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Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

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Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#81

Post by pyre »

noonespecial wrote: post #54
stcredzero wrote: post #43

> Bottlenose dolphins call out the specific names of loved ones when they become separated, a study finds. ...Holy, f^~kin crap! We've been in the presence of other sentients this whole time. Enslaved them. Killed them while gathering food. Holy, f^~kin crap!

Its an uneasy thought to have that sentience might not be a binary function that humans have and other species lack. It might be a continuum. Some animals are far more sentient than others. Its followed closely by the even more uncomfortable thought that this might vary greatly inside the species. Finally this eerie train of thought pulls into the last station and you think that if the above is true than its almost c…

Well, you could take that as "less sentient humans should be treated like animals and abused/treated like property/eaten." On the other hand, you could take it as:

- Maybe I shouldn't eat all / some animals.

- Maybe some / all animals should have more rights and not be treated as objects, but living beings.

[Not to mention the Christian fundamentalists that will refer to the Bible stating that God gave man domain over animals, so things like lighting cats on fire for fun are ok.]

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#82

Post by traughber »

Growing up, I was lucky enough to occasionally join a group of scientists aboard a research vessel off the northern tip of the Bahamas. We would spend hours a day and up to two weeks at a time on the open ocean swimming with them and making visual and audio recordings of their behavior. The species they study are Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella frontalis). One of the things that has always struck me about them is how social they are – they have social circles and "cliques", similar to humans. We would observe these social networks and monitor how they change over the years. This research project is unique because they've been following this same group of just a few hundred dolphins in the wild for over 25 years. Having watched video and high frequency audio recordings of them interacting with one another in the wild, it comes as no surprise that they have "names" for one another.

Relatedly, Denise Herzing, the founder of that organization (the Wild Dolphin Project) will be speaking at TED this year (see Session 8, "Coded Meaning"): http://conferences.ted.com/TED2013/program/guide.php

Here's their site: http://www.wilddolphinproject.org/about-us/mission-vision/

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#83

Post by nealabq »

yareally wrote: post #65
pyre wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Murder Of Crows was done in concert w/ CBC, though they may have done their own post-production work (I've only watched the PBS version). Canadians should probably look to the CBC[1] to watch it. There's also an interesting blurb from the director here[2]. [1]: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/murderof... [2]: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/murderof...

Wow, that second link was a really good article. Thanks for sharing. I didn't realize crows were that camera shy or observant that people were watching them back. Makes sense though they they would be paranoid when someone or some thing is paying them too much attention as 99% of the time it means something bad will come next.

Once I cornered a rabbit in my ally. The usual way out was blocked, and the rabbit was frantically searching the far wall for another escape while I watched. After a bit I was momentarily distracted, and the rabbit choose that moment to dash past me.

Apparently the rabbit knew my attention had turned. As would a crow. They don't need our special mental abilities -- language and lambdas -- to model the mental states of those around them.

(In other words, even the rabbits could tell last Saturday's party sucked as soon as they entered the room. Which is why none of them stayed.:)

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#84

Post by aendruk »

felideon wrote: post #23
pg wrote: post #18

Someone should define a canonical way to transform dolphins' whistles into syllables. Then we could at least sort of refer to them by their names.

Apparently, dolphin trainers have the ability to whistle their names: "Her name was really Cathy. Well, not really. Her real name was [whistles]."[1] [1] http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/16/filmmakers_activists_t...

54:33

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#86

Post by cpeterso »

acheron wrote: post #5

"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars, and so on -- while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons." -- Douglas Adams

Another science-fiction series about dolphins is David Brin's Uplift books. Humans use genetic engineering to "uplift" dolphins' and chimpanzees' intelligence. Then they all fly around in water-filled spaceships "manned" by dolphin crews. :D

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#87

Post by westicle »

rblion wrote: post #53

Did you know that dolphins love to rape each other and some have tried to rape a human?! Check out this list of interesting facts... http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-6-badass-facts-you...

It's amazing how similar they are to humans in many respects.

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#88

Post by rblion »

westicle wrote: post #87
rblion wrote: post #53

Did you know that dolphins love to rape each other and some have tried to rape a human?! Check out this list of interesting facts... http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-6-badass-facts-you...

It's amazing how similar they are to humans in many respects.

It is. Highly intelligent, playful, social, strategic, sexual, and with bursts of aggression.

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#90

Post by miles »

bitwize wrote: post #24
mtrimpe wrote: post #3

Dolphins are exactly why I feel SETI is such a misguided (in a sweet way) effort. Here we are, searching for extraterrestrial intelligence while we can't even communicate with the other intelligent species on our own planet. Glad to see we're making progress though!

SETI is not misguided. We've known for a long time that Earth was hospitable to intelligent life (us). That there are other species with similar levels of intelligent just makes Earth more awesome. But it would be a complete mindfuck if we found other intelligent life in space, where before there were mainly only stars, rocks, and interesting formations of liquid and gas somewhere in between. It would change everythi…

"it would be a complete mindfuck if we found other intelligent life in space, where before there were mainly only stars, rocks, and interesting formations of liquid and gas somewhere in between. It would change everything."

Given that the Milky Way alone has at least 100 billion planets (17 billion which are Earthlike)[1], it would actually be a far greater shock for there not to be intelligent life in space.

[1] http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/billions-and-b...

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