Jean-Louis Dessalles


Jean-Louis Dessalles is a French computer scientist and researcher in artificial intelligence and cognitive science, professor à Télécom ParisTech. He is best known for his contributions to the Simplicity theory and for his original theory about a possible political origin of language.

Biography

Dessalles was born in Périgueux in Southwestern France. He graduated from École Polytechnique in 1979 and from Télécom ParisTech in 1981.
He is currently Professor of Computer Science at Télécom ParisTech, which is part of the University of Paris-Saclay.

Research

Jean-Louis Dessalles focuses on the quest for fundamental principles underlying the language faculty and its biological origins. His contribution to Simplicity theory 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
; Science papers
; Journal articles, radio, TV.