Jean-Louis Dessalles (born in 1956 in
Périgueux
Périgueux (, ; oc, Peireguers or ) is a communes of France, commune in the Dordogne departments of France, department, in the administrative regions of France, administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France.
Périgueux i ...
) is a French computer scientist and researcher in
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
and
cognitive science, professor à
Télécom Paris
Télécom Paris (also known as ENST or Télécom or École nationale supérieure des télécommunications, also Télécom ParisTech until 2019) is a French public institution for higher education (''grande école'') and engineering research. Loca ...
(Paris). He is best known for his contributions to the
Simplicity theory
Simplicity theory is a cognitive theory that seeks to explain the attractiveness of situations or events to human minds. It is based on work done by scientists like behavioural scientist Nick Chater, computer scientist Paul Vitanyi, psychologist J ...
and for his original theory about a possible political
origin of language
The origin of language (spoken and signed, as well as language-related technological systems such as writing), its relationship with human evolution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries. Scholars wishing to study th ...
.
Biography
Dessalles was born in
Périgueux
Périgueux (, ; oc, Peireguers or ) is a communes of France, commune in the Dordogne departments of France, department, in the administrative regions of France, administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France.
Périgueux i ...
in Southwestern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. He graduated from
École Polytechnique
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
in 1979 (promotion X76) and from
Télécom ParisTech in 1981.
He is currently Professor of Computer Science at
Télécom Paris
Télécom Paris (also known as ENST or Télécom or École nationale supérieure des télécommunications, also Télécom ParisTech until 2019) is a French public institution for higher education (''grande école'') and engineering research. Loca ...
, which is part of the
University of Paris-Saclay
Paris-Saclay University (french: Université Paris-Saclay) is a public research university based in Paris, France. It is one of the 13 prestigious universities that emerged from the division of the University of Paris, also known as the Sorbonne. ...
.
Research
''Jean-Louis Dessalles'' focuses on the quest for fundamental principles underlying the language faculty and its biological origins. His contribution to
Simplicity theory
Simplicity theory is a cognitive theory that seeks to explain the attractiveness of situations or events to human minds. It is based on work done by scientists like behavioural scientist Nick Chater, computer scientist Paul Vitanyi, psychologist J ...
was to show that complexity ''drop'' predicts narrative interest. He also designed a concise model of argumentative relevance. On the issue of human language evolutionary origins, he found that
Costly signalling theory can explain how honest communication is possible among selfish agents.
Publications
; Books
*''Des intelligences TRÈS artificielles'', Paris:
Odile Jacob
Odile Jacob is a French publisher who founded ''Les Éditions Odile Jacob'' in the middle of the 1980s. She is also a trained scientist, studying the workings of the brain, the mind and thought. She is a member of Le Siècle.Frédéric Saliba, 'L ...
. 2019.
*''Le Fil de la vie. La face immatérielle du vivant'' (avec
Pierre-Henri Gouyon et Cédric Gaucherel). Paris:
Odile Jacob
Odile Jacob is a French publisher who founded ''Les Éditions Odile Jacob'' in the middle of the 1980s. She is also a trained scientist, studying the workings of the brain, the mind and thought. She is a member of Le Siècle.Frédéric Saliba, 'L ...
. 2016.
*''La pertinence et ses origines cognitives'', Nouvelles théories. Paris: Hermes-sciences.
*''Why We Talk, The evolutionary origins of language''. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 2007.
*''Les origines de la culture : les origines du langage'' (avec
Pascal Picq et B. Victorri). Paris: Le Pommier. 2006.
*''Aux origines du langage. Une histoire naturelle de la parole''. Paris: Hermes-sciences. 2000.
*''L'ordinateur génétique.'' Paris: Hermes-sciences. 1996.
; Science papers
* 2020: Language: The missing selection pressure. ''Theoria et Historia Scientiarum'', ''17.''
*2015: From conceptual spaces to predicates. In F. Zenker & P. Gärdenfors (Eds.), ''Applications of conceptual spaces: The case for geometric knowledge representation'', 17-31. Dordrecht: Springer.
* 2014: Optimal investment in social signals, ''Evolution'' 68(6), 1640–1650.
* 2014: Why talk?. In D. Dor, C. Knight & J. Lewis (Eds.), The social origins of language, 284–296. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
* 2013: Algorithmic simplicity and relevance. In D. L. Dowe (Ed.), ''Algorithmic probability and friends'' - LNAI 7070, 119-130. Berlin, D: Springer Verlag.
; Journal articles, radio, TV.
* 2015 : Le grand roman de l’Homme. Emmanuel Leconte et Franck Guérin, ARTE, 14 July 2015
* 2014: Comment nous optimisons nos signaux sociaux. La Recherche, 494, 56–59.
* 2011: Parler pour exister, Revue Sciences Humaines, 224, 45–47.
* 2011: Les origines du langage. La Marche des Sciences, Aurélie Luneau. France Culture, 18 January 2011.
* 2002: Image et science: le langage, Jean-Pierre Mirouze. France 5, 3 October 2002.
* 2002: L’homme animal politique, animal loquace. Continent Sciences, Stéphane Deligeorges. France Culture, 21 February 2002.
* 2001: L’origine politique du langage, La Recherche, 341, 31–35.
See also
*
Kolmogorov complexity
In algorithmic information theory (a subfield of computer science and mathematics), the Kolmogorov complexity of an object, such as a piece of text, is the length of a shortest computer program (in a predetermined programming language) that produ ...
*
Simplicity theory
Simplicity theory is a cognitive theory that seeks to explain the attractiveness of situations or events to human minds. It is based on work done by scientists like behavioural scientist Nick Chater, computer scientist Paul Vitanyi, psychologist J ...
References
External links
Homepage at Telecom-ParistechSimplicity theory reference websitearxiv.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dessalles, Jean-Louis
1956 births
Living people
French computer scientists
École Polytechnique alumni