Kirby set out to test the question by fashioning a completely new method of exploring language evolution.
Kirby set out to test the question by fashioning a completely new method of exploring language evolution. Instead of looking at animals or humans, he built digital models of speakers, called agents, and fed them messy, random strings of language. His artificially intelligent agents had to learn the language from other agents, but then they had to teach other agents the language as well. Then Kirby rolled over generations of learners and teachers to see how the language might change. He likened the task to the telephone game, where a message is passed on from one person to the next and so on, with the final message often ending up quite different from the original.