Machine Tongue
Drithi Kandoor
Machine Tongue is a speculative “mother tongue” for machines, re-imagining how machine language could evolve without human intervention–both as a spoken and written system.
Unlike technologies translating binary machine processes into human-comprehensible formats, this thesis reverses the paradigm, making humans spectators to machine-generated dialogues. In an AI-driven world, could this redefine our understanding of intelligence, and allow for new forms of technology that are not defined by our human-centric reality?
Originally designed for calculations, computers were inspired by the Jacquard loom, using punch cards to store instructions. Over time, native binary has been translated into artificial forms to make it easier for humans to understand and write. How would machines communicate if left to their own devices?
The spoken form of Machine Tongue draws from dual-tone multi-frequency systems, using machine learning and binary numbers to generate frequencies beyond human production. Its written form, inspired by weaving’s parallels to computing, creates a “digital weave” based on the conversation taking place.
As you watch the computers create a spoken and written dialogue, it doesn’t take place in isolation. They process and attempt to respond to human voices, unknown sounds, or even themselves, in ways that we can’t understand or predict. Are we witnessing mere computation, or the emergence of a new linguistic system—one that invites collaboration rather than imitation? If stripped of human constraints, could machines develop meaning on their own terms? Could we become active participants in a language that evolves alongside us, rather than solely for us?