Thursday, December 14, 2023 9:45am
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Researchers at the SETI Institute have reported what is believed to be the first conversation ever held with a humpback whale in its own language. SETI scientists have been studying interspecies communication to learn about how we might one day interact with extraterrestrial intelligence. The human-whale conversation took place at a humpback whale feeding area off the coast of Alaska.
“We believe this is the first communication between humans and humpback whales using humpback whale ‘language,'” said Dr. Brenda McCowan, a research behaviorist at the University of California, Davis, who worked with the SETI team on the effort. Ta.
from SETI Institute:
In response to a recorded humpback whale “contact” call played into the ocean via an underwater speaker, a humpback whale named Twain approaches the team’s boat and, while circling, responds conversationally to the whale’s “greeting signal.” I responded. During the 20-minute exchange, Twain answered each playback call, matching the change in interval between each signal.[…]
Similar to studying the South Pole as a surrogate for Mars, the Whale-SETI team is studying intelligent terrestrial non-human communication systems to develop filters to apply to received extraterrestrial signals. The mathematics of information theory – such as the rule structure embedded in incoming messages – is utilized to quantify the complexity of communication.
Researchers from the SETI Institute, the University of California, Davis, and the Alaska Whale Foundation report on the project in the scientific journal PeerJ:Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring non-human intelligence: “Conversations” with Alaska’s humpback whales”