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Dolphins Recorded Having a Conversation For The First Time (telegraph.co.uk)
For the first time Russian researchers have recorded a conversation between two dolphins -- Yasha and Yana -- who were talking to each other in a pool. An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes The Telegraph:
Scientists developed an underwater microphone which could distinguish the animals' different "voices" [and] have now shown that dolphins alter the volume and frequency of pulsed clicks to form individual "words" which they string together into sentences in much the same way that humans speak...
"This language exhibits all the design features present in the human spoken language, this indicates a high level of intelligence and consciousness in dolphins, and their language can be ostensibly considered a highly developed spoken language, akin to the human language... Humans must take the first step to establish relationships with the first intelligent inhabitants of the planet Earth by creating devices capable of overcoming the barriers that stand in the way of using languages and in the way of communications between dolphins and people."
The dolphins listened to an entire "sentence" before replying, according to the article, which points out that dolphin brains are larger and more complex than the brains of humans.
"This language exhibits all the design features present in the human spoken language, this indicates a high level of intelligence and consciousness in dolphins, and their language can be ostensibly considered a highly developed spoken language, akin to the human language... Humans must take the first step to establish relationships with the first intelligent inhabitants of the planet Earth by creating devices capable of overcoming the barriers that stand in the way of using languages and in the way of communications between dolphins and people."
The dolphins listened to an entire "sentence" before replying, according to the article, which points out that dolphin brains are larger and more complex than the brains of humans.
Measuring a brain purely on size is very misleading. At least a fair portion of the relative size difference of brains in different species has to do with body size, perhaps because larger bodies have more sensory cells and larger numbers of nerves, which necessitate more basic processing power for sensory input, as well as sending commands to various parts of the nervous system. Where the brain is larger in comparison to body mass, there is a tendency to find more intelligent animals, so the key here, at least in part, is that ratio.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Back in the 70's and 80's, people recorded dolphin vocalizations, and identified the equivalent of human phonemes, basically just different sound patterns that would occur repeatedly. By collecting a lot of data, and counting up the occurrences of distinct phonemes, they were able to show a phoneme frequency that matches the exact same patterns as human speech (frequency here meaning how often a phoneme occurs, not the frequency of the sound waves).
For instance, "the" occurred 6 times in the paragraph above, "and" occurs 3 times, and words like "vocalization" occur once - far less often. All human languages have this distribution where a small quantity of words makes up the bulk of common conversation, whereas things like bird calls or other vocalizations from less intelligent species follow a more flat distribution.
The point being, we've known for a long time that dolphins communicate using something very similar to human speech. This is pretty neat progress, but IMO it's pretty disheartening that after several decades we're still not anywhere near understanding their language. If we can't figure out how to communicate with fellow mammals sharing a common lineage, it really challenges the common sci-fi trope of having any kind of meaningful discourse with a creature from the other side of the galaxy.
Language has a rather specific meaning to scientists. There are any number of complex communication systems that are still not full language. For a communication system to be a language it must do more than simply transmit information; it must also be productive and capable of displacement. The article is paywalled Telegraph article, so I can't assess it directly, but unless researchers have determined that these key features are present, then while it may be a very complex communication system, it still wouldn't be language.
There have been a lot of false starts investigating the language capabilities like dolphins and apes. While they seem capable of some degree of language, some of the more incredible reports of advanced human-like language have often turned out to be more wishful thinking than fact.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Measuring a brain purely on size is very misleading. At least a fair portion of the relative size difference of brains in different species has to do with body size, perhaps because larger bodies have more sensory cells and larger numbers of nerves, which necessitate more basic processing power for sensory input, as well as sending commands to various parts of the nervous system. Where the brain is larger in comparison to body mass, there is a tendency to find more intelligent animals, so the key here, at least in part, is that ratio.
This is probably to what you're referring: Encephalization quotient
Encephalization quotient (EQ), or encephalization level, is a measure of relative brain size defined as the ratio between actual brain mass and predicted brain mass for an animal of a given size, which is hypothesized to be a rough estimate of the intelligence or cognition of the animal.
This is a more refined measurement than the raw brain-to-body mass ratio, as it takes into account allometric effects. The relationship, expressed as a formula, has been developed for mammals, and may not yield relevant results when applied outside this group.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
There are examples of complex behavior in cetaceans that would be difficult to explain without assuming they can communicate. Here is a video of orcas (which are technically dolphins) using a complex coordinated activity to isolate and capture a crabeater seal. But that isn't even the most interesting part: First the adults perform the actions, while the junenile orcas watch, then they let the seal recover and climb back onto the ice. Then the juveniles give it a go. They screw it up. Then the adults go again, showing them how to do it right. The the juveniles try again. How could they do that without being about to "talk"?
The Telegraph has a link to the (seemingly very short) paper, which doesn't appear to be restricted: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405722316301177 Displacement and other aspects of language are discussed.
You'd better hope they don't eliminate people who don't know that the terminating period for that sentence belongs inside the quotes, sparky. :)
The position of a period relative to an ending quote mark depends on which country you speak (or learned) English in.
I've always been told it depends on where the period belongs. That is to say if you're quoting an entire sentence (e.g. the end of the quote is the end of a sentence) the period goes inside to denote this, otherwise it goes outside. According to this source, placing the period inside the quote regardless of logic is an "American" thing; though I'm American and follow the logic provided there.
Literally every other source I bothered to look at (all American style guides) say the period (or comma) goes inside the quote unless there is a parenthetical citation, in which case it follows that. After a dozen or so sources, I gave up on trying to find one representing a country other than the US; if anyone can provide me one or more, that would be greatly appreciated.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Most land based predators and birds teach their young how to hunt in a similar way, many creatures such as hawks and big cats catch and partially disable their prey before releasing in front of the kids so they can practice dealing with live prey (nature is cruel but we all have to eat). It's said that a baby seagull takes about 2yrs to learn from it's parents what it can and can't eat from a human rubbish tip. Most of these creatures communicate with each other with simple phrases, "danger", food", "help me", "fuck me", "fuck off", etc, their "language" does not have the flexibility of human language but it does have the ability to convey a simple message that is universally understood by every member of the species.
There are very few universally understood words or gestures in humans, displaying the palms of your hands to say "I mean no harm" is the only example I can think of but there are probably more. Humans, dolphins, apes, and a few other creatures are known to have "culture", there is variation in the social behaviour and vocalisations of groups. People have been trying to crack dolphin language for decades under the unspoken assumption that all dolphins speak the same dialect/language. Maybe dolphin language will turn out to be as flexible and culturally varied as humans but this article tells me we still don't have a clue what they are talking about.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
How's this?
From http://www.thepunctuationguide...
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
They also have a higher ratio of glial cells to neurons. This is probably an adaptation to maintain homoeostasis in an organism which can face very sudden transitions in environmental temperature and pressure.