These scientists are trying to establish a connection between the deep sea and outer space.
A group of scientists said they had a first-of-its-kind conversation with a humpback whale that could lead to humans communicating with aliens one day.
The extraordinary exchange occurred between researchers and a female humpback in August 2021 for 20 minutes in southeastern Alaska. According to a new study, scientists played a recorded “contact” call that resonated underwater and attracted the whale to their boat.
The marine mammal, named Twain, surrounded the team’s boat and constantly responded in a conversational style to the “hello signal,” according to a press release from the SETI Institute.
Dr. Brenda McCowan of UC Davis praised the progress.
“We believe this is the first communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback ‘language,'” said McCowan, lead author of the study recently published in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ.
Scientists said they had a conversation, the first of its kind, with a humpback whale that could one day lead humans to communicate with aliens. Orlando Florín Rosu – stock.adobe.com
After Twain arrived on the ship, the scientists broadcast 36 calls from the loudspeaker. The whale responded to each one and matched the interval variations between signals, according to the study.
“I certainly felt like we were heard,” Fred Sharpe, co-author and senior researcher at the Alaska Whale Foundation, told Business Insider. “And we hope she feels the same way too.”
Sharpe said in a statement that humpback whales are “extremely intelligent” and can “communicate widely with both songs and social calls.”
The whale circled the team’s boat and constantly responded in a conversational style to the “hello signal,” according to a press release from the SETI Institute.
The underwater calls that were deployed came from a handful of whales that were recorded a day before the encounter with Twain, who was also recorded, the outlet reported.
“We could have been playing him his own ‘hello,'” Sharpe joked.
Laurance Doyle, a SETI Institute researcher and co-author of the paper, said the implications of the study were out of this world.
“We certainly felt like we were heard,” said Fred Sharpe, co-author and senior researcher at the Alaska Whale Foundation. Jodi Frediani
Doyle explained to Business Insider that the whale’s actions could be an indicator of how alien races could establish contact with people. It is similar to how Antarctica is studied as a substitute for Mars.
It is similar to how Antarctica is studied as a substitute for Mars.
“Due to current limitations of technology, an important assumption in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that extraterrestrials will be interested in making contact and therefore targeting human recipients,” Doyle said, according to the statement. SETI Press. “This important assumption is certainly supported by the behavior of humpback whales.”
Dr. Brenda McCowan (left) said she believes “this is the first communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback ‘language’.” Jodi Frediani
Doyle and his SETI coworkers are teaming up with staff at UC Davis and the Alaska Whale Foundation to create filters that could help them find otherworldly habitats. Doyle told Business Insider that researchers don’t want to miss any potential signals that aliens are using in an attempt to contact people.
“There are various intelligences on this planet and by studying them, we can better understand what an extraterrestrial intelligence might be like because they won’t be exactly like ours,” McCowan told the outlet.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn