I recently came across some of these news articles discussing scientists' assertion that the clicks made by Sperm Whales actually constitutes a type of language... Is it a symbolic language like ours? Does it constitute another species partaking in Collective Learning? Maybe interesting to just surface for students when you get to Unit 6 and to challenge or complicate even the narrative of the course. Is this something you think you would use or surface with kids? Mike Burns Mike Skomba Adriane Musacchio Todd Nussen Donnetta Elsasser
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Reading post right after coming home from seeing Planet of the Apes hits a little different (haha). This is such a cool article; thanks for including the link Adam Esrig !
Love the line: "Just because we don't find evidence of something, it doesn't mean that system isn't complex in ways we don't understand." I feel like we can really unpack this with students when studying collective learning. Saving this article for next year! Could be a nice bit to include in between the life unit and early humans unit.
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Adam Esrig and Adriane Musacchio my husband told me about a podcast called 'Whales Have an Alphabet' that expands upon your article. The main takeaway, beyond the explanation in the article, is that scientists are using AI to study whale communication in hopes of discovering larger structures that correspond to language. The best part is that by using AI, they can create artificial whale communication and potentially start communicating with them. The podcast suggested that sperm whales might have a language. It also asserted that discovering this type of communication is akin to finding intelligent life on another planet. I will definitely include this topic in next year's unit on collective learning.
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Woah how cool is that! Tagging Bryan Dibble on this. When I think of AI and our future- I hope to hear of more awesome things just like this! Enhancing our collective learning!
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This is all so fascinating. Apparently this story is a little older than I thought. I recently watched the Sperm Whale episode of The Secrets of the Whales on Disney+ and they also cover the whales' complex clicking communication.
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Adam Esrig , your post brings up so many good points to delve in to!
Primate studies have been extensive, and help us gain insights into human evolution and learning. But marine mammals are often overlooked because we really don't appreciate or understand their complex cultural structures. They are so ancient compared to humans that in my opinion we don't think of them as being as intellectually advanced as something that can walk on land.
Wouldn't that be something if we could learn to communicate between the species?
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Adam Esrig Adriane Musacchio This is a short article about this topic. These types of articles are super short, and really great for use in class to get conversations going. I try to keep up on the advancements of AI, never miss a chance to see how AI is going to change the future. The fact pointed out in this article as well as many others is, "Are we sure we want to know what animals are saying?"
