TED2011
Roger Ebert: Remaking my voice
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When film critic Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw to cancer, he lost the ability to eat and speak. But he did not lose his voice. In a moving talk from TED2011, Ebert and his wife, Chaz, with friends Dean Ornish and John Hunter, come together to tell his remarkable story.
Roger Ebert - Film critic and blogger
After losing the power to speak, legendary film critic Roger Ebert went on to write about creativity, race, politics and culture -- and film, just as brilliantly as ever. Full bio
After losing the power to speak, legendary film critic Roger Ebert went on to write about creativity, race, politics and culture -- and film, just as brilliantly as ever. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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Roger Ebert: These are my words, but this is not my voice.
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This is Alex, the best computer voice
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I've been able to find,
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which comes as standard equipment on every Macintosh.
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For most of my life,
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I never gave a second thought to my ability to speak.
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It was like breathing.
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In those days, I was living in a fool's paradise.
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After surgeries for cancer
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took away my ability to speak, eat or drink,
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I was forced to enter this virtual world
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in which a computer does some of my living for me.
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For several days now,
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we have enjoyed brilliant and articulate speakers here at TED.
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I used to be able to talk like that.
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Maybe I wasn't as smart,
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but I was at least as talkative.
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I want to devote my talk today
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to the act of speaking itself,
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and how the act of speaking or not speaking
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is tied so indelibly to one's identity
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as to force the birth of a new person
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when it is taken away.
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However, I've found that listening to a computer voice
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for any great length of time
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can be monotonous.
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So I've decided to recruit some of my TED friends
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to read my words aloud for me.
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I will start with my wife, Chaz.
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Chaz Ebert: It was Chaz who stood by my side
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through three attempts to reconstruct my jaw
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and restore my ability to speak.
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Going into the first surgery
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for a recurrence of salivary cancer
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in 2006,
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I expected to be out of the hospital
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in time to return to my movie review show,
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'Ebert and Roeper at the Movies.'
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I had pre-taped enough shows
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to get me through six weeks of surgery
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and recuperation.
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The doctors took a fibula bone from my leg
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and some tissue from my shoulder
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to fashion into a new jaw.
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My tongue, larynx and vocal cords
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were still healthy and unaffected.
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(Laughter)
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(Laughter)
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CE: I was optimistic,
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and all was right with the world.
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The first surgery was a great success.
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I saw myself in the mirror
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and I looked pretty good.
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Two weeks later, I was ready to return home.
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I was using my iPod
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to play the Leonard Cohen song
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'I'm Your Man'
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for my doctors and nurses.
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Suddenly, I had an episode of catastrophic bleeding.
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My carotid artery had ruptured.
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Thank God I was still in my hospital room
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and my doctors were right there.
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Chaz told me
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that if that song hadn't played for so long,
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I might have already been in the car, on the way home,
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and would have died right there and then.
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So thank you, Leonard Cohen,
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for saving my life.
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(Applause)
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There was a second surgery --
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which held up for five or six days
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and then it also fell apart.
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And then a third attempt,
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which also patched me back together pretty well,
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until it failed.
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A doctor from Brazil said
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he had never seen anyone survive
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a carotid artery rupture.
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And before I left the hospital,
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after a year of being hospitalized,
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I had seven ruptures
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of my carotid artery.
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There was no particular day
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when anyone told me
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I would never speak again;
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it just sort of became obvious.
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Human speech
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is an ingenious manipulation of our breath
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within the sound chamber of our mouth
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and respiratory system.
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We need to be able to hold and manipulate that breath
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in order to form sounds.
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Therefore, the system
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must be essentially airtight
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in order to capture air.
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Because I had lost my jaw,
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I could no longer form a seal,
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and therefore my tongue
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and all of my other vocal equipment
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was rendered powerless.
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Dean Ornish: At first for a long time,
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I wrote messages in notebooks.
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Then I tried typing words on my laptop
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and using its built in voice.
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This was faster,
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and nobody had to try to read my handwriting.
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I tried out various computer voices that were available online,
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and for several months I had a British accent,
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which Chaz called Sir Lawrence."
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(Laughter)
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"It was the clearest I could find.
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Then Apple released the Alex voice,
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which was the best I'd heard.
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It knew things like the difference
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between an exclamation point and a question mark.
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When it saw a period, it knew how to make a sentence
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sound like it was ending instead of staying up in the air.
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There are all sorts of html codes you can use
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to control the timing and inflection of computer voices,
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and I've experimented with them.
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For me, they share a fundamental problem: they're too slow.
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When I find myself in a conversational situation,
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I need to type fast and to jump right in.
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People don't have the time or the patience
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to wait for me to fool around with the codes
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for every word or phrase.
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But what value do we place on the sound of our own voice?
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How does that affect who you are as a person?
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When people hear Alex speaking my words,
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do they experience a disconnect?
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Does that create a separation or a distance
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from one person to the next?
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How did I feel not being able to speak?
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I felt, and I still feel,
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a lot of distance from the human mainstream.
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I've become uncomfortable when I'm separated from my laptop.
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Even then, I'm aware that most people have little patience
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for my speaking difficulties.
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So Chaz suggested finding a company that could make a customized voice
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using my TV show voice
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from a period of 30 years.
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At first I was against it.
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I thought it would be creepy
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to hear my own voice coming from a computer.
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There was something comforting about a voice that was not my own.
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But I decided then to just give it a try.
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So we contacted a company in Scotland
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that created personalized computer voices.
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They'd never made one from previously-recorded materials.
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All of their voices had been made by a speaker
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recording original words in a control booth.
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But they were willing to give it a try.
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So I sent them many hours of recordings of my voice,
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including several audio commentary tracks
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that I'd made for movies on DVDs.
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And it sounded like me, it really did.
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There was a reason for that; it was me.
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But it wasn't that simple.
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The tapes from my TV show weren't very useful
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because there were too many other kinds of audio involved --
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movie soundtracks, for example, or Gene Siskel arguing with me --
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(Laughter)
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and my words often had a particular emphasis
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that didn't fit into a sentence well enough.
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I'll let you hear a sample of that voice.
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These are a few of the comments I recorded for use
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when Chaz and I appeared on the Oprah Winfrey program.
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And here's the voice we call Roger Jr.
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or Roger 2.0.
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Roger 2.0: Oprah, I can't tell you how great it is
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to be back on your show.
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We have been talking for a long time,
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and now here we are again.
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This is the first version of my computer voice.
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It still needs improvement,
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but at least it sounds like me
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and not like HAL 9000.
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When I heard it the first time,
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it sent chills down my spine.
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When I type anything,
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this voice will speak whatever I type.
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When I read something, it will read in my voice.
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I have typed these words in advance,
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as I didn't think it would be thrilling
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to sit here watching me typing.
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The voice was created by a company in Scotland
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named CereProc.
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It makes me feel good
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that many of the words you are hearing were first spoken
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while I was commenting on "Casablanca"
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and "Citizen Kane."
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This is the first voice they've created for an individual.
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There are several very good voices available for computers,
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but they all sound like somebody else,
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while this voice sounds like me.
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I plan to use it on television, radio
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and the Internet.
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People who need a voice should know
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that most computers already come with built-in speaking systems.
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Many blind people use them
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to read pages on the Web to themselves.
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But I've got to say, in first grade,
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they said I talked too much,
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and now I still can.
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(Laughter)
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Roger Ebert: As you can hear, it sounds like me,
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but the words jump up and down.
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The flow isn't natural.
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The good people in Scotland are still improving my voice,
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and I'm optimistic about it.
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But so far, the Apple Alex voice
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is the best one I've heard.
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I wrote a blog about it
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and actually got a comment from the actor who played Alex.
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He said he recorded many long hours in various intonations
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to be used in the voice.
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A very large sample is needed.
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John Hunter: All my life I was a motormouth.
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Now I have spoken my last words,
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and I don't even remember for sure
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what they were.
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I feel like the hero of that Harlan Ellison story
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titled "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream."
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On Wednesday, David Christian explained to us
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what a tiny instant the human race represents
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in the time-span of the universe.
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For almost all of its millions and billions of years,
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there was no life on Earth at all.
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For almost all the years of life on Earth,
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there was no intelligent life.
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Only after we learned to pass knowledge
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from one generation to the next,
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did civilization become possible.
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In cosmological terms,
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that was about 10 minutes ago.
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Finally came mankind's most advanced and mysterious tool,
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the computer.
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That has mostly happened in my lifetime.
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Some of the famous early computers
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were being built in my hometown of Urbana,
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the birthplace of HAL 9000.
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When I heard the amazing talk
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by Salman Khan on Wednesday,
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about the Khan Academy website
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that teaches hundreds of subjects to students all over the world,
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I had a flashback.
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It was about 1960.
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As a local newspaper reporter still in high school,
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I was sent over to the computer lab of the University of Illinois
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to interview the creators
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of something called PLATO.
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The initials stood for Programmed Logic
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for Automated Teaching Operations.
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This was a computer-assisted instruction system,
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which in those days ran on a computer named ILLIAC.
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The programmers said it could assist students in their learning.
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I doubt, on that day 50 years ago,
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they even dreamed of what Salman Khan has accomplished.
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But that's not the point.
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The point is PLATO was only 50 years ago,
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an instant in time.
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It continued to evolve and operated in one form or another
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on more and more sophisticated computers,
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until only five years ago.
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I have learned from Wikipedia
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that, starting with that humble beginning,
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PLATO established forums, message boards,
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online testing,
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email, chat rooms,
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picture languages, instant messaging,
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remote screen sharing
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and multiple-player games.
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Since the first Web browser was also developed in Urbana,
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it appears that my hometown
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in downstate Illinois
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was the birthplace
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of much of the virtual, online universe we occupy today.
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But I'm not here from the Chamber of Commerce.
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(Laughter)
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I'm here as a man who wants to communicate.
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All of this has happened in my lifetime.
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I started writing on a computer back in the 1970s
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when one of the first Atech systems was installed
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at the Chicago Sun-Times.
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I was in line at Radio Shack
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to buy one of the first Model 100's.
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And when I told the people in the press room at the Academy Awards
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that they'd better install some phone lines for Internet connections,
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they didn't know what I was talking about.
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When I bought my first desktop,
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it was a DEC Rainbow.
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Does anybody remember that?"
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(Applause)
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"The Sun Times sent me to the Cannes Film Festival
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with a portable computer the size of a suitcase
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named the Porteram Telebubble.
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I joined CompuServe
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when it had fewer numbers
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than I currently have followers on Twitter.
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(Laughter)
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CE: All of this has happened
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in the blink of an eye.
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It is unimaginable
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what will happen next.
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It makes me incredibly fortunate
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to live at this moment in history.
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Indeed, I am lucky to live in history at all,
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because without intelligence and memory
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there is no history.
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For billions of years,
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the universe evolved
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completely without notice.
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Now we live in the age of the Internet,
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which seems to be creating a form of global consciousness.
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And because of it,
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I can communicate
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as well as I ever could.
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We are born into a box
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of time and space.
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We use words and communication
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to break out of it
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and to reach out to others.
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For me, the Internet began
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as a useful tool
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and now has become something I rely on
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for my actual daily existence.
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I cannot speak;
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I can only type so fast.
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Computer voices
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are sometimes not very sophisticated,
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but with my computer,
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I can communicate more widely
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than ever before.
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I feel as if my blog,
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my email, Twitter and Facebook
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have given me a substitute
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for everyday conversation.
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They aren't an improvement,
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but they're the best I can do.
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They give me a way to speak.
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Not everybody has the patience
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of my wife, Chaz.
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But online,
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everybody speaks at the same speed.
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This whole adventure
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has been a learning experience.
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Every time there was a surgery that failed,
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I was left with a little less flesh and bone.
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Now I have no jaw left at all.
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While harvesting tissue from both my shoulders,
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the surgeries left me with back pain
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and reduced my ability to walk easily.
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Ironic that my legs are fine,
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and it's my shoulders that slow up my walk.
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When you see me today,
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I look like the Phantom of the Opera.
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But no you don't.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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It is human nature to look at someone like me
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and assume I have lost some of my marbles.
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People --
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(Applause)
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People talk loudly --
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I'm so sorry.
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Excuse me.
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(Applause)
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People talk loudly and slowly to me.
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Sometimes they assume I am deaf.
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There are people who don't want to make eye contact.
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Believe me, he didn't mean this as --
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anyway, let me just read it.
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(Laughter)
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You should never let your wife read something like this.
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(Laughter)
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It is human nature
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to look away from illness.
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We don't enjoy a reminder
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of our own fragile mortality.
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That's why writing on the Internet
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has become a lifesaver for me.
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My ability to think and write
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have not been affected.
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And on the Web, my real voice finds expression.
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I have also met many other disabled people
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who communicate this way.
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One of my Twitter friends
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can type only with his toes.
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One of the funniest blogs on the Web
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is written by a friend of mine
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named Smartass Cripple.
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(Laughter)
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Google him and he will make you laugh.
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All of these people are saying, in one way or another,
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that what you see
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is not all you get.
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So I have not come here to complain.
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I have much to make me happy and relieved.
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I seem, for the time being,
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to be cancer-free.
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I am writing as well as ever.
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I am productive.
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17:43
If I were in this condition at any point
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before a few cosmological instants ago,
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I would be as isolated as a hermit.
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17:52
I would be trapped inside my head.
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17:54
Because of the rush of human knowledge,
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because of the digital revolution,
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I have a voice,
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and I do not need to scream.
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RE: Wait. I have one more thing to add.
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A guy goes into a psychiatrist.
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The psychiatrist says, "You're crazy."
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The guy says, "I want a second opinion."
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The psychiatrist says, "All right, you're ugly."
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(Laughter)
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You all know the test for artificial intelligence -- the Turing test.
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A human judge has a conversation
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with a human and a computer.
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If the judge can't tell the machine apart from the human,
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the machine has passed the test.
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I now propose a test for computer voices -- the Ebert test.
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If a computer voice can successfully tell a joke
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and do the timing and delivery as well as Henny Youngman,
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then that's the voice I want.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Roger Ebert - Film critic and bloggerAfter losing the power to speak, legendary film critic Roger Ebert went on to write about creativity, race, politics and culture -- and film, just as brilliantly as ever.
Why you should listen
By any measure, Roger Ebert was a legend. The first person to win a Pulitzer for film criticism, as film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, he was best known for his decades-long reign as the co-host of Sneak Previews, a TV show with fellow Chicago critic Gene Siskel. For 23 years and three title changes (finally settling on Siskel and Ebert and the Movies) the two critics offered smart, short-form film criticism that guided America's moviegoing. After Gene Siskel died in 1999, Ebert kept on with critic Richard Roeper. (And he was also the co-screenwriter of the Russ Meyer cult classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, a fact that astounded more than a few young film students.)
In 2006, Ebert began treatment for thyroid cancer. He told the story of his many surgeries and setbacks in an immensely-worth-reading Esquire story in 2010. Enduring procedure after procedure, he eventually lost the lower part of his jaw -- and with it his ability to eat and speak. Turning to his blog and to Twitter, he found a new voice for his film work and his sparkling thoughts on ... just about everything. He tried his hand as an Amazon affiliate, became a finalist in the New Yorker caption contest, and started a controversy or two. In 2013 Ebert passed away from cancer at the age of 70.
Roger Ebert | Speaker | TED.com