Have you ever wondered what a conversation between whales and humans would be like?
Researchers at the SETI Institute report an experiment that may represent the first attempt to speak to humpback whales in their own language.
This first attempt at conversation between whales and humans aims to explore interspecies communication.
Researchers hope to better understand how we might one day interact with extraterrestrial intelligence.
The exchange between humpback whales and humans occurred at a feeding area off the coast of Alaska.
Dr. Brenda McCowan, an animal behaviorist at UC Davis who collaborated with the SETI team on this study, said:
“We believe this is the first attempt at communication of this kind between humpback whales and humans, using the language specific to this species.”
“In response to a recorded signal broadcast to the ocean via an underwater speaker, a humpback whale named Twin approached and circled the team’s boat while reactively responding to the emitted ‘greeting signal’.
During the 20-minute exchange, Twain reacted to each voice call and adjusted his responses by synchronizing the time differences between each signal. […]
Similar to the study of Antarctica as a surrogate for Mars, the Whale-SETI team is studying intelligent systems, both terrestrial and non-human, to create filters applicable to any extraterrestrial signals received.
To do this, they plan to apply the mathematical principles of information theory to evaluate the communicative complexity of received messages. »
For example, they will examine the structure of the rules embedded in these messages.
In their project, researchers from the SETI Institute, UC Davis, and the Alaska Well Foundation presented their work in the scientific journal PeerJ.
They shared a study titled “Peer J Review titled:” Interactive bio-acoustic reading as a tool for discovering and exploring non-human intelligence: “The Conversation” with an Alaskan humpback whale. »
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