from Hacker News

A whale who tried to mimic human speech (2014)

by awll on 5/1/21, 6:48 PM with 133 comments

  • by masswerk on 5/1/21, 9:55 PM

    What I find fascinating about this is that there are various species which have tackled human speech with at least some success (both actively and passively), while, conversely, we are apparently rather bad at participating in their communicative acts (like, imitating utterances in a meaningful way). Is it just for a lack of interest on our side, or are we lacking something else?

    Edit, regarding "something else": Apparently, we are able to recognize individuals of other primate species by face at a very early age, but lose this ability soon (even before we acquire speech), probably in favor of other social abilities. Which may be an indication for a high degree of intraspecies specialication regarding our communicative abilities.

  • by JoeDaDude on 5/2/21, 2:08 PM

    I am reminded of the case of Alex the Parrot [1]. We all know parrots can mimic human speech very well, but the case made for Alex is that he was using actual language to convey meaning and not just parroting (pun intended) what he heard.

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot)

    In my wild imagination, I imagine parrots being taught to communicate with humans, being let loose into the jungle, and the passing on human language to their offspring. Some years hence, people would venture into the jungle and would be able to ask the parrots for directions. :)

  • by IronWolve on 5/1/21, 9:08 PM

    Don't forget Koko the Gorilla. She was able to sign, understand english and recount stories of her past.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4QQ8Mfjb_g

  • by ComputerGuru on 5/1/21, 10:22 PM

  • by DyslexicAtheist on 5/2/21, 12:19 PM

    We better not embrace whales trying to communicate with us. These finned "c!nts" are only interested in taking our jobs, our land, and even our women! Coming up here ... Onto our land ... With their barely developed lungs ... And their hopes and dreams "of a better tomorrow for whales". GET BACK in the SEA I say!!

    My name's Tucker Carlson from Fox news, and I say we need to ensure the brightest and best whales STAY IN THE SEA, and concentrate on making it aquatically prosperous, instead of coming up here, onto our land, and beginning the process of evolution that will eventually lead to all life on Earth after the humans.

    (apologies, this was paraphrased from Stewart Lee's comedy vehicle "comin over here" bit and is satire)

  • by ironmagma on 5/2/21, 1:59 AM

    There are also recordings of orcas imitating human speech. https://youtu.be/hqB1jRVw7Bw

  • by montenegrohugo on 5/1/21, 8:54 PM

    It seems to me more and more like the biggest, only real difference between most animals and humans is their lack of sophisticated communication. Certainly they communicate; but they do not have access to our rich verbal symbols with which we can convey anything imaginable. Perhaps you could add the lack of a prehensile thumb and deft fingers to build tools with, but I think communication is even more fundamental for the recipe of civilization.

    Anyone can empirically recognize some form of intelligence in animals, whether it be your pet dog, a smart street crow or a beluga whale.

    Additionally, I've never found the relative brain size theory sufficiently satisfactory to explain our superiority. How can the brain of an elephant, or a blue whale (about 7 times the mass of our brain), be that much inferior? I don't think it is; I think it is just different, and that we are not capable to really empathize with it enough (unless we reach some absurd degree of anthropomorphizing it).

    If we accept these premises, what does it make to our worldview and the morality of how we treat animals?

  • by haecceity on 5/1/21, 9:08 PM

    I guess the emphasis is on tried

  • by pgcj_poster on 5/2/21, 12:55 PM

    They should put the spectrograms of Noc's speech on the final exam of a phonetics class and tell students to identify the words without knowing that they were produced by a beluga. Then we'll know what he was saying.

  • by seg_lol on 5/2/21, 5:27 PM

    Reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode where an earthling and an alien meet on a far off planet. The earthling isn't smart enough to learn the alien language, so she learns english.

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probe_7,_Over_and_Out

  • by a3n on 5/1/21, 10:33 PM

    Fascinating, hopeful and yet saddening.

    I would like to have seen something about Inuit experience with Belugans speaking HSL, Human as a Second Language.

  • by j4ah4n on 5/1/21, 11:57 PM

    I stumbled across this related project a few months ago, really interesting initiative.

    https://github.com/earthspecies/project

  • by system2 on 5/1/21, 9:16 PM

    Isn't there a single video of it?

  • by michael1999 on 5/3/21, 4:40 AM

    A lonely Janissary.

  • by Igelau on 5/1/21, 9:57 PM

    Pha loves Pa.

  • by suifbwish on 5/1/21, 9:37 PM

    Worst mobile webpage of all time. Cant read anything because it constantly jumps around loading ads and pop ups. I would expect this from the daily news not something like the smithsonian.