We’ve spent decades beaming radio waves into space listening for an answer. But it might be enough to start here on Earth, or more accurately, under the seas. Sperm whales live in complex clans and communicate in rapid-fire clicks. Even if we could decode their messages, is it safe to assume they want to talk to us? What, exactly, would we have to say to them?
The Cetacean Translation Initiative – CETI for whales not SETI for E.T. – is considering the implications of AI translation tools for the ocean’s depths. In this episode of Futurology, CETI Founder David Gruber joins Claire Webb – the director of the Berggruen Institute’s Future Humans program – to explore what it means to approach another intelligence with humility rather than conquest. In the end, creating a direct linguistic connection with another species may be yet another white whale that humanity should abandon as folly. For Gruber, the point isn’t fluency. It’s learning to speak more softly on a planet filled with minds we’ve barely begun to meet.
Chapters
Introduction (0:00)
David’s Journey to Becoming a Marine Biologist (1:44)
Bioluminescence, Biofluorescence, and Deep Sea Life (7:32)
Discovering Biofluorescence in Sharks (21:06)
The Evolutionary Story of Whales (29:12)
How Sperm Whales Make Sound (31:53)
Whale Songs—The Sirens of the Sea (36:16)
How Whale Songs are Recorded (42:53)
Accents and Dialects in Whale Communication (45:30)
Vladimir Nabokov and the Art of Translation (52:06)
The Challenge of Inhabiting an Alien Consciousness (56:56)
How Machine Learning Can Help Us Understand Whales (1:04:42)
If We Can Translate Whales, Can We Translate Extraterrestrials? (1:09:46)
Resources
Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence — David Gruber & Vincent Pieribone (Book, 2005)
https://ift.tt/bVOEAG2
The Art of Translation — Vladimir Nabokov (Essay, 1941)
https://ift.tt/4rGWQu1
Songs of the Humpback Whale — Roger Payne & Scott McVay (Scientific Article, 1970)
https://ift.tt/b0i7Cs2
Songs of the Humpback Whale — Roger Payne & Frank Watlington (Audio Recording, 1970)
https://ift.tt/1xtRad7
Follow David Gruber:
@davidfgruber
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YouTube: https://youtube.com/ProjectCETI
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Credits
Executive Producers: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Nils Gilman, Dawn Nakagawa, and Jason Hoch.
Producers: Grant Slater, Alex Gardels, and Nathalia Ramos.
Associate Producer: Elissa Mardiney
Theme Music: Marcus Bagala.
Audio Engineer: Aaron Bastinelli
Futurology is a production of Studio B and Wavland and distributed by Realm.
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