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I’m missing how this is groundbreaking or even a “conversation”.

They played audio recordings of other whales to the whale and it replied the way whales reply to one another.

The scientists didn’t know what they were saying, other than since the target whale appeared to stick around it probably wasn’t completely gibberish.

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Whether this is groundbreaking or not depends on what the whale thought of it.

If it got the notion that humans are now actually trying to talk to it in its language, I'd call that a win.

> If it got the notion

To me, it seems like precisely this part got lost in translation

Well said. It seems they got it excited, but what seems to us as exciting might be them being confused and dumbfounded. Or even laughing or mocking us.

Did you watch Arrival or read "Story of Your Life"?

We're still in Act I. Have some popcorn and enjoy the show.

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