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Post by auntym on Feb 15, 2011 22:47:37 GMT -6
www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/seti-dolphins/ To Talk to Aliens Learn to Speak With DolphinsWired Science News for Your Neurons By Danielle Venton February 15, 2011 | The Kepler Space Telescope announced a new bonanza of distant planets this month, reconfirming that solar systems, some possibly hosting life, are common in the universe. So if humanity someday arrives at an extraterrestrial cocktail party, will we be ready to mingle? At the Wild Dolphin Project in Jupiter, Florida, researchers train for contact by trying to talk with dolphins. Behavioral biologist Denise Herzing started studying free-ranging spotted dolphins in the Bahamas more than two decades ago. Over the years, she noticed some dolphins seeking human company, seemingly out of curiosity. “We thought, ‘This is fascinating, let’s see if we can take it further,’” Herzing said. “Many studies communicate with dolphins, especially in captivity, using fish as a reward. But it’s rare to ask dolphins to communicate with us.” Dolphins have large, sophisticated brains, elaborately developed in the areas linked to higher-order thinking. They have a complex social structure, form alliances, share duties and display personalities. Put a mirror in their tank and they can recognize themselves, indicating a sense of self. When trained, they have a remarkable capacity to pick up language. At the Dolphin Institute in Hawaii, Louis Herman and his team taught dolphins hundreds of words using gestures and symbols. Dolphins, they found, could understand the difference between statements and questions, concepts like “none” or “absent,” and that changing word order changes the meaning of a sentence. Essentially, they get syntax. TO CONTINUE READING CLICK ON ABOVE LINK
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Post by Steve on Feb 15, 2011 23:59:50 GMT -6
now your talk'n.
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Post by paulette on Feb 16, 2011 1:20:21 GMT -6
Dolphins can also read body language - illness, things that PET scans could show. There is no deception if one is a dolphin and wanting to have sex with another dolphin - everybody knows right away. By the way - they are one of the few creatures on this planet that have recreational sex - even across dolphin species.
There is an incredible clip somewhere of Robin Williams interacting with a dolphin who "got" his jokes (you have to see it to believe it).
I was once surrounded by a pod of wild bottle nosed dolphin - I thought it was a social call but later thought they were protecting me from a prowling shark - inside their circle was me and two young dolphins. I got off my board and treaded water alongside it and they circled me. They might also have blasted the shark with their sonar bursts that they use to stun bait fish and also repel large sharks.
I also swam with a captive dolphin (about age 14) before I realized how terrible a situation it was for them. There were two young males who were being trailered around to give "shows" by a guy whose intentions were strictly financial. He let me swim in the tank with them and give them a fish - my hand inadvertently got racked by the sharp teeth of one. Later he told me that they had "roughed up" a male who got in with them and he wondered what they would do with me. Nice guy aye? They swam around me and gave me very gentle pokes from below. I was not afraid of them - probably they knew that and also perhaps that I had no ill will.
No human has ever tried to learn the dolphin language - we always insist that they learn ours. Maybe Robin Williams was closer than the scientists!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2011 4:35:38 GMT -6
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Post by Morgan Sierra on Feb 16, 2011 8:05:19 GMT -6
I think people should learn to communicate with one another first.
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Post by Morgan Sierra on Feb 16, 2011 8:38:45 GMT -6
I remember seeing a documentary on TV a long time ago about an autistic boy who could not speak english but was able to communicate with dolphins. He made vocal sounds exactly like the dolphins did, and they understood what he wanted them to do. Whether he was actually talking to them or just imitating the sounds he heard is debatable. It's possible he was just making noises and the dolphins were smart enough to figure out what he wanted. It was a very interesting story. I wish I could find it. While searching for it I found a lot of other links suggesting that dolphins are able to help autistic children learn to speak. The aquatic mammals are used quite a bit to help in therapy and rehabilitation of children with both autism and brain injuries. The therapy seems to be very successful. www.theautismnews.com/2009/06/30/swimming-with-the-animals/articles.philly.com/1986-09-28/living/26075726_1_autistic-children-dolphins-esp
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Post by paulette on Feb 16, 2011 20:31:45 GMT -6
"The therapy has been the target of criticism largely from animal rights groups, which consider it dangerous to humans and unfair to dolphins."
There are places in the world where disabled children as well as normal enough people swim with "wild" dolphins - I would say food dependent wild dolphins. The dolphins know that at the certain time of the day there will be fish and people wanting to pet them. They get to chose if they will allow physical contact but to my knowledge no one has been physically hurt. Ditto in the Irish sea (the kids have to wear wetsuits).
Other diving tours take people to the wild dolphins and everyone leaps over the side of the boat to interact with the pod. People are not allowed to touch the dolphins and are not allowed to continue diving with them if they do. Arms to the side of the body. From the documentaries I've seen - the dolphins hang around for a awhile, maybe even swim a ballet with someone good at swimming, maybe bring them a piece of trash (political commentary?) and then swim off.
It is quite possible that given how clumsy and inept most of us are in the water and that dolphins like to swim long distances and play and eat all day they just don't have time for us unless we lock them up with us. The fact that they are kind to autistic children is one vote for their ethics. Imagine putting a vulnerable child in with a prisoner doing solitaire confinement for life! Yet the dolphins treat the children kindly and some even seem to form a relationship (albeit brief and the child goes home and the dolphin lives in his or her pen until he or she dies.) They are so deadly bored that they learn ways to amuse themselves like playing with bubbles that they blow....
Animals mostly do not eat us or claw our eyes out and again - they show remarkable restraint IMO.
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Post by auntym on Feb 17, 2011 14:40:06 GMT -6
j.mp/feWxRm Biologists and dolphins have created a new inter-species languageAnnalee Newitz — Biologists and dolphins have created a new inter-species language Biologist Denise Herzing has been studying wild spotted dolphins for years in the Bahamas. Like many people who research dolphins, she's heard the animals communicating with each other but hasn't figured out how to understand what they're saying. And yet dolphins have learned our languages: Many studies have shown that dolphins can understand human vocabulary and syntax. The problem is that dolphins can't respond in kind: They simply aren't able to make the sounds required to speak our languages. Herzing wanted to change that. So she set out to construct a shared language with dolphins, using a synthesizer to create a vocabulary both species could pronounce. And it worked better than she'd ever hoped. TO CONTINUE READING CLICK ON ABOVE LINK
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2011 15:44:51 GMT -6
j.mp/feWxRm Biologists and dolphins have created a new inter-species languageAnnalee Newitz — Biologists and dolphins have created a new inter-species language Biologist Denise Herzing has been studying wild spotted dolphins for years in the Bahamas. Like many people who research dolphins, she's heard the animals communicating with each other but hasn't figured out how to understand what they're saying. And yet dolphins have learned our languages: Many studies have shown that dolphins can understand human vocabulary and syntax. The problem is that dolphins can't respond in kind: They simply aren't able to make the sounds required to speak our languages. Herzing wanted to change that. So she set out to construct a shared language with dolphins, using a synthesizer to create a vocabulary both species could pronounce. And it worked better than she'd ever hoped. TO CONTINUE READING CLICK ON ABOVE LINK Kewl!!! A musical language to communicate with Dolphins!! ;D
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