of your voices and the role it plays inside and outside of you -- as your voice is a very critical determinant of what makes you humans and of how you interact with the world.
Nadam se da ćete sada više cijeniti, nanovo cijeniti, sve vaše glasove i ulogu koju imaju u vama i izvan vas - jer vaš glas je odlučujući faktor u tome što vas čini ljudskim bićem i načinu na koji komunicirate sa svijetom.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)