Reprinted from a December 12, 2023, statement from the SETI Institute. Edits by EarthSky. Video by EarthSky.
SETI workforce ‘converses’ with a humpback whale
SETI stands for the Seek for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. On December 12, 2023, a workforce of scientists from the SETI Institute, College of California Davis and the Alaska Whale Foundation, stated that they had an in depth encounter with a non-human (aquatic) intelligence. The Whale-SETI workforce has been finding out humpback whale communication techniques in an effort to develop what SETI researchers name “intelligence filters” within the seek for extraterrestrial intelligence.
In response to a recorded humpback ‘contact’ name performed into the ocean through an underwater speaker, a humpback whale named Twain approached and circled the workforce’s boat, whereas responding in a conversational model to the whale ‘greeting sign.’
As a matter of reality, through the 20-minute change, Twain responded to every playback name and matched the interval variations between every sign.
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An outline and evaluation of the encounter seems within the November 29, 2023, concern of the journal Peer J, titled: “Interactive Bioacoustic Playback as a Tool for Detecting and Exploring Nonhuman Intelligence: Conversing with an Alaskan Humpback Whale.”
Based on the lead writer Brenda McCowan of U.C. Davis:
We imagine that is the primary such communicative change between people and humpback whales within the humpback language.
Coauthor Fred Sharpe of the Alaska Whale Basis stated:
Humpback whales are extraordinarily clever, have complicated social techniques, make instruments – nets out of bubbles to catch fish – and talk extensively with each songs and social calls.
Speaking with non-human intelligence
Just like finding out Antarctica as a proxy for Mars, the Whale-SETI workforce is finding out clever, terrestrial, non-human communication techniques to develop filters to use to any extraterrestrial alerts obtained. With this in thoughts, the arithmetic of data principle to quantify communicative complexity – for instance rule construction embedded in a obtained message – will likely be utilized.
Based on Laurance Doyle, a coauthor on the paper, of the SETI Institute:
Due to present limitations on know-how, an necessary assumption of the seek for extraterrestrial intelligence is that extraterrestrials will likely be keen on making contact and so goal human receivers. This necessary assumption is definitely supported by the habits of humpback whales.
Backside line: SETI researchers are finding out how humpback whales talk. This may occasionally finally assist us talk with non-human intelligence of an alien civilization.
Read more: SETI looks to Milky Way’s heart for alien signals
