My Science School

On June 5, 1938, "Pedro, the Voder was put on display to the public for the first time at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia One of the first devices to create human speech, the Voder was a successful experiment in reproducing speech electronically.

We are far too used to machine-made voices speaking to us in today's world. Be it the automated responses that are provided to us when we call for customer support. personal assistants in our smartphones, or various devices that support a smart home ecosystem, there are plenty of examples in our everyday lives.

While we don't often pause to think about these, there are instances when we talk about the technologies with a mixture of fear and reverence. That mixture of feelings was first experienced by human beings with the success of "Pedro, the Voder'.

Voice Operation Demonstrator

Voder is short for Voice Operation Demonstrator. Named "Pedro" after the Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro who is believed to have exclaimed "My God! It talks!" after listening to a telephone for the first time, the Voder was one of the first devices to bring us entirely synthetic speech.

The Voder was the brainchild of pioneering engineer Homer Dudley, an acoustic visionary and an inventor at Bell Labs. He rose to prominence in the 1920s when he created the popular "channel" vocoder. This was capable of coding human speech across telephone lines by transforming incoming speech into electrical signals and then replicating it on the other end by using electric sounds that mimicked human speech.

Artificial human sound

With the Voder, Dudley went one step further as this device was able to produce speech without human voice as an input. Dudley filed a patent for a system for the artificial production of vocal or other sounds in April 1937. Weeks before this patent was granted to him, the Voder had its first public demonstration at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on June 5, 1938.

The Voder was operated - or played according to its creators - to create about 20 different electric sounds. By using 10 keys, a wrist plate, and a pedal, the operator could orchestrate the electric sounds to make them sound like speech and even create a range of inflections.

Operating the Voder, however, was no easy feat as it required thinking about how sounds combine to form a word, and how subtle inflection changes alter the meaning. In fact, the Voder was almost entirely operated by a Helen Harper, who was also responsible for teaching the 20-30 people who ever learnt how to use it.

Crowds amazed

During the presentations at the Franklin Institute, the 1939 New York World's Fair, and San Francisco's Golden Gate International Exposition, Harper was seated behind a console as she worked her magic. She was able to make the voder speak statements and ask questions; say the same sentence using different inflections; make its voice sound like a female, male, or like an old person; or even mimic a cow. Making the voder recite “Mary had a little lamb” in all of its different voices was a popular trick that the bell Labs team employed.

Bell Labs, however, never meant to sell the machine as a commercial product and only used it as a proof of concept. This meant that it vanished following its successful tours of various venues. Apart from leaving the audience with a sense of wonder, Bell Labs was able to show that the Voder was capable of making electrical vibrations that translated into sound waves in the loudspeaker, without needing to manipulate air. Speech synthesis and machine-made human voices have come a long way since then.

Picture Credit : Google 

WHO TOLD “CRISIS OF CIVILIZATION”?

Rabindranath Tagore's artistic genius endeared him to millions around the world. A man of prodigious literary and artistic accomplishments, Tagore is recognised as one of the architects of modern India. Let us look back at his iconic last public address, "Crisis in civilisation".

Despite his failing health, Rabindranath Tagore attended his 80th birthday celebration in Visva -Bharati. Shantiniketan, West Bengal, on May 7, 1941. His public address for the occasion titled 'Crisis in civilisation' was not only his last speech in his beloved university, but also his last public pronouncement. His parting message to the world dealt with the state of modem civilisation and how it had been shaken to its foundations by war and oppression.

Tagore's activism

Tagore's involvement with various issues pertaining to social reform began quite early in his life. By the time the poet turned 20, he had already authored several essays commenting on the burning issues of the day. The writer's engagement with the idea of nationalism changed throughout his life.

In the first decade of the 20th Century, Tagore emerged as one of the strongest proponents of the Swadeshi movement. The years leading up to the movement came under the writer's pro-nationalism phase.

He withdrew from the movement in 1907. His work during this period showcased his disillusionment with the ideology of the nation and the Indian nationalist movement as a whole.

What is a nation?

The late 19th Century witnessed the idea of a nation emerge in the Indian consciousness. It was chosen and propagated by Indian intellectuals and political activists to invigorate a sense of unity among the citizens. At the time it was seen as a necessary tool to fight against the colonial forces.

But Tagore fiercely denounced this idea. He felt a nation-state was only a representation of organised power and had a mechanical function.

The nation as a machine

Tagore argued that a nation fundamentally prioritised commercial expansion and economic profit over humanity and moral values. The poet elaborated how this western idea was the reason our people and natural resources were exploited in the first place by the European invaders.

His thesis on the topic asserts that the mechanisms of a nation transform men into one-dimensional units of machinery whose purpose in life is limited to the creation of surplus wealth at the expense of the weak.

The nation as a machine, fine-tuned for profit-making, disturbs the spirit of harmony which is the quintessential feature of Indian history and culture.

Crisis in civilisation

Tagore began his address by commenting how old age is a time for reflection and recollection. Looking back at the vast stretch of years that lay behind him, he finds himself shocked by the change in his attitude and that of his countrymen.

Even at his weakest moment, Tagore was anguished by the state of the country as he said. "The wheels of fate will one day oblige Englishmen to give up their Indian empire. But what kind of a country will they leave behind them? What stark wretched misery?.... What wasteland of filth and hopelessness?" (an excerpt from Crisis in civilisation)

The writer recalls how educated Indians of his generation who studied English literature and liberalism once foolishly believed in the magnanimity of the English, and their idea of enlightenment. He utilises this opportunity to announce that the West has failed in establishing itself as the emissary of light and knowledge, and now all hope lies with the East.

"As I look around I see the crumbling ruins of a proud civilization strewn like a vast heap of futility. And yet I shall not commit the grievous sin of losing faith in Man...Perhaps that dawn will come from this horizon, from the East where the Sun rises. A day will come when unvanquished Man will retrace his path of conquest, despite all barriers, to win back his lost human heritage" (an excerpt from Crisis in civilisation) According to Tagore, the defining feature of Indian civilization which we are on the verge of losing is sympathy. Referring back to the ancient text of Manusmriti and the idea of 'sadachar (proper conduct), he suggests that the Indian interpretation of the word civilization has always sought to establish a relationship with the world not through the cultivation of power but through fostering sympathy. To attain true liberation, Indians must first become aware of their heritage and the spirit of India, which has been suppressed by the wholesale acceptance of western education.

DID YOU KNOW?

1. Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.

2. Tagore was the founder of Visva-Bharati, a public central University, located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal,

3. The preface of Tagore's most acclaimed work, Gitanjali, was written by another great poet of the 20th Century. W.B. Yeats.

 4. On 14 July 1930, Rabindranath Tagore visited Albert Einstein's house in Caputh, near Berlin. Their conversation was recorded and published as "The Nature of Reality" in the Modern Review magazine's 1931 January issue.

Picture Credit : Google 

"I Am Prepared to Die" is the name given to the three-hour speech given by Nelson Mandela on 20 April 1964 from the dock of the defendant at the Rivonia Trial. The speech is so titled because it ends with the words "it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die".

April 20, 1964, saw Nelson Mandela, a 45-year-old member of the anti-apartheid movement, testify at the Pretoria courtroom as part of the Rivonia Trial. In his defence statement, the young lawyer declared that freedom and equality were the ideals for which he was prepared to die.

This speech became the rallying cry of the masses that shook the apartheid regime and set Mandela on the path to becoming the country's first democratically elected president 30 years later.

Apartheid

Apartheid was the most extreme kind of racism that the world witnessed. It started from 1652 when the Dutch East India Company landed in the Cape of Good Hope and established a trading colony in what is now known as Cape Town. This was a rest stop for ships travelling between Europe and India.

The Dutch colonists went to war with the natives to establish their control. This ultimately led to the creation of a new set of laws to enslave the aboriginals. When the British took over the Cape colony, the descendants of the Dutch settlers trekked inland and developed their own language, culture, and customs eventually becoming the Afrikaners, the first white tribe of South Africa.

The fall of the British Empire saw the Afrikaners claim South Africa for themselves. But to sustain their supremacy over the country's restless black majority, they needed new stringent laws. A formal commission was set up and an expedition was sent to different parts of the world including the Netherlands, Australia, and America with the purpose of studying institutionalised racism and its application. The government used this knowledge to build the most advanced version of racial oppression ever created.

Apartheid (means 'apartness in African language) was a police state, a system of surveillance meant to keep the black people under control. This policy was in place for nearly 50 years.

The art of persuasion

Most leaders are known for their rhetoric. Philosopher Aristotle lays emphasis on the art of persuasion through speech in his treatise on the subject. According to the philosopher, the true means of introducing change in a society can only be accomplished by deliberative rhetoric. A deliberative speech focusses on the future rather than the past or the present. Here the speakers present their audience with a possible future and try to encourage them to lend their support to their vision.

What cements the appeal of this kind of persuasive speech is the use of ethos (credibility), logos (logic and reason), and pathos (emotional connect), and Mandela's speech is an excellent example of this.

The appeal of Mandela

1 am the First Accused I hold a Bachelor's Degree in Arts and practised as an attorney in Johannesburg for several years in partnership with Oliver Tambo. I am a convicted prisoner serving five years for leaving the country without a permit and for inciting people to go on strike at the end of May 1961. (An excerpt from the speech "I am prepared to die”) By beginning his defence statement with an announcement of his educational qualification and contribution to the anti-apartheid movement, Mandela established his credibility. He took full responsibility for his actions and the disruption they led to. His demeanour exuded confidence in himself and in the cause he was fighting for.

"…The complaint of Africans, however,  is not only that they are poor and whites are rich, but that the laws which are made by the whites are designed to preserve this situation" (An excerpt from the speech "I am prepared to die")

This part of the oration justified the need for a movement against a government that used racial segregation as a weapon to divide society. His sincere dedication to the struggle of the African people and his willingness to sacrifice himself for the fundamental principles of freedom and equality made him a man of mythical proportions.

"I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. (An excerpt from the speech 7 am prepared to die”)

DID YOU KNOW?

• Mandela's birth name was Rolihlahla Mandela. The name Nelson was given to him by his primary school teacher.
• In August 1952, Mandela and Oliver Tambo established South Africa's first black law firm, Mandela and Tambo.
• July 18 is celebrated as Nelson Mandela International Day each year.
• As the first black president of South Africa, Mandela took it upon himself to unite the country that had been divided along racial lines. According to him, sports like rugby promoted unity and fostered national pride.

Picture Credit : Google