Could we speak the language of dolphins? | Denise Herzing

For 28 years, Denise Herzing has spent five months each summer living with a pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins, following three generations of family relationships and behaviors. It's clear they are communicating with one another -- but is it language? Could humans use it too? She shares a fascinating new experiment to test this idea.
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[@Posiman]

"So what do you do for living?" "I hang out with dolphins in Bahamas, playing games and chatting with them" - this woman must be the most hated person in her high-school reunions...

[@vsiegel]

Most admired, if they as smart as the dolphins :)

[@novantha1]

This must be really confusing to dolphins, like really. What if the words the researchers were using just weren't spoken by the dolphins often? Imagine seeing a crocodile walk up to you before saying snickerdoodle. It would be weird.

[@mickymouse2445]

Good comparison, lol

[@runninginsept]

I'd be too far away from that croc (and pumping in more of that distance through the seconds) before I'd be able to hear so much as a croak of sorrow from that beast 😳

[@realdaggerman105]

runninginsept Crocs can outrun a human over short-distances, he will look for you, he will find you, and he will *snickerdoodle*

[@samg3456]

crocodile: "meatball. meatball.... meatball" (looks at you patiently) "meatball". (you give him a meatball) crocodile: yayyy!!!! yay!!!! (congratulating you. gives you back the meatball)

[@redmane6468]

@@runninginsept remember to zig zag

[@Jbm0230]

THIS. This is what it means to be alive. We are attempting to communicate with another species! How crazy is that?!

[@shardinhand1243]

not at all.

[@itscork]

The truly bizarre part is that the dolphins are capable of learning meaning of some of human language. Yet we humans do NOT understand dolphin language. Who’s zooming who?

[@asnek2527]

Yea cool

[@cmlisk6]

yeah but they are more capable of learning human language because we are more capable of providing alternative forms of communication so they can understand

[@asnek2527]

@@itscork ay we do have some kind of translator machine it was told about in the video

[@NotAlrightSpider]

2013- we’re trying to speak to dolphins. 2033- Joe Rogan- “hey dolphin, you ever try DMT?”

[@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y]

Dolphins do get high. They chew a poisonous puffer-fish, and they even pass it around.

[@BubbleGumzKorner]

Better go back a few decades. They tried something like this before in the 60s. Except she is doing it CORRECTLY and not trying to teach them English, like they did in the 60s. Google "Margaret Howe Lovatt x NASA." Does she love them as much as PETER loved Margaret?!👀🤣 Drunk History and "research" video of how Margaret "relieved" Peter herself, rather than keep carrying him to the women in another tank. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aWKkiJhje7NqeaM kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmjVpnWlqa2Ki9U

[@latev9973]

@@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y they are just like us haha, passing that puffer or joint

[@beatricet5682]

A good speaker who is authentic and passionate about her topic.

[@cashmantrevor6335]

I want an episode where Ted actually appears

[@pmartinez38pm]

TED is an acronym. Tech education and design

[@The_Minez]

Do you really think that the final boss would appear yet?

[@kiwi3896]

Ahahahaaha

[@fishboy279]

@@pmartinez38pm You just wooshed yourself mate

[@pmartinez38pm]

I highly doubt that! You are overestimating ppls intellect

[@mandem888]

been watching dolphin vids on youtube for the last hour and a half. help me ..lol

[@vksepe]

This is me right now at 3am.

[@allybraun4842]

omg me too

[@MachineVersatile]

dang it's a 2 am

[@annaairahala9462]

It's already 6 am Send help

[@zacharytaylor1273]

You should learn about the background of the game "Ecco the Dolphin". It. Is. Crazy!

[@janerebanks4646]

Imagine trying to receive directions from someone who speaks a language you've never heard before. Imagine them trying to make sounds that sound like your language and pointing and gesturing at you. Then imagine that they have flippers or antenna instead of arms and the face of a donkey or a platypus and walk on four legs instead of one. If you are capable of even somewhat successfully interacting with them, that's a success.

[@shady8045]

Jane Rebanks so... just broken English “All your base are belong to us”

[@TheOliverKraft]

sounds a bit like my wife

[@shady8045]

TheOliverKraft wife = bad

[@CosmicCleric]

Hey, if they can do it on Star Trek .... (I kid, I kid.)

[@yttri9876]

If dolphins use language, wouldn't there be many, many regional or even family-exclusive dolphin languages?

[@allualex2606]

Yes. Different groups have different ways of communicating.

[@bamm86]

Rashid the Trombone Yeah Orcas (which are actually a different type of dolphin) have different accents from pof to pod and even pass on history to one another.

[@465marko]

I think Orcas have completely different languages, but I don't know about these dolphins

[@bamm86]

Shufei Definitely agree wholeheartedly.

[@MrAws0m3Gaming]

they have accents depending on what region they are from

[@user-jk6gw7eb8s]

In Arab culture we apperciate dolphins and prohibit hunt them or hurt them because these dolphins help humans in sea and rescue the humans a lot of stories and it is smart and beautiful

[@mickymouse2445]

Cool!

[@meretrix06]

This could have been two hours long, I would have watched the whole thing.

[@PerrenialMillennial]

Who need aliens when we have our own beautiful creatures right here on earth?

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

I mean, aliens would still be cool

[@AQWVegeto]

Hint hint, we are the aliens

[@Hexnilium]

It's also a great way to learn and practice how we will communicate with beings from other worlds.

[@benitodifrancesco7254]

@@AQWVegeto no bro we're just smart apes

[@gamingcreatesworlddd2425]

@@benitodifrancesco7254 still alien for every less intelligent being

[@Ethan7s]

Plot twist, dolphins find out we are dumb and just play with 4 toys all day.

[@Andreseme23]

The most important thing I’ve learned from this talk is that I’ve chosen my profession really wrong. I could be playing with dolphins instead, dammit!!

[@olgierdogden4742]

Fascinating. In 1982 I wrote my thesis on a relationship between Dolphin and Human interaction. It was titled “29 million years head start -a relationship between the two species.” As dolphins in my research then had the same brain weight size and capacity of humans plus they have an extra part to their brain which I won’t talk about as there’s far to much details to put in one comment. But dolphins have had this size and capacity for 30 million years where as the human race has only had theirs for roughly 1 million years. Which drew me to consider the implications of the development and the dolphins status here on the planet which we all “should” share and Denise Herzing has and is debating in her communicative studies with dolphins.

[@dombon6]

Not only is this cool, but developing this will help us once we discover intelligent life on another planet / moon. I have a feeling that there is more life out there than there are technologically advanced civilizations. There could be intelligent life that simply never evolved the appendages useful for making tools, so they never developed technology. Developing a way to communicate with dolphins will help us lay the foundation for communication with other species, even if the details are different.

[@midinerd]

Your body alone is a sample space of trillions of things we can't communicate with. Some of these comments seem like people practicing talking... ironic AF

[@asnek2527]

I was first like lol what our moon but oh yea there are different moons like that one with water and likely even life nice

[@Ludifant]

This is a white raven problem, your statement can be proved to be unverifiable which makes it meaningless.. However logic and sheer volume of liveable planets dictate there is most likely life on other planets, it´s highly unlikely we will ever meet. Being most likely seperated by time and space in such vast amounts that they will be impossible to bridge with any foreseeable benefits if at all.

[@Oosystem]

What if they use the echoes from objects, and send them as images encoded in the sound? you could recreate the transmited images with a sonar.

[@Ludifant]

WOW, that´s amazing. I had the same idea!

[@untetheredsoul4335]

Wow! Good idea!!

[@Oswald_Thatendswald]

This is honestly incredible. It just makes me think of all the effort we put into space exploration in an attempt to find "other intelligent life" out there when we dont even realize that we ALREADY HAVE IT RIGHT HERE ON EARTH !!

[@suraivase7285]

It's good practice for if/when we do find other life in the universe.

[@Valpskott]

Is it possible to use Machine Learning to study their language?

[@dikshantraj6005]

should be

[@TayoEXE]

I'm studying that right now. I major in Computer Science with a minor in Japanese and Linguistics. I want to improve machine learning, translation, and language acquisition tools.

[@jonatan01i]

Recognizing and separating actual patterns should be possible. And that would be a really great thing to do. We just have to set microphones on them and get a lot of data of their communication. After we have all those patterns, we just have to find the meanings of them. Perhaps we could even train them to show us what a specific pattern means or if it is not working then we could watch them when they are communicating and see what they do after specific patterns. Ah man I am so excited I want to have dolphins and so I can study them and also I would have so great friends in them. :D

[@GrabaPL]

Check out her lecture at "Talks with Google". She is talking there about how they used spectrogram to study it but they experienced some problems down the road. If you study AI I'm pretty sure they would be more than happy to get some help. Cheers!

[@TheGodlessGuitarist]

humans are still better at learning than machines, so direct scientific study still makes sense.

[@davidnerger3364]

The "language" is so intricate, how could we even comprehend these clicks and whatever else is there? What they hear sounds completely different from what we hear, they communicate and we hear weird noises. They are obviously extremely advanced or will be, the way the speak is so intricate for us to understand. Imagine what they could do in the future, grow limbs and climb back out of the water and turn back into land mammals and evolve into advanced creatures that build civilizations? We could possibly create computers that process their noises so we can understand them as of now

[@misha3318]

David Nerger every language is intricate,,, if someone from spain can learn english, then with the right tools and thinking processes eventually we could probably decipher patterns in the way dolphins communicate

[@flychomperfly]

Think of the aliens who created the holodeck in star trek next gen. They communicated with beeps and clicks.

[@talhatariqyuluqatdis]

This is genuinely amazing and interesting. TED needs more videos on this level and above

[@bozosaurus666]

It would be a lot cooler if she just made screeching dolphin noises during the whole presentation

[@nauka7565]

Lmao

[@christopherstube9473]

Remember that when you speak dolphin, the object names are imitations of sonic returns. It is useful to do some echo sonography until you can listen to another sonographer and know what he is "seeing" because the sounds conveying it may not be about phonemes at all but about an imitation of the return.

[@bangerzt.v7532]

1950’s By 2020 we should have flying cars Today We are getting closer to learning how to speak dolphin

[@pedroz3891]

This sounds much cooler to me than flying cars!

[@TheAnti-Hero]

thats progress in a more reasonable way than flying through the air.

[@misha3318]

ikr! way cooler thsn flying cars!

[@sicilianotoronto]

BANGERZ T.V we also still use petroleum lol

[@eliesh3833]

The mid 20th century had a little too high expectations for the next century. Then again, 2000ners thought that we'd have flying cars and holograms by the 2020's as well. But likewise, I doubt it.

[@mirandusings]

Work like this is going to give humanity the tools it need to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence, whenever that is.

[@thrwawyacct]

All mammals are worth study. One of the main reasons dolphins are so interesting to people is that they are hairless, like people, and yet the environmental barriers of studying dolphin communication are high. Great work, Denise! I noticed you were using a very high tech audio spectrum analyzer. As a linguist, the audio spectrum analyzer I used in college 15 years ago for "Phonetics" didn't even have color! Maybe human languages aren't as critical for study as animal ones, but I sure would have loved for my teacher to get the best freeware!

[@Alisa07l]

This is so amazing thank u for the upload

[@dougbennett3013]

I can't think of a more noble porpoise

[@jurischmidt6700]

Such a great project! This is an important study for our civilization! Thank you and Denise Herzing for doing this work.

[@COMALiteJ]

I forget where I read it, but years ago I read a fascinating speculation: what if dolphins can not only use echolocation, but modulate their pulses to _fake_ the echo patterns of any underwater 3D environment they’ve encountered, or even can imagine in their minds? If they can do this, then they don’t _need_ a “language” as such, at least not for conveying concrete concepts. They wouldn’t need _words_ to describe something when they could simply emit a few specially modified pulses that then cause the mind of any cetacean listener within range to perceive the echo-shape the “speaker” is emitting. Think of all the words J.K. Rowling used when she first described the dining hall of Hogwarts to us, when Harry Potter first entered it in the first book. A lot of words, right? We have the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and in the movie it took us only a split-second to see what all those words could only partially convey. Everyone who saw the movie saw the same visualization, but before the movie, those who read the book each had a different visualization in their mind’s eye. Now imagine a dolphin equivalent of Rowling as a storyteller telling of a dolphin equivalent of Harry Potter entering a great undersea school of wizardry. The storyteller could simply emit a few quick pulses shaped to provide the echo pattern that they would have if unshaped pulses had been emitted in an actual such undersea chamber, and convey to the minds’ “eyes” (or echolocation sense) of the listeners exactly what that chamber would be shaped like, from the inside. In less than a second, every listener would “visualize” the chamber the same way, based on the 3D shapes formed in their minds by the shaped pulses. This would be _better_ than language! It’d be tantamount to _telepathy,_ with telepathic 3D imagery projection instead of just word-thoughts, like being able to put a vision or dream into another person’s mind, but unlike telepathy, this would be based on real-world physics that could actually exist without invoking any mystical metaphysics mumbo-jumbo! Maybe Herzing’s team could try to develop a computer system with underwater sensors similar to dolphin ears, and processing similar to a dolphin brain’s echolocation, that can visualize the echolocation sonar imagery, then see if dolphins really can emit shaped echo pulses that generate _different_ imagery than what’s actually present in the ocean at that location. Next step would then be to try to come up with a system that could do such shaping of echo pulses, so that _we_ could project imagery to _them._

[@markdowse3572]

Great work by the whole Team! 24 years of hard work are starting to pay off. Congrats. :)

[@atxhooligan]

I have been asking this question for years this is amazing!

[@rachelw821]

OH, the game with the seaweed... how lovely!!!

[@Chompchompyerded]

I have, over the decades of my life learned the languages of central flyway Canada geese and central flyway mallards. Both are very complex and descriptive languages, and some of the birds I've known are smarter than some humans I've known. They also show the full range of emotions that humans show and seem to be two or three that we don't (I'm still trying to figure those out in case Its a word and not an emotion, though they insist its an emotion). Because they are such emotional souls, It can be really a difficult thing to do to go into a marsh or around a lake during hunting season if you know the language because you will see so many grieving birds and it will break your heart.

[@TMoore123]

MammaDuck how did you learn them? And are you saying you Converse with them or hear them speak with one another? Or both

[@Chompchompyerded]

@@TMoore123 It has taken a very long time, over half a century, to get as far as I am now. Unfortunately. I won't be able to do any further work on it.I have late stage primary progressive multiple sclerosis, and at this point am bed bound. To learn the languages I would have my parents drive me out to the rainwater basin in south central Nebraska and drop me off at one of the lagoons for a few days at a time. When I was old enough to drive, I'd go out for weeks at a time. After a few years I realized that if I was ever going to learn learn anything, I was going to need to put human languages, behaviors, and perceptions aside, and learn as a hatchling would. To answer your second question, its both. Obviously I'm not going to be able to hear everything that's going on when they're flying at altitude, but there is plenty of body language to be seen with a good pair of binoculars. The barking you hear when Canada Geese fly overhead is mostly location information. Geese and ducks can't see forward very well. Since their eyes are located at the sides of their heads. Therefore, what little forward vision they have is peripheral. So that they don't run into the goose in front of them they bark out their own names. I chose Canada Goose and Mallard duck because I am able to mimic all the sounds they make, with the exception of some of the raspy sounds the male mallards make. Most other duck species use sounds which are difficult or impossible for a human to replicate. May I ask why you are interested in this topic? You are the first person to ask about it, and therefore I have no idea how deep to go into it.

[@TMoore123]

@@Chompchompyerded Well your comment kinda blew my mind in a way so I was just very interested and honestly say however much you wish. I'm a very curious person

[@Chompchompyerded]

@@TMoore123 Keep that curiosity front and center and you will never have a dull day. One other thing which I can tell you is that both languages are pitch based, and not only that, they use micro pitches and micro intervals. How's that for mind blowing? That means one must have perfect pitch to be able to both understand and have any hope of communicating with them. It also means lots of practice if you want to speak their language. I often wonder how many languages of other species we're missing out on because we don't spend enough time on it, can't get into their world completely enough to be able to pick up the hints which will lead to breakthroughs, or simply don't have the sensory abilities to begin to understand anything they are saying. I also wonder why we are trying to listen for signals from sentient beings from an exoplanet when most people can't understand a word of the sentient species on our own planet. Its somewhat like trying to run before you can walk.

[@Ludifant]

Many ´languages' of many animals have been studied. The language ususally hardly deserves that term and can be expressed in less than a 100 ´words´ with no discernible syntax and hardly any impromptu addition like names. (although that is different with quite many birds) It has also been shown that pigeons ARE indeed smarter than humans when it comes to specific problems. (Monty Hall Problem). Birds have way faster reaction speeds than humans and better resolution of eyesight in some cases. However on overall intelligence and adaptability we score way, way higher, which makes this one time the pigeon scores higher seem a bit insignificant.. With all due respect to the geese and other birds, I´m sure they have a lot to talk about when migrating, coordinating their efforts.. They might have complex emotions, they might even be self aware a bit, but I think we need to see this as just two of several axes we can set of intelligence, adabtability, selfawareness and consciousness on. The intelligence of dolphins even from just this evidence seems way more versatile and their language way more complex, this would in my opinion indicate a vastly more intricate emotional life and social life. But it would be interesting to devise a method of fair comparisson of sentience across species as we have already found several times that the human brain is not always on the top of the scales if you measure honestly.

[@linettelow]

Amazing study :) Thank you for sharing ♡ I wish you continued success.

[@WMax-rm3ue]

Amazing documentary work, love it

[@marciapellegrino4798]

This is GREAT! Love it!

[@zarkange762]

Dolphins are using 3d sonar pictures to communicate between each other. Humans could build a 3d sonar pictures generator .

[@inox1ck]

How do you know? It could be possible. The idea came to me after playing with a spectrogram. It makes sense. I was going to say that dolphins could use some sort of spectrograms to send pictures from real life or from their own imagination, between each other then I saw your comment. Simce they have a huge brain they use for ecolocation it ia highly probable to use such a way of communication which would require a very high "video" processing power.

[@asnek2527]

They have a machine to somehow talk to them... it was told in the video it's pretty cool Like in america

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

@@asnek2527 okay

[@lebasson]

That last sentence gave me chills for a bit. Indeed a great question, hope they get the results they're looking for in the years to come!

[@iluvenisp]

This was SO interesting. I'm glad this is being done.

[@PANTA-Music]

The title: "Could we speak the language of dolphins?" would be answered with: "No, we cannot". This video does show that we can train dolphins to understand our 'language', although it is nothing but a designed sound, tailored for them. Could we truelly understand 'their' language? I mean, not by training them, but by train ourselves to understand what they are saying to eachother, or even to us? And find a way to talk back in their language, using our technology? Could it be possible, that one day we type our message in a smartphone and it will be translated into 'dolphin'? For me, that is true/full communication not just partial communication, or even animal training. We were able to learn forgotten, ancient languages with visual help ( wall drawings, etc ) and the fact that these cultures were human too. It's easier to empathize a language when they were humans, like us. While it is harder to emphatize with dolphins, we have one bonus compared with ancient languages: We don't need wall drawings to look for evidence: Dolphins are alive. We can and are studying them, right now. All I want to know, is if it is possible or not to communicate with them without 'training them'. But just by communicating with them, using THEIR own form of communication. Is it possible to translate theirs, so why can translate ours to them? Ofcourse, taking their intelligence level vs. ours in consideration. (Simple communication)

[@runninginsept]

You realise that's exactly what these scientists are trying to do right? They're not trying to train the dolphins with human language. They're using human tools and platforms (computers, keyboards, symbols) to decode dolphin languages, and encode our own messages into dolphin languages and transmitting back to them. It's about bridging a gap - not about imposing anyone's language onto anyone else.

[@isodoubIet]

@Andrew H She mentioned that they can input known dolphin vocalizations into their system and have it spit it out, and gave the example of the signature sounds.

[@P1NKBLUSH]

Fascinating!!

[@joshdewitt8796]

I have tremendous respect and admiration for what Dr. Herzing does. Definitely one of my heroes.

[@ScottALaFollette]

Thank you Denise Herzing for sharing your important work. I wish great success for you and your team. 🐬✨

[@TiborRoussou]

She "wasted 28 years of her life" to allow the rest of us - you included - to be more informed! Show a little respect!!

[@abdulrhman6828]

She didn’t waste it she probably loved it maybe this is why she did it

[@TiborRoussou]

@@abdulrhman6828 Old thread, you must be new

[@abdulrhman6828]

Tibor Roussou well , time is relative

[@TiborRoussou]

@@abdulrhman6828 A man sits with a beautiful woman for an hour that seems only but a minuite, but let him sit on a hot burner for a minute and it's longer than any hour; that's relativity. ~ Albert Einstein

[@abdulrhman6828]

Tibor Roussou how old are you buddy

[@sarahl7963]

How cool! She's so blessed to be able to work on such a cool project lol wish I could work in the Bahamas with such cool intelligent animals.

[@nikolusguidry]

Beautiful ideas. Thanks again TED.

[@powapwna]

Her exit question gave me goosebumps

[@anupandey8119]

They are so fascinating!

[@jeremyphelps5140]

Amazing stuff! I'd be interested to know how much of their language we're actually capable of understanding. Perhaps there are ideas and concepts that simply cannot translate because of a lack of cultural and psychological context. Maybe we could write out the sentence, but never understand due to the limitations of human perspective. Do you think we could ever communicate with a fungus? If so, could we actually understand each other or are we simply too different? It would be interesting to see which aspects of our own consciousness are uniquely human. Maybe nothing is and consciousness is universal! What a discovery... Or maybe we are vastly different and only capable of exploring the void of consciousness from our very small window of awareness.

[@arthurwilton958]

Fantastic TED talk!

[@justinchristian3374]

Wow, such an amazing speaker…incredible work!

[@jaclyncarcasole2809]

Dolphins are amazing

[@burpostockings]

*SQUACK SQUEAK SQUAK* [So long, and thanks for all the fish]

[@aimieganih818]

I love to watch her presentation and explanation.. it is easy to understand..

[@primmoore6232]

As a fan of Star Trek and a neighbor of Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where *Winter the Tailless Dolphin* lived, I was delighted to learn that Star Trek has added *"Cetacean Operations"* to its starships! I'm part of a group developing the future fiction of having dolphins, belugas, and orcas as crewmembers. We also want to share with the public what we can do to keep the waters and beaches clean and safe for marine wildlife and everyone. 🐬💙 People like *Denise Herzing* are making our future a real possibility!

[@Foxyfecker]

Really interesting talk, makes you wonder about if we have this much difficulty communicating with a species on our own planet then imagine trying to communicate with a alien civilization .

[@umfuli]

When you understand that dolphins can telepathise and influence us, then you will make real progress. I have witnessed this at sea when I cruised with my wife and three small children. The dolphins would follow us and check on us each hour. During the day, with us watching, they would play around the boat for up to fifteen minutes, as the kids aplauded their antics, but the moment we were distracted by something else, they disappeared. They know what we are thinking, and they can influence us to make us feel happy. There is a huge amount of research to be done in this field.

[@peacefulleagle]

yes they have high vibrations

[@arckocsog253]

Chris Higginson they disappeared, because you were distracted and could not play with them anymore. No magic here

[@Xx_BoogieBomber_xX]

+Chris Higginson Understanding emotions and telepathy are two different things.

[@noahpage7459]

Yep, that's called bullshit

[@signalfire6]

Read John Lilly.

[@primus7776]

As TED talks go, this is sublime.

[@harvestcanada]

Incredible clip!!!

[@dragonfury1565]

Wow the dolphins were smart enough to know she was a female and even hit on her XD

[@taxol2]

Ask those dolphins if mermaid's real or if megalodon still exists!

[@evirapo5070]

taxol2 of course they’re

[@niuniaonly]

taxol2 Mermaids its a true demonic-animals-humans hybrids ! 😨😱😷 Sorry, but my english its not very good.

[@adambrickley1119]

Ha.....KZbinrs hate this Dolphin.

[@beccag2758]

Ask them what they think of the Little Mermaid

[@carcass6924]

Haha!

[@nickychimes4719]

What an amazing human being, thank you thank you thank you

[@Madfattdeeb]

This is blowing my mind!😮😍 I wish I had gone into this field of work.

[@frankmaitland2569]

Really really good herb and you can almost understand Dolphins

[@4TLOL]

😂😂😂😂🐬

[@JiaRuAu]

Just go get a pufferfish and we'll all be able to communicate.

[@originalman01]

😏😏😏

[@hollylolly2413]

Don’t they like get high from pufferfish? Lmao

[@skinnyfatz8483]

This vid was uploaded 5 years ago so im hoping the progress has come along nicely, sharks, whales and dolphins have always been my favorite animals and people talking to dolphins would be amazing

[@AngeloPolveroso]

Great work, Denise, humanity and dolphins are grateful to you and your team!

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

Well, some of humanity at this point

[@edgewaterz]

We will never decipher dolphin language by teaching them games. We will only decrypt their language by applying linguistics to the full range of sounds they can make. Especially the underwater clicks and tones human's can't even hear...

[@Equalrights4evrybdy]

edgewaterz even then their tribes or groups most likely would have huge variations in language and go by environmental signals to communicate to other similar dolphin species

[@gregorymckenzie7511]

Pods. But yes. I agree, Matthew.

[@pleasantox7655]

But you have to think about the fact that they may not operate under the same linguistic rules as humans, and their entire concept of verbal ideas may be confusing to us.

[@jamess6734]

I am watching that movie Arrival and only thinking of "why haven't we spent that much effort on earth species" lol

[@shutterbird13]

If all you got out of this was that they were teaching the dolphins games, you weren't really paying attention.

[@cybermonk642]

Someone else had a TED about expanding human senses, like a pilot could wear a vest and feel a quad drone like an extension of himself. What if you understood dolphin signals? Could we effectively communicate? Would we understand their speech like a foreign language? I want to bring these ideas together

[@obsideonyx7604]

Nathaniel Morrison If someone collected dolphin words in a dolphin dictionary, then anyone could learn to speak dolphin.

[@Z3n1tHL0rD]

Fantastic video thank you

[@ginayoung130]

I love that more and more of the human population is accepting that animals can sentient, and also have their own personal feelings, experiences, and lives. It's been proven that several animals are capable of empathy, which is a complex emotional state, and my personal opinion is that most mammals are emotional creatures. I look at my cats and generally know how they're feeling.... I would love the chance to communicate with them. I'm here for it.

[@PC4USE1]

It is possible that A.I. could decipher Dolphinese but I do not think the humanity can wrap it's simian brain around it. Not enough intersection of environment but one never knows.

[@mindeyi]

*Idea: Auditory 3D Touchscreen for Talking with Dolphins* _Arrange auditory pixels in space to generate auditory screen of generative rather than reflective sound patterning._ To do that, we could arrange tiny underwater ultrasound speakers ("Auxels") into a large fine-resolution sheet or film, that produces sounds emanating from them following a simulated sound emitter on a Dolphin's head, to simulate it's own click (but much lower amplitude than would be required to produce reflection), to trick the brain into expecting for a reflection. Provide the simulated reflection. More details: www.halfbakery.com/idea/Auditory_20Screen

[@Ludifant]

Wouldn´t it be more efficient to use interference to direct the sound? You could do that with 100 speakers using fourier transforms, you could get any sound anywhere, like dolby on steroids.

[@felipesantos2]

This lecture is great! How come does it have only 100.000 views?

[@Smorss2011]

Because people are more interested in football and real housewives. We are doomed.

[@Zamolxes77]

Rest of the world are SeaWorld enthusiasts

[@sethgold2048]

GREAT PRESENTATION DENISE! I WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT DOLPHINS AND THEIR INTELLIGENCE. IF ONE DAY WE MANAGE TO COMUNICATE WITH DOLPHINS, ORCAS. AND BELUGAS. WILL BE A DREAM COME. TRUE!!!!!! I WANT TO LEARN MORE PLEASE! X 🇧🇷

[@clankb2o5]

Society: linguistics is useless. Also society: Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could communicate with dolphins?!

[@SerenityScratch]

You are society.

[@clankb2o5]

@@SerenityScratch I am part of society, yeah, and I'm convinced that linguistics is extremely useful. But society at large thinks that linguistics is useless, hence my comment. So I'm not sure what point you were making in yours.

[@bern9642]

@@clankb2o5 no society doesn't think that. Linguistics is very important and most people agree

[@clankb2o5]

@@bern9642 When I tell people that I study linguistics, they have no idea what I do. And when I tell them what I do, they critically ask me what it's good for. Are you a linguist? Because I have never heard a linguist say that linguistics is a well-respected science by non-linguists.

[@bern9642]

@@clankb2o5 You need to explain it to them and if you do it well most people will agree it's important. In the global environment we live in now, everyone knows the importance of language and communication across cultures. They just don't know that the word for that study of languages is linguistics. It's your job to let them know what linguistics entails, then they will realize they knew all along it's important. It's the same with any social science.

[@roner61]

They already understand humans, but we are too stupid to understand them.

[@JazzFlop212]

roner61 smh. No. Idiot

[@thatnikkakris2339]

roner61 actually we both mutually understand each other similarly

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

How painfully cynical, its not going to be a short process by any means. Wait a good few unspecified amounts of time as I couldn't possibly guess with my limited human mind.

[@AConcernedCitizen420]

We just learned how to Synchronize with each other! Couples need use this to keep in tune with one another!

[@liquidminds]

It's said in the video, that the best researched sounds are the "names" of the dolphins. Have there been experiments with introducing human divers into dolphin communities by giving them "names" and do the Dolphins recognize individual humans when they re-encounter them?

[@bgiuliano68]

Do the bottlenose and spotted dolphins ever interbreed?

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

He never did find out. However he finally opened his bakery, having never worried about the same thing again.

[@codycomstock3260]

That would be hot

[@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y]

Yes, they do.

[@HanadiH]

We go to such effort to discover life in completely uncharted regions of the universe when we haven't even understood the wonderful creatures of our own planet we call home!

[@DesudesChan]

The first one is arguably more important, as actually discovering life like this could be a threat to our existence. Both fields are important. We are currently researching both. I really don't see your argument.

[@midinerd]

It's not an argument, its a doughy platitude that can be discarded.

[@talhatariqyuluqatdis]

I think its much easier if you just put something on the dolphins that monitors their every small movement, position, and location as well as records their whistles and sounds, then you can correlate whistles to changes in behaviour: body posture, movement, reply whistles, etc...

[@charliebrown7940]

I submitted a story 28 years ago about a human dolphin interface project in Orlando. Wow. Here it is.

[@awongski]

after 50years of bridging the gap: hey man, me and my dolphin wife are considering a divorce..

[@Xx_BoogieBomber_xX]

+awongski I was thinking about writing a short story with a similar premise. Actually it's more like the opposite premise, where interspecies marriage is illegal. The only problem with it is how hard it would be to take my own writings seriously.

[@DontIntoMyHistory]

God I can only hope

[@465marko]

Slenderfluid taking that thought way too seriously......

[@blepbloopbleeplop9966]

I remember a book I once read where a guy falls in love with a dolphin lmao

[@puremath3491]

nikola tesla fell in love with a pigeon

[@darthforexvader7201]

Next thing will be setting up facebook accounts for the dolphins. perhaps they can learn hacking and ' Phishing ' techniques. I guess my jokes are too shelfish

[@T1mbrW0lf]

No . . . but they gave me a haddock

[@Ludifant]

I get you are being funny, but this joke is a very original and interesting idea: We may not be able to communicate with dolphins ourself right now, but giving them a communication channel to communicate with each other and watching how they interact through it would teach us a lot about how and if they communicate with each other and maybe even facilitates the forming of an dolphin-to-dolphin interim language that would be easier for us to understand. I think we can see it as a given that a dolphin is more interested in another dolphin than in any human. Especially in captivity, which would give us more controlled circumstances and might actually be more humane toward the dolphin in question. It would enable us to determine what role body language plays in dolphin communication by providing video.. We could play with only giving them access to frequencies we are able to hear and let them develop a language for that. Kind of like sign language for dolphins, which we could in turn learn. Like we did with gorilla´s but then the other way around. You may have stumbled onto a very fundable research project here !

[@billweir1745]

That's just an arbitrary name they dedicated to a specific sound frequency in order to keep track of which dolphin is which.

[@NataliaBryzhatenko]

I admire this women so much ! She is so passionate and her work might finally bring to our attention that dolphins are not cute pets but another intelligent species, and we can benefit way more from communicating and sharing knowledge with them instead of putting them into tanks .

[@Cryogenius333]

Genital buzz. "I've been buzzed in the water. B) Dont tell anyone, it's a secret" 278,000 views later...

[@DebraBakerls]

Bro

[@Stringman1950]

Love this. Very interesting. Communicating with aliens.

[@bystandersarah]

I love their spots

[@Nuts4Neuroscience]

I will definitely agree that their are persons who are so absorbed in their small areas of expertise that they lose sight of the "big picture". However, I also believe that they are often capable of great achievements because of their incredible focus and intensity.

[@jasoncrabb7636]

Maybe a year late and superfilous really,but, MAN I wish I was RICH I would pour SO much money into this!!

[@ALegitimateYoutuber]

Important phrase to know when meeting dolphins is "Don't Rape Me!!!!"

[@divisix024]

XDDDDD

[@divisix024]

[Insert some dumbass playing "Rape Me" by Nirvana]

[@aarondadvlogs]

I’d watch an entire series of this holy sh this should be a tv show

[@rowdeo8968]

I admire Ms. Herzing.

[@brandenwilliams9784]

What if we could ask dolphins question about anything and they could answer just think about all the knowledge they have or even valuable information that they could give us or things they could teach us.im sorry but this blows my mind this Is fucking amazing 😀😀

[@Devs_amen]

Dolphin: buzzz buzzz Feminist: I was harassed and verbally assaulted

[@flychomperfly]

I was actually hoping this would be about capturing and learning the syntax of the dolphin languages--not how we are training them to learn what we teach them. :( we already know they are smart. in fact, i have seen videos by people who train dolphins to create 'sentences' with a form of sign language. the trainers can communicate what object they want the dolphin to pick up...and then where they want the dolphin to take/place that object. the dolphins are amazing how they can understand fairly complex instructions that include multiple objects and multiple destinations! this video here does not go much beyond that. i do like how they demonstrated the clever social interactions/made-up games of the dolphins. the video does not mention how significant it is when animals are able to create their own game where they establish 'rules' of play. but, there was very little language analysis in what was shown. the most sophisticated part is the work they said they are now initiating.... that they are using the animals' own dolphin-given names to address them, and having the dolphins then use a dolphin-style name to address the humans! how cool is that?

[@jebshere]

Studies like this are what drives advancements in technology and understanding of the world around us.