https://reasonstobecheerful.world/sperm-whale-clicks-ai-conservation/
"Sperm whales don’t sing melodious, moaning whale songs like their humpback
cousins. The biggest predator on the planet communicates in clicks, called
codas. Some compare the sounds to popping popcorn or frying bacon in a pan. For
CUNY biologist David Gruber, it resembles “morse code or techno music.”
Gruber, the founding president of Project CETI, the Cetacean Translation
Initiative, often listens for hours in his New York office to the sperm whale
chats his team has recorded in the Eastern Caribbean.
CETI focuses on sperm whales for several reasons. One reason is that it can
build on the audio recordings that whale biologist Shane Gero has already been
collecting for 15 years with the Dominica Sperm Whale Project. Gero was able to
show that sperm whale families have different dialects, much like British and
American English. “Another reason is that the sperm whale has been vilified as
a killer, Moby Dick as a leviathan,” Gruber says. “Meanwhile it could be one of
the most intelligent, sophisticated communicators on the planet.”
While the humpback whales sing their soprano songs primarily for mating, sperm
whales are communicating to socialize and exchange information. CETI has
already discovered that the communication patterns are complex. “Their codas
are clicks, they are like ones and zeros, which is very good for
cryptographers,” Gruber explains. “The combination of advanced machine learning
and bioacoustics is slated to be the next microscope or telescope in terms of
our ability to really listen more deeply and understand life at a new level.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
