In 1967, marine biologist Roger S. Payne made his greatest discovery. Payne was the first to discover that whales make sounds that consist of repeating patterns. He became completely engrossed in understanding the whales’ conversations, and what lay behind them. Towards the end of his life, he was passionately concerned with one thing: to create an alphabet of these sounds and thus maybe – just maybe – talk to a whale. Play audio Hear the sperm whales talk Now scientists have managed to uncover advanced structures similar to human language in the communication of sperm whales. With the help of artificial intelligence, researchers can now sort through enormous amounts of data and uncover a completely new complexity in animal communication, write, among others, the New York Times, Scientific American and the BBC. A sperm whale swims off the island of Dominica. The Caribbean Sea is one of the best places to listen to whales. But what do they say? Photo: NTB Scanpix/AP Sperm whales communicate using rhythmic clicking sounds, called codas. Previously it was thought that the sperm whale had 21 different types of codas, but now the researchers have managed to create an alphabet of 156 different sounds. The researchers at CETI believe they have managed to identify basic building blocks in the codas, which they call an audio alphabet for sperm whales. On 7 May this year, the researchers published a study in which they presented their findings. They claim we are closer than ever to talking to whales. But are we really? Wittgenstein’s lion The question of whether we humans will talk to animals has already been answered, long before artificial intelligence was invented. In 1953, the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein came up with an aphorism that pulverizes the hope of ever talking to animals. In his book “Philosophical investigations”, he writes: Ludwig Wittgenstein taught at Cambridge until he was 24. Then he moved to Norway, where he developed several of his theories. Photo: Pressens Bild (190) / NTB scanpix “If a lion could talk, we wouldn’t understand it”. By this Wittgenstein meant to say that the lion exists in a world so separate from us that its expressions, desires and intentions could never be communicated. Does that mean we’ll never talk to whales, no matter how far we get with artificial intelligence? The Rosetta Stone – We know that they talk to each other and that the sounds have different functions, but not specifically what they say. Marit Lobben says so. She is a linguist, neuroscientist, writer and extremely interested in whales. She has followed developments in language research on whales, a field that has exploded since artificial intelligence came on the scene. Marit Lobben Marit Lobben has a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Oslo. She also has great faith that we will talk to whales one day. Photo: priv Lobben explains that this type of research requires access to large amounts of data, i.e. audio recordings of communicating whales, in order for the algorithms to learn the patterns. – The large amounts of data that AI needs will place limitations on how quickly research can progress. But now we have a new type of machine learning, which needs less data than before, she says. This means that development can really accelerate, says the linguist. Lobben compares Payne’s discovery of whale song to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which was crucial to deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs. – AI is essential for researching animal sounds because we have no correspondence to an already existing language, as we had when the Rosetta Stone was discovered; Ancient Egyptian was deciphered using Ancient Greek, but no such template exists for animal languages. This is where artificial intelligence comes into play. – What AI does for us is to register structural patterns in the sound signals. Then these points are connected. Then we discover whether there are similarities that we find again in human languages, says Lobben. Talking to dogs and parrots But even if humans and whales manage to create something that can be called a common language, we will not be able to talk to each other, says research leader for philosophy at the University of Oslo, Bjørn Torgrim Ramberg. Philosophy professor Bjørn Torgrim Ramberg first became familiar with Wittgenstein’s lion when he was an undergraduate at Blindern in the 80s. Photo: UiO He is no expert on whales, but has taught philosophy for over 40 years. Thus he is well acquainted with Wittgenstein’s lion. – By the lion, Wittgenstein means to say that people can understand each other because we share much more than a vocabulary and a grammatical system. We have a great deal in common that we do not have in common with any other species. The philosophy professor believes that we have already managed to communicate with animals. – I communicate all the time with my dog Max. But there is a qualitative difference between that conversation and an ordinary conversation with a human being. Wittgenstein photographed during his stay in Skjolden. He stuttered, kept to himself a lot, and used to immediately leave conversations he didn’t appreciate. Photo: NTB Scanpix But he doesn’t think humans will ever be able to have a conversation with a whale. – I don’t think whales can justify their claims, or argue for them. I believe, as Wittgenstein says, that we have no common lifeworld with a whale. Therefore, it becomes impossible to talk together. Philosopher Einar Duenger Bøhn, who has lectured on Wittgenstein, agrees with Ramberg. – A good example is the parrot. We can say things to a parrot and it will respond. On the surface it sounds like it got what we said, but there’s no real understanding there. Philosopher Einar Duenger Bøhn continues to be impressed by the work of his colleague Ludwig Wittgenstein. Photo: UiA Duenger Bøhn has noticed that Wittgenstein appears more and more often when it comes to questions about artificial intelligence, despite the fact that the philosopher died in 1951. – He has asked all the good questions about communication and linguistic meaning in ” Philosophical investigations”. He wrote a book about all the questions that are now relevant for KI almost 100 years ago, says Bøhn. I think we’ll make it Here Ramberg faces resistance from the linguist, who has a firm belief that one day we will converse with other species. – If we get inside what their sound signals mean, then their languages will not be fundamentally different from ours. And as for what they’re probably talking about, the important things in our lives have a lot in common. We make children, we eat, we flirt with the opposite sex and we collaborate on upbringing. Whales are, like us, a social species, says Marit Lobben. A photographer takes pictures of a sperm whale, while the whale tries to communicate with clicking sounds. Photo: NTB Scanpix/AP – I absolutely believe we will make it happen. There are major forces in the research world who are all turning their heads towards animal language now. When it gets so much attention, I believe in the synergy effect, she says. – What do you think a whale would say if it could talk to a human? – First and foremost, it would be playful, curious and compassionate. It would include us and want to know more about who we are. At the same time, I am a little worried that they have such a good memory, because we have not been kind to them, says Lobben. Published 30.07.2024, at 21.39
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Are scientists about to talk to whales? – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
