Hoover, the talking seal


"Then I realized, no, it's all the seal."

Looking through the website of W. Tecumseh Fitch (who wrote a recent article on language in Nature), I found a fascinating page of information about Hoover, the talking seal (who died in 1985).

Listening to the first recording, I thought, "Huh - so there's a guy and a seal and the guy's talking and the seal is making some voice-like noise".

Then I realized, no, it's all the seal. That catapulted me straight into the Uncanny Valley. Hoover sounds like he's saying, "Hoover! Get over here!"...probably something he heard a lot.

Apparently, pinnipeds can imitate the human voice like parrots can - but since they're mammals, studying them could shed more light on how humans make the strange sounds we do.

Posted: Wed - October 17, 2007 at 10:58 PM | | | |

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