Science & Technology
Can We Learn To Talk to Sperm Whales? @TED #ted #shorts
David Gruber and his team take a delicate approach to understanding whales and other life forms. Watch his full TED Talk:
David Gruber and his team take a delicate approach to understanding whales and other life forms. Watch his full TED Talk:
SLURM_DADDY92
June 14, 2023 at 12:02 pm
That’s the future!
[gay panic]
June 14, 2023 at 12:19 pm
“SPERM whale”…
陳大文
June 14, 2023 at 12:21 pm
Human gonna use it to deceive and exploit other species more efficiently.
Yeast80
June 14, 2023 at 12:29 pm
star trek
jonas hertz
June 14, 2023 at 12:34 pm
Did any one notice the first whales pecker? Size of a school bus
Tim G124
June 14, 2023 at 12:46 pm
If we do ever get to talk to them, I think there first question will be “wait, what, you called us what?”
Mary Mullane
June 14, 2023 at 12:55 pm
Why are they beaching close to wind turbines? Sound?
Joshua Black
June 14, 2023 at 1:17 pm
Star Trek IV, the voyage home was all over this.
QNTMXIII
June 14, 2023 at 2:25 pm
If you’re not using cymatics, you’ll never get there.
JohnnyBGood
June 14, 2023 at 3:14 pm
I’d imagine you’ll fail since I very much doubt it’s an auditory language as we think of it. Broaden your horizons and think bigger. What if what we’re hearing is just the audio track for somethong like a fully immersive holographic code that transmits a full battery of sensory data from one enormous mind into to another able to process it? What if cetaceans are able to communicate on a level so high that they basically exist in a shared virtual reality matrix? Able to share concepts, memories, sensory info and dreams by beaming them directly into each other’s minds. Their vast brain size and demonstrated intelligence even suggest this. You don’t need that kind of processing power for just swimming around and eating fish or crustaceans. I think they’re basically communicating with each other telepathically using their songs as a carrier wave that only they can interpret.
If we tried to talk back to them using the just the sounds they make, without understanding the the context or lexicon each species and family uses, they would probably just interpret what we’re saying as something like static or baby babble.
Will Saya
June 14, 2023 at 3:19 pm
Because this is earth, not matrix. Good point tho
Iannes Patrus
June 14, 2023 at 5:36 pm
Yes, after all, cetaceans are the second smartest animals on earth after rats. Humans are only on the third position.
Oak Aitken
June 14, 2023 at 4:36 pm
We would have to be very careful that we aren’t going to put more tools into the hands of exploiters. Such as whalers using advanced communication methods to trick whales for easier hunting.
Greg Walsh
June 15, 2023 at 3:32 am
My first thoughts exactly, although good intentions I feel this would end up backfiring. I’m reminded of the Jurassic park quote, we got so caught up on if we could we didn’t stop to think if we should!
Artemius
June 14, 2023 at 4:39 pm
A very important work!
tiago moraes
June 15, 2023 at 12:22 am
oh yes deff theres nothing more important than communicating with whales. Very important.
Austin Denotter
June 14, 2023 at 5:37 pm
You simply cannot leave mother nature alone can you?
tiago moraes
June 15, 2023 at 12:23 am
They need to believe they are doing something useful.
Dylan Oimoen
June 14, 2023 at 6:06 pm
No way we are spending money on learning what whales say
KevinFromTheFuture
June 14, 2023 at 8:14 pm
What’s the issue? In your opinion, should we do things like revert back to horse drawn carriages? Would you tell the Wright Brothers that only animals can fly?
PLF
June 17, 2023 at 2:56 am
Guess someone doesnt like that pesky book-lernin’
Böser_Ketchup
June 14, 2023 at 6:35 pm
Wouldn’t it be much easier to do this with an elefant first? Since… They walk on land?
Alice
June 14, 2023 at 9:40 pm
I thought this at first too, but I wonder if the advantage of doing it with whales is maybe because their communication is not only very sophisticated, but almost entirely audible, which gives the AI the most complete picture to work with. Problem with any intelligent land mammal is that a lot of their communication although audible, is used in conjunction with equally sophisticated visual and tactile cues. Whales on the other hand are able to communicate across vast distances of ocean without being able to see or feel other whales, so the language is by nescessity audio based.
Recks
June 14, 2023 at 6:41 pm
What do you do once you can communicate with them? Confuse or manipulate them? Struggling to see how this is a win for the animals
Alice
June 14, 2023 at 9:23 pm
Because being able to communicate enables being able to emotionally connect with them. We stop simply admiring them from afar and become more invested in their well-being. And we are able to understand what well-being for that animal really consists of, rather than having to make educated guesses based on our observations.
Tùng-Thanh Nguyễn
June 16, 2023 at 1:12 am
Looking for accient stories from them. In case of their acestor pass their stories through generations.
Alice
June 16, 2023 at 2:42 am
@Tùng-Thanh Nguyễn Yes!! This is the current theory because it’s been found that the songs get added to over generations… How incredible would that be to hear their stories?! Like listening to an indigenous human culture. It’s not at all beyond the realms of possibility that this is how sophisticated their language is.
Kaj Sebastian Väisänen
June 15, 2023 at 1:56 am
This is eerily sounding like extrapolations
niccolom
June 15, 2023 at 10:40 am
This is more like interpolation. Extrapolation would be when the scientists try to communicate with words and grammar, that they have never seen.
Swanand Joshi
June 15, 2023 at 1:57 am
Its not useless, communication is the key. Information gathered first-hand would be of tremendous value. Just hope these are the good actors
Riccardo Cas123
June 15, 2023 at 2:47 am
I don’t know of I‘m amazed or scared
Anish
June 15, 2023 at 7:23 am
Worlda first priority should be solving world hunger and waste management.
Jacob Austin-Sides
June 15, 2023 at 4:27 pm
lil interesting fact is if u were near them underwater when they vocalised u would get paralysed..forgot the science but pretty crazy. Not forever btw but still
Ed. Z.
June 16, 2023 at 1:27 pm
Whales are people, too!
Dan Miller
June 19, 2023 at 2:07 am
I can communicate with and control my dog. I can get him to respond and affect him emotionally by simply saying “Who’s a good boy!”
Dan Miller
June 19, 2023 at 2:10 am
Have you applied these methods to getting an AI to interpret a known language? Like French, for example? Why not test the methods with a known language so you can measure your success first? If it can understand French without being given any references, dictionaries, rules, etc. that would seem more affirming of the tech.