Would you like to talk with dolphins?

[LPC]

The title of this thread is not a joke. The latest research has shown that it may soon be possible to translate dolphin calls with the help of a computer. That, in turn, could lead the way ultimately to our being able to talk with them:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...l#.U6QeILFqPKc

We may sooon be able to evaluate the true extent of dolphin intelligence, rather than estimating it based on observation and primitive tests.

[Happy]

Oh gosh, it would be incredible to talk to a dolphin or any other animal.

We have known for a long time that dolphins talk to each other in a similar way humans communicate. But to be able to talk and understand them is amazing. From the article I gather that an underwater computer will send out whistle sounds and be able to translate the dolphin sounds back in English.

This will boost our understanding of animal behavior and the possibilities are endless. Other animals like Whales are also know to communicate with each other.

Wow!

[David]

From what I have read - Dolphins have a very large vocabulary in their own language. I'm thinking they have the easy task of learning one of our languages. But.... are we smart enough to learn theirs! hahaha.... I'm laughing but I am serious..... are we smart enough? Dolphins and Porpoises are some of my favorite species! I remember as a youngster once my parents took me to Sea World in San Diego - mid to late 60's. And they had a dolphin in a small petting tank/pool.... Well there were a bunch of kids all around this tank - about 12 feet in diameter and this bully type kid kept splashing the dolphin in his/hers face every time it surfaced for air. After around the third or fourth time this dolphin had had enough. It surfaced again but this time it totally soaked that bully!!!! And him only! I mean he was drenching wet, but us other kids all around were still dry. We all started laughing so hard and we all knew then how smart that dolphin was for he had done it on porpoise. ok sorry but I had to throw pun in there, but this is a true story.!!!! LOL....

[LPC]

We all started laughing so hard and we all knew then how smart that dolphin was for he had done it on porpoise.

Brilliant corny pun, David! You clearly have a whale of a time thinking of them....

[knightofalbion]

A very interesting development. Wonder what dolphins at Taiji and the 'inmates' of seaquariums would have to say? ....

[iqtidar]

talking about other animals communication method, this post is really informative. wish some day we could understand their languages.

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[Basic Biology]

That's pretty crazy. Sounds like they are still a far way away from translating dolphin language but it would be pretty amazing if we could understand the language of another species.

[LPC]

The research is progressing and here is a more recent article, giving more detail and the latest developments: http://www.newscientist.com/article/...l#.VGXJ8Mk4zgE

This latest research ties in well with the Cambridge Declaration about animal consciousness: http://fcmconference.org/img/Cambrid...sciousness.pdf

[allfiveoceans]

Dolphins are intelligent animals. They can communicate with each other. I think will be not very difficult to translate their limited vocabulary to English. What will they say? Probably phrases and words like "come", "go", "food", "danger",etc. What is your idea guys?