Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Humpback whales are forming super-groups

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 134 posts

Re: Humpback whales are forming super-groups

#61

Post by vasco »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #53
sailingparrot wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We would need 1000x faster, so that doesn’t really change anything.

It could easily become this fast or even faster, if we would just stop worrying so much about "playing god" and focus instead on getting good at this job. We don't have much time for this either, as AI is on the trajectory to take over that mantle in the next decade or three, whether we like it or not. But seriously, we may not have much choice. Natural evolution stopped being able to adapt to environmental changes a…

The next question is which traits to do you choose and the next question is which traits are better, because choices will imply ordering, and then you open a big can of worms that last time killed millions of people. So maybe there's other ways to avoid doom that didn't create doom last time we went down the path.

Re: Humpback whales are forming super-groups

#62

Post by cultofmetatron »

vasco wrote: post #60
mulnz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warming will kill off most of the systems these animals depend on within 30 years.

Why put a number on it? Every number so far has been wrong. Can we agree on the negative impacts of humans on an environment conducive to humanity without putting obviously wrong timings on predictions? I bet your intention is to provoke urgency but to most people it just causes an eye roll because it's not true, whereas the underlying ideas are true.

cod fishing boats used to have to be wary of the catch being so big that it would tip the boat.

We have no real frame of reference for what we've already lost.

Re: Humpback whales are forming super-groups

#64

Post by vasco »

cultofmetatron wrote: post #62
vasco wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why put a number on it? Every number so far has been wrong. Can we agree on the negative impacts of humans on an environment conducive to humanity without putting obviously wrong timings on predictions? I bet your intention is to provoke urgency but to most people it just causes an eye roll because it's not true, whereas the underlying ideas are true.

cod fishing boats used to have to be wary of the catch being so big that it would tip the boat. We have no real frame of reference for what we've already lost.

Of course we do, you just gave an example. In fact if we truly didn't, then there would be no problem.

Re: Humpback whales are forming super-groups

#65

Post by dmos62 »

jibal wrote: post #41
dmos62 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Erm, it's illegal to talk to dolphins: https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2026/04/02/is-it...

No it isn't and that clickbait article doesn't say it is.

What makes it a clickbait article?

>There is a federal law that prohibits people from communicating with dolphins.

>It’s called the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Signed in 1972 by President Richard Nixon, the federal law was created to protect marine mammals from being hunted, harassed, captured or killed.

>In a sense, talking to or communicating with dolphins could qualify as harassment under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

>There are two levels of harassment, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Harassment at one level is considered “any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance that has the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild.”

>On another level, harassment is defined by the NOAA as “acts having the potential to disturb (but not injure) a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild by disrupting behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering.”

Re: Humpback whales are forming super-groups

#67

Post by jounker »

timschmidt wrote: post #48
kulahan wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be great news if the whale literally only required krill to survive, but complex megafauna have complex needs, so the ability of krill and other small creatures to evolve is largely irrelevant in a discussion regarding the ability of megafauna to survive. This is especially true if you read TFA and see that the whales already adapt to eat different things as necessary.

Humpbacks have a highly specialized feeding mechanism. They only prey on krill and small fish. The food chain really is sun -> algae -> krill (and sometimes small fish) -> humpback whale

In recent years we’ve learned that humpbacks are generalist feeders with a wide variety of feeding strategies adapted to different kinds of prey.

Re: Humpback whales are forming super-groups

#68

Post by gilrain »

ilt wrote: post #23
mulnz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warming will kill off most of the systems these animals depend on within 30 years.

And will give way to many which thrive or evolve to thrive in hotter climates?

Not at the pace of change we’ve chosen to accept, no.

Re: Humpback whales are forming super-groups

#70

Post by gilrain »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #37
swframe2 wrote: post #2

I hope we create whalegemma (similar to dolphingemma) so we can explain to them how to co-exist better with humans (e.g. avoid this area during their whale hunting season, travel to this area if you get sick or tangled in rope).

It's just a pity we couldn't figure out how to better coexist with whales.

…while not changing anything about our behavior, you mean. Because we were never ignorant of how to do better; we just couldn’t accept even any inconvenience, any obstacle to our “growth”.
Post reply on HN