Pierre-Yves Oudeyer, a specialist in computer modelling of cognitive development, is a senior research fellow at INRIA (Inventeurs du Monde Numérique), where he is the scientific director of the ‘Ensta-ParisTech Flowers’ team. He was formerly a research scientist at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory, in Paris. He is the co-author of several patents and the recipient of numerous prizes.

Nature, both organic and inorganic, is teeming with organisational shapes and forms: mountains, sand dunes, snowflakes. All such structures are the macroscopic result of local interactions between the numerous components of the system in which they take shape. But in none of these cases can the study of the separate parts explain the system as a whole. Instead we must focus on ‘self-organisation’, a concept developed by complexity science and which is considered highly useful to explain how the brain functions.
Where does this leave speech and language? Can self-organisation help us explain the appearance of language and of its structures?
This is what the author explores here, combining what is known in the fields of linguistics and the neurosciences with the latest insights provided by artificial systems and robotics.

• How information technology and research can help us understand the nature and evolution of language.
• A brilliant young scientist provides an accessible overview of the latest findings concerning the emergence and acquisition of language.