Dr. Denise Hersing, a dolphinologist, fed up with the current method of interspecies communication contacted Dr. Thad Starner, an artificial intelligence specialist from Georgia Tech, and together they have come up with something very interesting for those out there who yearn to subjugate another race.
Dr. Denise Hersing, a dolphinologist, fed up with the current method of interspecies communication contacted Dr. Thad Starner, an artificial intelligence specialist from Georgia Tech, and together they have come up with something very interesting for those out there who yearn to subjugate another race.
I can’t say that Dr. Hersing had the decimation of the porpoise community on her mind when she and Dr. Turner came up with the idea for the Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry Interface (CHAT) – the good doctor may just be trying to fill a gap in her life. Perhaps her daddy never loved her enough and now she needs to talk it out with dolphins. I dunno.
Although still in its infancy, CHAT will be able, through the use of pattern detection software, to decipher some sort of language “spoken” by wild Atlantic spotted dolphins. I suppose that the clicks and whistles used by dolphins in echolocation and communication are no less unintelligible than Mandarin, so who’s to say that it’s not a language?
CHAT is the size of an iPhone and is composed of a one handed keyboard, regrettably called a “Twiddler,” and two hydrophones, used to transmit and receive sound, and is worn around the neck. Inside the diver’s helmet are lights that indicate which direction the sound is coming from, as dolphins are notoriously good at throwing their voices. Once the initial trial-and-errors of getting to understand the nuances of a completely alien language have been worked through, CHAT will act as translator from dolphin to human and back again. Allowing us, for the first time, to really sit down and chew the fat with something other than humans.
There are dolphins out there who can differentiate between words and phrases, but since we can’t understand what they’re saying, the debates have been pretty one sided. We’re able to get them to listen to commands, retrieve items and “ask” for fish. This brings us to the conclusion that we are higher then them — although we’re the ones trying to understand them through fancy gizmos, when they manage a hundred words of ours all on their own.
Some say that even if they do have a language of sorts, we will not be able to really understand the meaning of it; the words that they speak will be too out of context with how we view reality.
The real problem is if they think. The beasts have been known to show cognitive recognition with markings and mirrors; this is a trait only shared by some apes and us. The idea of recognizing oneself in a reflection shows a higher understanding of self usually not attributed to the animal kingdom.
If the dolphins can recognize themselves and they are proven to have a language that we are able to communicate with them through, that will raise a lot of angry voices of our own.
Our past is littered with repeated mistakes, and I just don’t see that we have learned or matured as a species since the last time humans somewhere didn’t like the look of some humans somewhere else and invaded and killed their innocent. Which makes me less than hopeful that the brilliance of Dr. Hersing will not lead to the murder and enslavement of dolphins (they could hunt for sunken treasure, clean up oil spills).
Whatever the reasons or the outcome, I think CHAT is a step in the right direction. If we can prove that there is intelligent life other than ourselves here on earth, the implications are far reaching. It might just prove to us that using the waterways as a dumping ground for toxic sludge, plastic bottles and caustic chemicals may not be such a great idea.
Still, I think it may be easier to just kill every dolphin on the planet than it would be to stop littering. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the dolphins have to say.
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You should’ve just posted the links and skipped your opinions and the lame article.
i whistle at birds all the time, big whoop
This probably sounds fake but…i saw a REAL video of a dolphin trainer blowing a dolphin until it came. So I think the good doctor may have a point.
Trust me, talking to dolphins is pretty futile.
We’re fucking the dolphins.
http://www.insolitology.com/guides/fuckdolphin.htm