Scientist share world's first 'conversation' between humans and whales - and ... trends now
Scientists claim they have had the first one-on-one conversation with a whale.
The team from the SETI Institute and the University of California 'spoke' with a 38-year-old humpback whale, named Twain, off the coast of Alaska.
They used an underwater microphone to send out whale calls, 'whup/throp' sounds, and received 36 responses that seemed like Twain was actively engaged in a communicative exchange.
AI-powered algorithms analyzed the replies, revealing Twain may have shared a greeting call with the team on a boat in the Pacific Ocean.
While speaking to a different species has never been done in this manner, researchers are using the experience to hopefully one day converse with extraterrestrial life.
Twain, a 38-year-old female humpback whale (pictured) communicated with researchers 36 times over a 20-minute period. The researchers said it's possible the communication was a back-and-forth 'Hello.'
Researchers hope the interaction with Twain could lead to communications with aliens because the whale's language is so complex that it forces researchers to identify what their vocalizations mean
In the absence of any aliens, the researchers hope to use whales to develop strategies for non-human communication.
Humpback whales make such a good alien proxy because of their extremely high intelligence and powers of communication.
'Humpbacks are very socially complex,' lead research author Brenda McCowan told UC Davis.
'They travel vast distances. They have a huge vocal repertoire. I always say that every sound ever made in the natural world the humpback makes. It's incredible the diversity of sounds that they produce.'
The team found Twain with a pod in the Pacific Ocean, and decided it was the best place to deploy the underwater microphones.
Twain had left the pod and joined the team by there boat, allowing researchers to capture the first one-on-one conversation with a whale - along with chatter of the pod while they hunted their next meal.
Twain was part of a pod (pictured) that the researchers initially recorded to use their own sounds to illicit a response. The following day, Twain separated from the pod when the researchers played back their sounds on an underwater speaker
Whale pods swim in circles to capture their prey, and researchers are trying to understand how they communicate during this process
Although some sounds the whales made could be socializing noises, the researchers believe they could be making commands such as telling each other to go up or down.
