The researchers' ultimate goal is not to speak with whales but with even stranger forms of life.
In a groundbreaking development, scientists have revealed they talked to a whale in its language, suggesting that the conversation could pave the way for interactions with aliens in the future. , the New York Post reported. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute and the Alaska Whale Foundation said that they had a 20-minute ''conversation'' with a humpback whale named Twain.
The study has been published in the journal Peer J Life and Environment titled ''Interactive Bioacoustic Playback as a Tool for Detecting and Exploring Nonhuman Intelligence: 'Conversing' with an Alaskan Humpback Whale.''
The researchers placed an underwater speaker in the sea and played a recorded humpback ''contact call'' to which a humpback whale named Twain approached and circled their boats. During the 20-minute exchange, Twain responded to each playback call and matched the interval variations between each signal.
''We believe this is the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback language'', said lead author Dr. Brenda McCowan of U.C. Davis, as per a press release from SETI. ''Humpback whales are extremely intelligent, have complex social systems, make tools - nets out of bubbles to catch fish -, and communicate extensively with both songs and social calls,'' said coauthor Dr. Fred Sharpe of the Alaska Whale Foundation.
The researchers' ultimate goal is not to speak with whales but with even stranger forms of life.
Laurance Doyle, an investigator at the SETI Institute and coauthor of the paper, said that the whale's actions might be an indicator of how alien races could make contact with the people.
''Because of current limitations on technology, an important assumption of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that extraterrestrials will be interested in making contact and so target human receivers. This important assumption is certainly supported by the behavior of humpback whales,'' Mr Doyle said according to the SETI press release.
''If extraterrestrials are out there, sending us signals, trying to communicate, we might miss them if we don't know what to look for'', Mr Doyle told Business Insider.
The SETI team hopes the research on whale communication can help them design filters that could separate an intelligent signal from other assorted data and signals that exist in space. Researchers also hope to test methods of communication on other intelligent creatures like dolphins, meerkats elephants, and carnivores that work together to hunt.