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Comment by hoggle | Hacker News Reader

"It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English (up to fifty words used in correct context) [even higher since Sagan died] no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese."

~ Carl Sagan

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"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons."

- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I've always wondered how we figure we'd communicate with aliens someday, or decode a future SETI message, if we can't even decode the language of a dolphins.

I think Solaris by Stanisław Lem is right about contact with aliens. Read it if you haven't - it's a great book about impossibility of understanding between real aliens.

Dolphins are not (so far as we know) actively trying to teach us their language. I would be exuberant to be corrected on this, but to my knowledge a dolphin has never put a fish in a human's hands and cried 'kreeeikaaa' to try to teach us the word. Whereas we do that endlessly with the dolphins, which is why they have learned a bit of our language.

I suspect (with no proof) that a human-level intelligence, bent on communicating, would have the intelligence to perform experiments and then structure a learning environment for the other life form to learn its language.

> Dolphins are not (so far as we know) actively trying to teach us their language.

Exactly. Cats actively try to teach us their language and you can ask any cat owner, he or she would be very fluent in their cat's language.

Hey, why the downvote? It wasn't just a witty remark, i was serious. I find it rather fascinating that in the case of pets, both parties mutually form a method of communication. And this method isn't exactly part of either species' natural language. Humans train pets to respond to certain gestures/words and the pet adopts certain behaviors which have the sole purpose of communicating a need or intention or request to the owner. I think it says something abuot the intelligence of BOTH species

There is some interesting behaviour so far as cat communication with humans. Cats will not meow to other cats unless it's a kitten / mother situation. Meowing with humans is pretty unique.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_communication#Meow

Wow, good point. Cats usually have this entirely different set of vocal and bodily language when communicating with other cats. Isn't that a sign of higher intelligence? To be able to learn multiple languages. Even if each is fairly small, it's rather fascinating ability to be able to classify your total known language into two distinct sets and knowing which set to use with whom

I'm not sure about dolphins, but I do know people who claim to be able to hear some bird talk and understand what they are talking about (where the predators are, how far away the rain is, etc). Some Native Americans claimed to use this trick to know when other people were approaching, up to a few miles away. As far as I know, this only included listening, not interacting though.

That said, I've tried to find references online to this stuff and haven't been able to. I've only heard from friends who have taken classes/trained under such people.

I seem to recall something like this happening a few years ago. Something about interpret the echolocation sounds as images using the right hardware and software, and being able to synthesize new ones and play them back.

Here's all I could find on Google though. http://www.speakdolphin.com/ResearchItems.cfm?ID=20

I read this comment, and was searching for something unrelated when I found this:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028115.400-talk-with...

and decided to report back.

Just ask Eric

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf_BR1StMxQ

Which mean we are better teachers (and possibly worse students).

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