美国佛罗里达大西洋大学海洋生物学家正在研究一种地球人类与哺乳动物及太空外星人进行交流的通用语言。
北京时间9月6日消息，据国外媒体报道，美国佛罗里达大西洋大学海洋生物学家近年来一直在致力于研究巴哈马群岛北部的一个大西洋斑点海豚群各成员之间的关系及相互交流的行为，希望能够以此为根据研究出一种地球人类与哺乳动物及太空外星人进行交流的通用语言。目前，研究团队已建立起一套与海豚进行双向交流的原型系统，研究成果即将发表，相关技术正在接受专家审查。
据介绍，27年来，美国佛罗里达大西洋大学海洋生物学家丹尼斯-赫尔兹和研究团队一直是巴哈马群岛北部海域的常客，因为那里有一个拥有200多成员的大西洋斑点海豚群。赫尔兹等海洋生物学家到那里就是为了研究海豚之间究竟是如何相互交流的。
海洋生物学家认为，搞清楚群内各成员之间的关系是理解它们的口哨声、滴答声以及其他各种信号声的关键。赫尔兹也是野生海豚工程研究项目的创始人和负责人。赫尔兹表示，“这一工程的最大目标就是告诉人们海豚之间的故事”。
不过，海豚是一种极其古怪、聪明的动物，它们不可能让科学家们能够轻易拍摄到它们在水下生活的场景及录制它们发出的各种声音。众所周知，海豚拥有一个复杂的大脑，海豚群也拥有一个复杂的社会结构，比如它们会形成联盟，共担责任。经过训练后，它们还有可能学会语言。
赫尔兹介绍说，“许多次，它们会在水下与我们玩游戏。这一特殊的群体似乎对我们很好奇，也许是因为它们也发现我们在水下分析它们。”经过初步研究，赫尔兹突发奇想，她要建立一个最原始的语言交流系统，比如海豚可以通过该语言系统请求得到一个特定的玩具。在过去许多年中，其他许多科学家也一直在尝试与海豚进行双向交流。
赫尔兹认为，这项研究对于搜寻地外智能项目也有非常重要的意义，因为海豚也在某种意义上类似于地外智能。“关键是你如何理解智能。这就是为什么人类往往会利用海豚和灵长类动物来测试它们的认知能力以及它们使用大脑的能力。如果你曾经到过某个地方，那里可能存在一种非科技创造但很智能的物种，那么你该如何与它们进行交流呢？地球上有许多物种，我们可以以它们为模型进行学习。”
如今，搜寻地外智能的科学家们仍然难以理解一个外星信号的含意。位于美国加州的搜寻地外智能研究所的射电天文学家塞斯-索斯塔克表示，“最基本的方法就是研究声音，可以在实验室中研究地球上现有的其他各种智能。这种方法其实早在50年前就已有人提起过，如今仍然不失为一个好办法。”
赫尔兹表示，他们已形成一套原型系统，并将继续细化和深入研究与海豚的双向交流技术。该系统将利用一种水下键盘及其他工具来录制和分析海豚的声音。赫尔兹的研究成果即将发表，目前正在接受有关专家的审查。
生物探索推荐英文文章阅读：
To Talk With Aliens, Learn to Speak With Dolphins
The Kepler Space Telescope announced a new bonanza of distant planets this month, reconfirming that solar systems, some possibly hosting life, are common in the universe.
So if humanity someday arrives at an extraterrestrial cocktail party, will we be ready to mingle? At the Wild Dolphin Project in Jupiter, Florida, researchers train for contact by trying to talk with dolphins.
Behavioral biologist Denise Herzing started studying free-ranging spotted dolphins in the Bahamas more than two decades ago. Over the years, she noticed some dolphins seeking human company, seemingly out of curiosity.
“We thought, ‘This is fascinating, let’s see if we can take it further,’” Herzing said. “Many studies communicate with dolphins, especially in captivity, using fish as a reward. But it’s rare to ask dolphins to communicate with us.”
Dolphins have large, sophisticated brains, elaborately developed in the areas linked to higher-order thinking. They have a complex social structure, form alliances, share duties and display personalities. Put a mirror in their tank and they can recognize themselves, indicating a sense of self.
When trained, they have a remarkable capacity to pick up language. At the Dolphin Institute in Hawaii, Louis Herman and his team taught dolphins hundreds of words using gestures and symbols. Dolphins, they found, could understand the difference between statements and questions, concepts like “none” or “absent,” and that changing word order changes the meaning of a sentence. Essentially, they get syntax.
Some tantalizing studies even suggest dolphins share their own language (see sidebar, “Easier Language Through Math”). All are qualities we’d hope to see in an alien, and no daydream of contact is complete without some attempt at communication. Yet with dolphins, our attempts have involved teaching them to speak our language, rather than meeting in the middle.
Herzing created an open-ended framework for communication, using sounds, symbols and props to interact with the dolphins. The goal was to create a shared, primitive language that would allow dolphins and humans to ask for props, such as balls or scarves.
Divers demonstrated the system by pressing keys on a large submerged keyboard. Other humans would throw them the corresponding prop. In addition to being labeled with a symbol, each key was paired with a whistle that dolphins could mimic. A dolphin could ask for a toy either by pushing the key with her nose, or whistling.
Herzing’s study is the first of its kind. No one has tried to establish two-way communication in the wild.
“This is an authentic way to approach this, she’s not imposing herself on them,” said Lori Marino, the Emory University biologist who, with Hunter College psychologist Diana Reiss, pioneered dolphin self-recognition studies. “She’s cultivated a relationship with these dolphins over a very long time and it’s entirely on their terms. I think this is the future of working with dolphins.”
For each session, the researchers played with the dolphins for about half-an-hour, for a total of roughly 40 hours over the course of three years. They reported their findings of this pilot study in the December issue of Acta Astronautica.
Herzing’s team found that six dolphins, all young females, were interested in the game, and would come to play when the game was on. Young males were typically less social and less interested in humans. “This is when the females have a lot of play time,” Herzing said, “before they are busy being mothers.”
To Herzing’s surprise, some of her spotted dolphins recruited bottlenose dolphins, another species, to the game. This shows their natural curiosity, Herzing said. In the wild, dolphins communicate across cetacean species lines, coordinating hunting with other dolphins and even sharing babysitting duties.
Herzing found the study sessions were most successful when, before playing, the humans and dolphins swam together slowly and in synchrony, mimicked each other and made eye contact. These are signs of good etiquette among dolphins. Humans also signal their interest in someone with eye contact and similar body language. Perhaps these are universal — and extraterrestrial — signs of good manners.
Before we hope to understand extraterrestrials, then, perhaps we should practice with smart animals right here on Earth. Astronomer Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute was struck by this thought at a recent conference.
“From the way the presenter was speaking, I thought he was going to announce that he had found a signal of extraterrestrial intelligence,” Doyle said. “We’ve been waiting for this for years, but I thought, ‘We’re not ready!’ We can’t even speak to the intelligent animals on Earth.”
