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A Dolphin By Any Other Name
SloppyElvis writes "CNN is reporting that scientists have proven that Dolphins can communicate with each other by name. From the article: 'researchers synthesized signature whistles with the caller's voice features removed and played them to dolphins through an underwater speaker' to which the mammals responded. This form of identification in language was previously only known to exist in the human world." Thankfully they still haven't evolved opposable thumbs.
they all call each other Flipper!
-Sj53
fp?
He tells me he never did like that name, but then he thanked me for all the fish and quickly left.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Science can't prove anything, it can only disprove. I hate when popular media word things like that.
On a related note, what the heck does "clinically proven" mean?
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
Squeek-Whistle, disagrees.
Since it says "Dolphins" and not "dolphins" (or "porpoises", even) can we assume that this is in reference to the Miami Dolphins? Truly astounding if true...
Baby Dolphin goes downstairs and sits on her little seashell at the table. She looks into her little bowl. It is empty.
"Who's been eating my sardines?!!" she squeaks.
Daddy Dolphin arrives at the table and sits on his big seashell. He looks into his big bowl and it is also empty.
"Who's been eating my sardines?!!" he roars.
Mummy Dolphin puts her head through the serving hatch from the kitchen and yells
"How many times do we have to go through this with you idiots? It was Mummy Dolphin who got up first, it was Mummy Dolphin who woke everyone in the house, it was Mummy Dolphin who made the coffee, it was Mummy Dolphin who unloaded the dishwasher from last night, and put everything away, it was Mummy Dolphin who went out in the cold early morning water to fetch the newspaper, it was Mummy Dolphin who set the damn table, it was Mummy Dolphin who put the friggin catfish out, cleaned the litter box and filled the catfish's water and food dish, and now that you've decided to drag your sorry dolphin-asses downstairs and grace Mummy Dolphin's kitchen with your grumpy presence, listen good, cause I'm only going to say this one more time...
I HAVEN'T MADE THE DAMN SARDINES YET !!"
All hold hands for the traditional singing of the theme from Flipper.
This sig, aah-ah, is comin' like a ghost-sig...
.. what their equivalent of a "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaan" is?
Flipper
Flippy
Flip
Willy
Squeeky
Seaquill
Bob
CmdrTaco
That disappeared in favor of dolphins. Why?
Personally, I find it far more likely that the dolphins are referring to each other by their slashdot IDs.
how do they say "so long and thanks for all the fish?"
how can we be sure that the dolphins didn't just learn this over the last couple of decades or so? maybe they are pressured by the worsening environmental conditions to evolve into, i don't know, aquatic overlords of some kind?
Jesus said to his disciples: "If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one" - Luke 22:36
1) They'd kill us all if they had thumbs
2) They love NASCAR
This
would still be murdering folks/stinking up/destroying the planet/population as well?
all they want is... everything. at what cost to US? not a pretty picture at all. quite infactdead from our viewpoint.
for many of US, the only way out is up.
don't forget, for each of the creators' innocents harmed (in any way) there is a debt that must/will be repaid by you/US as the perpetrators/minions of unprecedented evile will not be available after the big flash occurs.
'vote' with (what's left in) yOUR wallet. help bring an end to unprecedented evile's manifestation through yOUR owned felonious corepirate nazi life0cidal glowbull warmongering execrable.
some of US should consider ourselves very fortunate to be among those scheduled to survive after the big flash/implementation of the creators' wwwildly popular planet/population rescue initiative/mandate.
it's right in the manual, 'world without end', etc....
as we all ?know?, change is inevitable, & denying/ignoring gravity, logic, morality, etc..., is only possible, on a temporary basis.
concern about the course of events that will occur should the corepirate nazi life0cidal execrable fail to be intervened upon is in order.
'do not be dismayed' (also from the manual). however, it's ok/recommended, to not attempt to live under/accept, fauxking nazi felon greed/fear/ego based pr ?firm? scriptdead mindphuking hypenosys.
consult with/trust in yOUR creators. providing more than enough of everything for everyone (without any distracting/spiritdead personal gain motives), whilst badtolling unprecedented evile, using an unlimited supply of newclear power, since/until forever. see you there?
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
This form of identification in language was previously only known to exist in the human world ... except for the hundreds of thousands of parrot owners througout the world. My african greys call each other by name when asking for anything.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
But that's just because they're in the water.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
After reading the title, I thought Nintendo was going to scrap the Wii name and go back to their N64 project name (Dolphin.) This would have been a great title for such a press release.
I saw this said on discovery 5+ years ago. I really wonder how this is just now making it out to the mass media. I suppose that now it's more "conclusive". As far as I'm concerned we know this for "Fact" just as much as we did back then.
Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
Squeak squeak click squeak click click squeak ee-oo ee-oo click
Translation: I for one welcome our dolphin overlords.
Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to conviction
My parents own a pet store, and move a pair of African Grey Parrots between work and home every day, along with two dogs. The birds not only recognize their own names, but they appropriatly name the dogs when they encounter them. In addition, they can tell them to sit by name and even will give the dogs bits of food in exchange for treats - they appear to do this appropriatly when they want to either cause mischief or gain obedience from the dogs when the dogs are frightening them. The birds also use eachother's names appropriatly - and at the pet store seem to know the difference between these specific dogs and the other similar dogs that they encounter.
Intelligence and symbol identification/use definitely seems to me to be a general phenomenon larger than mammalian life.
It would be interesting to repeat similar experiments with intelligent species of wild birds to see if they generate unique sound identification that they may use to identify third-"persons" non-visually in some way. Most likely birds would use such ability to immitate eachother for social manipulation - but the conclusions of the use of such symbolic proto-language would still be meaningful.
Ryan Fenton
Arr. It begins. The dolphins are upon us. And only this old sea dog knows how to stop -[Carrier lost]
Who knew?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Squeek shrrrrp Skwiiiik clik clik, squeeeek hik schk?
Wii! skik skik sqweeeek!!!.
wik wik,
Flipper.
The worst part is that AP covered this story at least 2-3 days ago. Slashdot has turned into "ads for nerds, news that is picked up off the AP wire a couple days late."
Please help metamoderate.
Apparently, the Dolphins only managed to respond to their name 9 out of 14 times.
paintball
They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!
Everyone loves the king of the sea,
Ever so kind and gentle is he,
Tricks he will do when children appear,
And how they laugh when he's near!
They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
Flying there-under, under the sea!
Did we see this on American Dad this last sunday?
"Look, those stupid pink animals with the low voices are finally learning how to talk!"
...would still smell as sweet???
When will I learn never to click on a link with my sound turned up.
I for one welcome our new dolphin overlords.
Would be called "Gamecube"
...is a porpoise.
Empires grow and crumble, and the Turtle Moves. Gods come and go, and still the Turtle Moves. The Turtle Moves.
Thanks a lot, big brain.
In other words, your dogs have accepted their African Grey Parrot overlords.
Gary Larson would proud of them all.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Thank You I'm here all week. Tip your servers.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
You watch this link, AND BE AMAZED!
http://gprime.net/video.php/einsteinthebird
To believe that we are the only intellegent species living on this planet is supreme stupidity. Its been known that Dolphins are very intellegent creatures and we are just now beginning to learn the truth that they could be our intellectual equals.
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch@gmail.com
http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
Click Click Click Squeel Squeel Shreik Shreik Click Squeel Click Click. Thats dolphin for "Turn off that damn noisy speaker!".
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
Eeek ack sque'ek ook kkkk'k squeek.
http://gprime.net/video.php/einsteinthebird
She is quite interesting to watch and hear, but I wonder how much of a showwoman her trainer is?
This is worthwile research, but it seems well short of supporting the claim that dolphins are using names. My summary would be that each dolphin has a signature call, they react to the signature calls of friends/relations, and (the new bit in this research) they react to calls which are similar but not identical to the signature calls of friends/relations.
To support a claim of using names, I'd want evidence of dolphin Alice vocalizing dolphin Bob's signature call to gain Bob's attention.
I suppose it comes down to an argument about what constitutes a "name". But the small step from the reacting to signature calls to the reacting to sythesized signature calls seems a strange place to draw the line between "name" and "not name".
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
If they are actually names or some kind of addressing like "Hey dolphin to my left by 5 meters..."
Computers have names via their Mac address and IP, but it hardly makes them self aware. The names are specifically environmental denotation. Its not self awareness.
I think we have become to lax in personifying animals and objects though our entertainment media that it seeps in to our perception of scientific data. It its a given that if we want to personalize dolphins, then we can manipulate our data to confirm this.
Saying dolphins have names implies they are self aware. If this is true, then much of our biological science is in error.
Nevertheless, the equation that dolphins make noise + response to that noise = names, then any animal that makes a noise to communicate to other like animals probably is using names.
"Thankfully they still haven't evolved opposable thumbs"
It is interesting to note that whales/dophin have hand bone structure. These mammals evolved from those that were once land animals. As a result the flipper is actually a modified hand structure.
/
Why would a hivemind species have need for unique identifiers?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
And thanks for all the fish.....KABOOM
Tyou joi8 today! the rain..we can be
clothes or be a a8d shower. For today. it's about
And man do they ever taste good, if you know how to cook 'em.
If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you
think liked dolphins the most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be
wrong, though. It's Hambone.
-Jack Handy
"If you put butter and salt on it, it tastes like salty butter." -Terry Pratchet, on Popcorn.
"they all call each other Flipper!"
"G'day, Flipper... Hello Flipper... how are you, Flipper? Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce a chap from pommie land... Michael Baldwin - this is Flipper. Michael Baldwin - this is Flipper... and Michael Baldwin - this is Flipper."
"Is your name not Flipper, then?"
"No, it's Michael."
"That's going to cause a little confusion. Mind if we call you 'Flipper' to keep it clear?"
who needs thumbs when you can bend spoons with your mind?
there is no human.
While whale-watching in the North Pacific ocean around San Juan Island, the whale expert explained how whales make a unique sound before and after their other phrases, and that these sounds are often accompanied by a reply for a different whale. The unique sounds were most often unique to the whale that responded. As such, experts believed these to be used like names.
Such a conversation would go something like this:
Snorky. Speak. Man. (Simpsons reference)
Move. Sig.
Thankfully they still haven't evolved opposable thumbs.
no kidding... the last species to do so with any success made rather quick work of the planet...sigh
In nine out of 14 cases, the dolphin would turn more often toward the speaker if it heard a whistle that sounded like a close relative's.
7 out of 14 would be expected if it were random...9 out of 14 is nothing more than a statistical fluke. They should have done more tests...this study sounds like nothing more than a coincidence.
I'm sorry. The number you have reached is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again.
"Thankfully they still haven't evolved opposable thumbs" Wait and see, they have the same plan as google. 1. Make ppl notice you + ???????? = world domination (minor adjustments of course, we all know googles step 2 is money.. just that dang 3rd step..)
So long, and thanks for all the fish!!
Was walking through a pet shop with a scarlet macaw and it wasn't a random utterance that struck me.
When this bird was invited onto someone's arm, it would climb toward the head, and then proclaim 'lookout!' before proceeding to preen. It obviously had learned this should be said by someone before clamping down on their hair and pulling.
But generally speaking, this behavior isn't quite the same as the parrots are not creating the names themselves, but rather recognizing the meaning of a word and imitating it in an intelligent fashion.
Though it seems possible that clacking and whistling in the wild may have significance simply not recognized. If they so readily recognize the concept of names and use them, they very well could use names humans just never pick up on.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
My parent's african grey whistles the first few notes when it hears me in the vicinity. I obviously reply with the next few. It also shouts the dogs names when it can see they're outside. The eclectus parrots on the other hand screech, growl and attempt to rip off your fingers at the slightest opportunity.
Deleted
I read about this in a magazine article sometime in the early '90s.
This is FUNNY as hell!
"KWaaaaaa Kwa-kaaaaa-kaaaaa"
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Dolphins communicate by "speaking" their name before every communication, as a way of telling the recipient who said what. Every dolphin has their own name and researchers have known this for ages. I'm surprised that this is "news."
Dolphins can ALSO create rings using their blowhole. They create what is essentially a vortex with perfect buyoncy (sp?). They can be tossed around like toys without "popping" due to the physics of the rings. I've tried to do this with my nose, and I fail every time. This is not a conspiracy.
Dolphins are smart. That's why the Navy hires them.
Bubble ring link: http://www.earthtrust.org/delrings.html
I wonder if they could tell us the day that the world is going to end...
La la la... I'm not listing to reason today...
dolphins are evil. one day they will attack en mass and try to take over. i know you think im crazy, but it _WILL_ happen. porposes are just their lacky servants. whales can't be trusted either.
-.no
Most of what my macaw and my parents' african grey falls into this catagory. Obviously, they learned "Hello" and "good morning" because those things are said to them. It is even clear that their understanding of these sounds is different from the literal meaning; our birds will use these comments any time they want to greet you or initiate contact.
What is more interesting is the novel constructions and novel useage; i.e. the new uses they find for an existing word or phrase and the entirely new phrases make by combining words in new ways. Examples:
"Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative" - Miyamoto Musashi
I think that goes for OS's too
"Hmm, Bottlenose bruises. Blowhole burns. Flipper prints. This looks like the work of rowdy teens."
"This form of identification in language was previously only known to exist in the human world"
The dolphins knew it all along, but they didn't bother to tell us!
I think I read something of his once (Broca's Brain?) that said the dolphins would have evolved a lot further up the chain of intelligence if they had been able to discover fire.
Makes you wonder how many times they tried before they gave up.
And also why the chimps don't have it yet.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
So many people who call themselves scientists make a big deal out of ways in which non=human animals might be inferior to human animals (even sometimes to the point of pretending that humans are not animals) because we don't know whether (or just have not proven) a particular animal can do a particular thing.
Here's a thought for you "scientists": Say what you know, acknowledge the stuff you don't know (don't assume anything and then pretend to know it) and spend your time trying to figure out the stuff you don't know instead of blathering out your baseless assumptions.
That way we don't have to be so surprized every time we figure out that some animal can do something that they need to do.
What does Khan have to do with this? Dolphins aren't afraid of Khan. They're too busy with the real job that they need names for:
Captain Dolphin: "Number One, fire your frickin' laser beam!"
Dolphin First Officer: "Direct hit captain! Khan's ship is disabled!"
"Matthews . . . we're getting another one of those strange 'aw blah es span yol' sounds."
Seems like a constant barrage of discoveries across many species that always indicate animals are smarter than we give them credit for. At some point we'll start to question our ethical consideration towards non-human animals. It'll probably be a while though, since we're still battling people who don't believe in evolution.
Who needs opposable thumbs when you've got prehensile genitalia?
... looks just as sweet. Except if that name is "Maginot Line".
Furthermore, I'm not sure I know of any other social animal that acts like this: individuals called specifically as individuals by other members of the same species in the wild.
My mom used to say that another species does that, "humans" I think she called them. She also always told me to stay away from fishing nets.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
"Look, those stupid pink animals with the low voices are finally learning how to talk!" Most humans are not pink but brown.
for the fish!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N'kisi
This parrot has a claimed vocabulary of about 950 words. I work with people that would be jealous of that.
It is reported that they have also translated some of the dolphin's language. The most recent communication was, "So long and thanks for all the fish." They are not sure what this means, but I would recommend hitching a ride on the next Vogon crusier to pass by.
... that they are no good on land http://www.theonion.com/content/node/45360/
I love random hex numbers! Just like this one, 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
Yeah nice, but who wants to communicate with dolphins? All they are interested in is philosophy and mackarel.
The first time I encountered dolphins in the wild - it sent shivers up my spine. I was out on a tour boat in Portsmouth NH, and a pod approached our boat, one of them came right up to the side, stuck its head out of the water and lookd me right in the eye - its was like a person looking at me, not an animal. Its hard to put into words...but its was sure nothing like when my cat or some dog on the street looks at you...more like when an ape in the zoo does (sorry never seen any of them in th wild) - but there was even more of that sense of conciousness when this dolphin looked at me. Wish I knew its name so I could squeek hello.
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
Thankfully they still haven't evolved opposable thumbs.
If Sci-Fi anime is any indication of what's to come, apparently they won't need to evolve opposable thumbs.
(That's Poipoider from Kenran Butohsai: The Mars Daybreak.)