Scientists have a 20-minute "conversation" with a humpback whale named Twain

Abstraction: Whale-SETI project achieves first humpback whale communicative exchange

Key points:

• Whale-SETI team (SETI Institute, UC Davis, Alaska Whale Foundation) played a recorded humpback "contact call" underwater; whale Twain approached and mirrored interval variations for 20 minutes
• Authors claim this is the first communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales conducted in the humpback's own "language"
• The research uses information theory mathematics to quantify communicative complexity as a method also applicable to potential extraterrestrial signals
• Humpback whales exhibit complex social behaviors including bubble-net cooperative feeding and distinct vocal dialects across populations
• AI algorithms trained on whale calls and human language are used to detect language-like patterns in whale vocalizations
• SETI assumption that extraterrestrials will initiate contact is supported by the whale's proactive approach behavior

Connections: Seti Institute · Non Human Intelligence · Animal Communication · Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Source: https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-have-20-minute-conversation-with-a-humpback-whale-named-twain/