A team of scientists from the SETI Institute, University of California Davis and the Alaska Whale Foundation had a close encounter with a non-human (aquatic) intelligence.
The Whale-SETI team has been studying the communication systems of humpback whales in an effort to develop intelligence filters for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
In response to a recorded ‘contact’ call from the humpback whale, which was played over an underwater speaker in the sea, a humpback whale named Twain approached and circled the team’s boat, responding conversationally to the whale’s ‘greeting call’ . During the 20-minute exchange, Twain responded to each playback call and matched the interval variations between each signal.
A description and analysis of the encounter appears in a recent issue of the journal Peer J., entitled: “Interactive Bioacoustic Playback as a Tool for Detecting and Exploring Nonhuman Intelligence: “Conversing” with an Alaskan Humpback Whale.”
“We believe this is the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback whale language.” said lead author Dr. Brenda McCowan of UC Davis.
“Humpback whales are extremely intelligent, have complex social systems, make tools – nets of bells to catch fish – and communicate extensively with both songs and social calls,” said co-author Dr. Fred Sharpe of the Alaska Whale Foundation.
“Due to the current limitations of technology, a key assumption in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that aliens will be interested in making contact and thus target human recipients. This important assumption is certainly supported by the behavior of humpback whales,” said Dr. Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute, co-author of the paper.
Similar to studying Antarctica as a proxy for Mars, the Whale-SETI team is studying intelligent, terrestrial, non-human communications systems to develop filters that can be applied to received alien signals. The mathematics of information theory will be used to quantify communicative complexity (e.g. the control structure embedded in a received message).
Other team members and co-authors of the paper include Dr. Josie Hubbard, Lisa Walker and Jodi Frediani, respectively specialized in animal intelligence, humpback whale song analysis and humpback whale photography and behavior.
A second paper from the team on the non-audio-communicative behavior of humpback whales: bubble rings made in the presence of (and possibly for) humans will be available soon. The authors would like to thank the Templeton Foundation Diverse Intelligences Program for providing financial support for this work.
