Interspecies Communications
by Russell Hockins
I've been involved in three different interspecies communications projects in my life, and have many thousands of hours of hands on experience with them. I can say with confidence that cetaceans are intelligent and do have a language.
The problem with Human/cetacean communication as it appears after having worked on Dr. John C. Lilly’s JANUS (Joint Analog Numerical Understanding System) and other projects, is more about frequency than it is about language. Neither species is designed to hear or speak to the other. There is little overlap between Human and dolphin vocal and hearing ranges. Translating between the two ranges in real time, would enable each species to “hear” and “speak” to the other; something current research methods do not provide for, which has caused communication research to become stagnated. Resolution of this issue in communication research with cetaceans can help it evolve beyond the stagnation it is currently suffering for the past several decades. Working on these projects also showed me that communication with them is possible but not by using any method currently being employed.
Radio frequencies over 30 kHz are normally considered and defined as “radio” frequencies. However depending on the method of transmission, the frequencies could be either radio or ultrasonic sounds. The process proposed is similar to an AM or FM type radio or the military device referred to as the "Underwater Telephone.” Audio frequencies (sometimes referred to as the “intelligence" in a radio transmission) are overlaid on a much higher carrier frequency, transmitted over a given distance, then a receiver decodes this by stripping off the carrier and leaving the audio, or intelligence, contained in the signal. This process can be used to translate human vocal range frequencies into audio frequencies within the dolphin’s hearing range. It can also do the reverse by translating dolphin vocal frequencies into the human hearing range.
This concept was confirmed to me while working on JANUS testing equipment that was donated to see if functioned properly. In testing one machine called a Wet Phone, a device that is often used in surface to diver or diver to diver communication that utilizes a carrier frequency of 35 KHz,the hydrophone portion was placed in the water and human voice was broadcast on it to determine if JANUS could detect it. Detection was confirmed by JANUS on an oscilloscope. 35 KHz is a frequency above human auditory range, however, this is well within the range of hearing for most cetaceans, and would sound similar to a whistle to them. The test was done while the two dolphins in the project, Joe and Rosie, were in the other tank. When finished testing the equipment and going to the tank to remove the hydrophone portion of the Wet Phone, Joe and Rosie were swimming around the hydrophone displaying obvious interest in the sounds that it had been producing.
This concept is also supported by the work John Lilly's co-researcher John Kurt did on the system "Digital Voice” as he called it, which translated his voice into a series of high pitched clicks in real time. Many times, observing Kurt's work using this system, the dolphins were always more animated and eager to work with him than they were to work with JANUS. Lilly and Kurt had a falling out resulting in Kurt leaving the JANUS project. No reference information regarding this work has been published or found. To date nothing about him beyond small references to him working on JANUS and nothing regarding his research has been discovered.
A recent article I found on the web regarding an ex-miltary Beluga named NoC (pronounced No-See) mimicking human speech so that a diver in his tank who was using a communications device similar to the Wet Phone heard someone tell him to Get Out is an independent example of this phenomena.
This is a simple hydrophone recording of NoC's vocalizations and it has not been passed through (decoded) by the Wet Phone which is why it sounds distorted.
This is a recording of the Military version of the Wet Phone, commonly known as an Underwater Telephone, or UQC, or its nickname Nancy, being used on the Haro Straight recording. The underwater telephone is used to communicate with submerged submarines and has been in existence since the 1940's and uses a carrier frequency of 19 Khz. This is the device Jacques Cousteau used to talk to his submersibles and to the underwater habitats he created in the 1960's. Starting at 1:20 in the recording you can hear someone speaking (transmitting) on an underwater telephone. I first heard the UQC in use when I was in the USCG when we were on exercises with the Navy. I was below deck, below the waterline helping one of the sonar techs move some equipment. When I asked him what that noise was, he told me it was the UQC. It sounded exactly like what I hear in this recording. This is also a simple hydrophone recording of the transmission and has not been decoded by a receiving underwater telephone and why it also sounds distorted or metallic as this recording calls it. To me, the recordings of NoC and the Haro Straight are strikingly similar.
The start of this recording also demonstrates how damagingly loud modern sonar systems can be when heard underwater. My same friend the sonar tech told me that if I was in the water within 100 yards of the ship when they were transmitting on the sonar it would be instantly fatal to me regardless if my head was above or below the water. This was with the World War II Navy hand-me-down system we used in the 1970's. One can only imagine that that fatal range has increased in the last 40 years with improvements like the system being tested in the Haro Straight Recording.
To properly test this theory, the hardware would need to be adjustable in frequency, bandwidth, transmission mode, and power output level as to work with the cetaceans and match what format, frequencies, and volume are most common for their range. Based on how some dolphin sounds are similar to Single Side Band (SSB) radio transmissions when the receiver was set to a different mode (i.e., AM in stead of SSB), different transmission formats; AM, FM, SSB, and other formats should also be tested. It is entirely possible that dolphins change modes for different uses. The reasons are many why this is a possibility:
To a cetacean, these various formats would sound like a complex modulated whistle, something they use everyday, easily recognize and should be able to mimic. Something that is also much more natural for them than keyboards or visual signals.
The dolphin's sonic abilities are the receiver/transmitter due to their biological makeup. We need a system that can modify our frequency range into that of the cetaceans and vice versa. For proof of concept a simple monophonic version would do. Once proven to work, it can easily be converted to full stereo system in order to more closely duplicate the cetacean sonic environment to continue and expand the communications work.
This could easily be done with software based radio to permit a high degree of flexibility and not be limited by hardware design. The system would take the full Human audio range (20 Hz to 20 kHz) and overlay it on a frequency in the cetacean vocal/hearing range, 50 kHz, for example, creating an output of 40 to 60 kHz that the dolphins could hear as a modulated whistle and easily mimic back. You would instantly know they got it right because you would be hearing back the voice of whoever is talking into the system. An exact mimic of what was transmitted. The final system would also have multiple “channels" throughout the cetacean vocal/hearing range (50 kHz, 75 kHz, 100 kHz, etc.) that could be used allowing for multiple simultaneous conversations to occur. Full two way communication could quickly follow the implementation and testing of this system.
Some Final Thoughts
The possibility of communication with cetaceans raises some interesting questions:
I also learned from these encounters that captivity, especially in its current deplorable state of sterile living conditions and grossly undersized pools and other factors, is no place for such a sentient and intelligent being as cetaceans. The fact that more than 85% of all captive orcas, whether wild caught or captive born, have died in captivity should say enough about this to cause the end of captivity.
Humans have been mostly limited to the land (25% of the planet) for most of history, so who is to say that an intelligent species did not develop in the remaining 75% over the history of the planet? Especially when the territorial ranges don't overlap, at least not until recent history.
There needs to be a new term in the human lexicon. Someway to define intelligence without prejudice. I think I have it.
I think that IBI for Intelligent Biological Individual fits very nicely.
It's pronounced "I Be" which also fits in its own way.
by Russell Hockins
I've been involved in three different interspecies communications projects in my life, and have many thousands of hours of hands on experience with them. I can say with confidence that cetaceans are intelligent and do have a language.
The problem with Human/cetacean communication as it appears after having worked on Dr. John C. Lilly’s JANUS (Joint Analog Numerical Understanding System) and other projects, is more about frequency than it is about language. Neither species is designed to hear or speak to the other. There is little overlap between Human and dolphin vocal and hearing ranges. Translating between the two ranges in real time, would enable each species to “hear” and “speak” to the other; something current research methods do not provide for, which has caused communication research to become stagnated. Resolution of this issue in communication research with cetaceans can help it evolve beyond the stagnation it is currently suffering for the past several decades. Working on these projects also showed me that communication with them is possible but not by using any method currently being employed.
Radio frequencies over 30 kHz are normally considered and defined as “radio” frequencies. However depending on the method of transmission, the frequencies could be either radio or ultrasonic sounds. The process proposed is similar to an AM or FM type radio or the military device referred to as the "Underwater Telephone.” Audio frequencies (sometimes referred to as the “intelligence" in a radio transmission) are overlaid on a much higher carrier frequency, transmitted over a given distance, then a receiver decodes this by stripping off the carrier and leaving the audio, or intelligence, contained in the signal. This process can be used to translate human vocal range frequencies into audio frequencies within the dolphin’s hearing range. It can also do the reverse by translating dolphin vocal frequencies into the human hearing range.
This concept was confirmed to me while working on JANUS testing equipment that was donated to see if functioned properly. In testing one machine called a Wet Phone, a device that is often used in surface to diver or diver to diver communication that utilizes a carrier frequency of 35 KHz,the hydrophone portion was placed in the water and human voice was broadcast on it to determine if JANUS could detect it. Detection was confirmed by JANUS on an oscilloscope. 35 KHz is a frequency above human auditory range, however, this is well within the range of hearing for most cetaceans, and would sound similar to a whistle to them. The test was done while the two dolphins in the project, Joe and Rosie, were in the other tank. When finished testing the equipment and going to the tank to remove the hydrophone portion of the Wet Phone, Joe and Rosie were swimming around the hydrophone displaying obvious interest in the sounds that it had been producing.
This concept is also supported by the work John Lilly's co-researcher John Kurt did on the system "Digital Voice” as he called it, which translated his voice into a series of high pitched clicks in real time. Many times, observing Kurt's work using this system, the dolphins were always more animated and eager to work with him than they were to work with JANUS. Lilly and Kurt had a falling out resulting in Kurt leaving the JANUS project. No reference information regarding this work has been published or found. To date nothing about him beyond small references to him working on JANUS and nothing regarding his research has been discovered.
A recent article I found on the web regarding an ex-miltary Beluga named NoC (pronounced No-See) mimicking human speech so that a diver in his tank who was using a communications device similar to the Wet Phone heard someone tell him to Get Out is an independent example of this phenomena.
This is a simple hydrophone recording of NoC's vocalizations and it has not been passed through (decoded) by the Wet Phone which is why it sounds distorted.
This is a recording of the Military version of the Wet Phone, commonly known as an Underwater Telephone, or UQC, or its nickname Nancy, being used on the Haro Straight recording. The underwater telephone is used to communicate with submerged submarines and has been in existence since the 1940's and uses a carrier frequency of 19 Khz. This is the device Jacques Cousteau used to talk to his submersibles and to the underwater habitats he created in the 1960's. Starting at 1:20 in the recording you can hear someone speaking (transmitting) on an underwater telephone. I first heard the UQC in use when I was in the USCG when we were on exercises with the Navy. I was below deck, below the waterline helping one of the sonar techs move some equipment. When I asked him what that noise was, he told me it was the UQC. It sounded exactly like what I hear in this recording. This is also a simple hydrophone recording of the transmission and has not been decoded by a receiving underwater telephone and why it also sounds distorted or metallic as this recording calls it. To me, the recordings of NoC and the Haro Straight are strikingly similar.
The start of this recording also demonstrates how damagingly loud modern sonar systems can be when heard underwater. My same friend the sonar tech told me that if I was in the water within 100 yards of the ship when they were transmitting on the sonar it would be instantly fatal to me regardless if my head was above or below the water. This was with the World War II Navy hand-me-down system we used in the 1970's. One can only imagine that that fatal range has increased in the last 40 years with improvements like the system being tested in the Haro Straight Recording.
To properly test this theory, the hardware would need to be adjustable in frequency, bandwidth, transmission mode, and power output level as to work with the cetaceans and match what format, frequencies, and volume are most common for their range. Based on how some dolphin sounds are similar to Single Side Band (SSB) radio transmissions when the receiver was set to a different mode (i.e., AM in stead of SSB), different transmission formats; AM, FM, SSB, and other formats should also be tested. It is entirely possible that dolphins change modes for different uses. The reasons are many why this is a possibility:
- FM has a wider bandwidth than AM for greater information content transfer per unit of time. This is why FM radio has better sound quality than AM radio.
- FM has better noise rejection than AM and therefore could have a greater useful range underwater. A National Ocean And Atmospheric recording shows that Blue whales use a variable 52 Hz frequency which they hypothesize is used to communicate across entire ocean basins. This is usually inaudible to Humans as it is subsonic, and researchers were unaware of this communication until the recording had been sped up several times where they happened to notice it.
- AM could be used for short range low information volume communication.
To a cetacean, these various formats would sound like a complex modulated whistle, something they use everyday, easily recognize and should be able to mimic. Something that is also much more natural for them than keyboards or visual signals.
The dolphin's sonic abilities are the receiver/transmitter due to their biological makeup. We need a system that can modify our frequency range into that of the cetaceans and vice versa. For proof of concept a simple monophonic version would do. Once proven to work, it can easily be converted to full stereo system in order to more closely duplicate the cetacean sonic environment to continue and expand the communications work.
This could easily be done with software based radio to permit a high degree of flexibility and not be limited by hardware design. The system would take the full Human audio range (20 Hz to 20 kHz) and overlay it on a frequency in the cetacean vocal/hearing range, 50 kHz, for example, creating an output of 40 to 60 kHz that the dolphins could hear as a modulated whistle and easily mimic back. You would instantly know they got it right because you would be hearing back the voice of whoever is talking into the system. An exact mimic of what was transmitted. The final system would also have multiple “channels" throughout the cetacean vocal/hearing range (50 kHz, 75 kHz, 100 kHz, etc.) that could be used allowing for multiple simultaneous conversations to occur. Full two way communication could quickly follow the implementation and testing of this system.
Some Final Thoughts
The possibility of communication with cetaceans raises some interesting questions:
- Is the Human Race ready for such a breakthrough? That is questionable.
- Would an "Alien Intelligence" be more acceptable to the Human Race if it came from home (Earth) instead of "Out There"? I think it might.
- What would human race do if we cracked the communications barrier and Tilikum said, "You guys used to get in the water and play. I'm sorry, it was an accident." That would certainly alter the perspective of the issue at the very least. Hopefully it would also mean we stop hunting them for "Scientific Research".
- Would the Human race be able to share this planet with another intelligent species? Looking at how we can't even share it with others of our own species, it sadly seems doubtful, but I try to remain hopeful.
I also learned from these encounters that captivity, especially in its current deplorable state of sterile living conditions and grossly undersized pools and other factors, is no place for such a sentient and intelligent being as cetaceans. The fact that more than 85% of all captive orcas, whether wild caught or captive born, have died in captivity should say enough about this to cause the end of captivity.
Humans have been mostly limited to the land (25% of the planet) for most of history, so who is to say that an intelligent species did not develop in the remaining 75% over the history of the planet? Especially when the territorial ranges don't overlap, at least not until recent history.
There needs to be a new term in the human lexicon. Someway to define intelligence without prejudice. I think I have it.
I think that IBI for Intelligent Biological Individual fits very nicely.
It's pronounced "I Be" which also fits in its own way.