ALMOST HUMAN? This book is the story of man’s attempt to com- municate with another species. Dr. Lilly first ex- perimented with cats and monkeys, but then be- came convinced that he must find an animal with a brain at least as large as man's—an animal which was friendly to humans and could express itself vocally. Only one animal met all these cri- teria—the dolphin. Dr. Lilly reveals his fascinating findings about the anatomy and biology of dolphins—and their clear and definite attempts to imitate human con- versation. The drama of science and the exc ment of discovery are vividly brought to life in Dr. Lilly's own story of his trailbreaking work and its staggering implications. "The possibilities here are both endless and fascinating—far beyond anything which Aesop or Walt Disney may have dreamt about.” —tLibrary JournalAPPENDIX TWO. 161 Detection of Alien Intellectual Capacity In approaching any alien species, we should first ask ourselves whether the individual we are investigating or propose to investigate has (1) a large enough brain of suf- ficient complexity to be above what we consider to be the language-threshoid level and (2) sufficient numbers and control of access channels to and from this brain operating in media that we can manipulate in a communicating fashion. If it does have each of these proper biological basic prereq- uisites, we can then ask the following questions: (A) Does this species have a language of its own, a na- tive language? (B) Can any fndividuals of this species learn our lan- guage? (C) Can they teach it to their young? In exploring the first question, we can propose many kinds of experiments. Crucial experiments are yet to be de- signed, but probably the best results will be obtained by continuous contact between qualified humans and several indi- viduals of the alien species. In my experience the best bet seems to be as follows: first we record samples of the exchange between two isolated individuals, each in solitude. We record the exchanges of pairs of captive individuals on tape and have a way of identifying which individual emitted what. We also record their movement simultaneously on film. We do both over periods of many weeks. At the same time we force one to help the other remotely, allowing each to use only “verbal” directions, bilaterally. On these records we do statistical studies somewhat like those that are done to break a code or an unknown human language. We do statistical distributions in rank order for various kinds of message packets; we analyze and try to find the basic units; we do precedence studies of who did and said what first, and what the results were in terms of subsequent action and subsequent productions of packets. We do auto- and cross-correlations and various other kinds162 MAN AND DOLPHIN of analyses of the sounds, if it is sounds that they are emitting. In the course of such studies one of the individuals is submitted to stressful conditions and the exchanges and actions that take place between them in consequence of the stress are recorded. We can then do a psychophysiological analysis to develop criteria to separate the emotionally ex- pressive built-in packet from those that are more intellectual and intelligent, We find those signals that correspond to fear, anger, sexual needs, hunger, the need for release from isolation, and so on. By analysis of their violent, quick behavior, we obtain an idea of the “command” language as opposed to the “emotionally expressive” one. We can also begin to have a tochold on other primitive levels within the possible language. By proper feedback techniques under proper conditions, we can send portions of the recordings back to the indi viduals and see how this modifies their behavior. I say “proper conditions” because if one sends them back under improper conditions an intelligent animal quickly realizes that he is being fooled—that the recording is not being emitted by a living being in a real situation. If we merely put a loudspeaker in the situation, for example, and play back a tape-recording, an intelligent animal can be fooled briefly and only once. If the loudspeaker emits the distress call for a given species, the other animals come to the rescue of the loudspeaker once and after that, when the distress call issues from the speaker, they do not respond. (Aesop's wolf-story immortalized this view.) It is as if they said, “Well, that’s just that box on the wall, forget it.” The proper conditions seem to be those in which the emission in the appropriate fashion has a consequence to the animals. In other words, if they emit a hunger call and a bunger call comes out of the box on the wall and they again emit the hunger call and then we give them food, the box on the wall acquires some sort of meaning to them in a fundamental sense. Proper feedback systems and sequences are currently being worked out for the case of the dolphins. We are also APPENDIX TWO 163 beginning to analyze “dolphinese” as a possible language in this way. Experiments and possibilities in trying to answer ques- tion (B) are the most exciting. Can the alien species learn our language and teach it to their young? If they can learn even a very primitive version of one of our languages, the attainment will be far beyond that of any known animal other than man. This will immediately raise them to the proto-humanoid, if not the humanoid, level—that is, it will prove they have an intellectual capacity. This is the most crucial and difficult test for intellect and for high order of intelligence that we can devise at the present time. We should not underestimate the greatness of the achievement of the human race in devising languages. If another species learns our language it will be an equally great achievement for them. Somehow we do not seem to feel that it would be as great an achievement for us to learn the alien’s language as for them to learn ours. However, it would be a great achievement for us to learn a completely nonhuman language. If, for example, we take the sounds produced by dolphins as a possible prototype alien language, it may be extremely difficult for us to learn it: it is a series of short complex whistles. It may not even have words as we know them within its structure, but our latest records make this seem improbable. There can be no more convincing evidence of the level of attainment of a given animal than to have him learn a human language and speak it with human beings. If we find an animal which has the first two prerequisites, what addi- tional conditions are necessary if he is to learn our language, assuming his brain capacity is equal to that of modern man —that is, that he is above the language threshold in brain size and complexity and has the proper access channels to and from his brain with the environment? I said in the previous section, the individual must have sufficient time for learning and storage of the language elements. He must also have effective exposures to language and language- provoking experiences. He must have the proper living conditions for his own well-being, whatever his particular164 MAN AND DOLPHIN biology may require. We will not have a problem in regard to those aliens which need conditions similar to ours; we will have a problem with those which have dissimilar require- ments for survival. Before we can create conditions for the well-being of those individuals we must find the best conditions for their health and relative contentment. We define language as a very large (10,000 to 100,000) set of primitive message packets which are exchangeable between many individuals of a group of the same species, race, or tribe. This set of packets is taught to the young of that group and contains important meanings connected with description and prediction of social and personal necessities (at the very lowest level of complexity). We must answer lots of additional questions about the alien’s capacities, actual or potential. On a very primitive level, is he capable of mimicking our speech, for example, or our writing? If so, this gives us at least a toehold on the possibility of teaching the particular individual our lan- guage. (The ability of very young humans to mimic vocally seems to be one of their basic characteristics.) Once he has mimicked, is he capable of using some of the words he has mimicked as demands for necessities: for food, a change of temperature, ete? We would then go on to investigate his ability to use and make long-lasting connections between given vocalizations and other events, between other proc- esses and between his feelings, whether vocal or not vocal. We would attempt to investigate his ability to abstract and generalize uses of certain words such as connectives and other vocal “cements.” And we would investigate his ability to play games, do various kinds of arithmetical operations, algebra, geometry, etc. There are some further matters that we should inves gate in our attempts to discover whether another species has ‘or has not a language. (1) We should find out what the physical medium of ex- change is, For example, is it sound in water, electromag- netic waves, or something else? We know that whales and dolphins emit complex patterns of sound in water; is water being used as a physical medium of exchange? APPENDIX TWO. 165 (2) Once we have determined that there is a suffic- ently complex series of patterns going on, what is the formal structure in the physical sense of this exchange? Is the animal using amplitude modulation, frequency modulation, pulse-time code modulation, some other form of packet, counting, etc.? (3) What are the basic linguistic units and meaning mod- lations? In our language we have such things as “words,” ammar,” “declensions,” and “analogues.” The alien's lan- guage may have other things than words as we know them. Instead of breaking up the communication in the short “word burst” the way we do, they may slide up and down a frequency scale, for example. (4) What is the logical structure—are they using a two- valued logic or multivalued logic? (5) What is the semantic reference structure? What kinds of things, events, processes, feelings, etc., are exchangeable within the language? Surprisingly enough, it may turn out that it is scientifi- cally easier to collect data on all of these levels than it is to proceed in a slavishly systematic fashion from the simplest possible level—that is, from the physical medium of exchange to the most complex level, the semantic reference structure. ‘The above descriptions and divisions are only a crude map to the kinds of analysis, showing the different levels and complexities on which the questions are asked and answers sought. We must remember that it is not necessary for an alien to have developed a language of his own in order to learn ours. There may be an unused potential capacity to learn a language. This seems extremely unlikely but is a possibility that must not be neglected, especially with young aliens. We could pursue two kinds of investigation simultaneously: probing for the existence of a native, already-developed language, and trying to teach the alien one of our languages. One pursuit does not rule out the other. He may have a na- tive language but be totally incapable of learning ours. In our work on dolphins, we are pursuing both lines of research. We are trying to interest linguists in analyzing the166 “MAN AND DOLPHIN sound productions of the dolphins for the possible existence of “dolphinese”; meanwhile, We are pursuing our own at- tempts to teach the dolphins a primitive version of English. Brain Size and Language Function I stated above that our working hypothesis is that until a brain reaches a certain size, language as it is known by nor- mal human beings is not possible. Conversely, if a brain is above a certain size, then it has the capability to learn a language. In the first sections of Appendix Two, we discussed concomitant requirements such as exposure to language- provoking situations and a sufficient period of time for learning to take place. This section will be devoted exclu- vely to the question of brain size and the appearance of language at a critical minimum brain size. Table 1 shows the brain weights of the nonspeaking animals, mouse through chimpanzee; Table II shows the brain weights of the young human at various ages related to anthropoids and presumed human forbears with unknown speech-capabilities. ‘Our best and most secure evidence comes from a study of human children. Table IM gives the quantitative data relat- ing brain size to age of the average normal child, Correlated with this are those ages and hence brain sizes at which lan- guage develops in its full-blown human fashion (see also Table VI below). Understandable speech begins with a brain mass of about 1000 grams at an age of about eighteen months. This is a brain mass very much larger than any of the anthropoid apes have ever acbieved (Table II). It is also a brain mass at the upper level achieved by Peking man and very much larger than that of Pithecanthropus and the Australopithe- cines (Table II). Neanderthal man and Cro-Magnon man were the first to achieve this critical size so far as we know (Table 11). Mimicry of the vocalizations of adults is well under way at a brain size of approximately 400 to 900 grams—that is, from a few weeks of age to several months (Table 11). The beginnings of speech appear at 1000 grams of brain at eight- APPENDIX TWO 167 een months of age (Table III). It has been found recently that it is possible at 1100 grams of brain (at approximately thirty months of age) to teach the child typing with an electric typewriter by a special method.5 7 As the brain grows in size and as the child ages, immersed in many daily language-tequiring situations, both the brain and the language increase in complexity (Table VI). The usual human reaches 1400 grams at around ten to seventeen years of age (Table III). The levels of complexities of think- ing at that time have increased tremendously over that of the beginnings of speech. Tbe numbers of connections es- tablished are so large that they are uncountable. At the present time we do not know whether this increase of mass of brain is due merely to new connections growing through- ‘out its mass and connecting the already existing cells, or whether new cells (glial and/or neuronal) are actually formed, or both. At one time it was said that the number of cells of the brain at birth were fixed and never increased; the increased mass is then said to be that of fiber growth. At the present time there is no secure way of choosing between these alternatives. Empirically we can correlate brain mass with language in man in a gross way. We can do this not only in the case of the normally developing human but in those humans who fail to reach the critical level of 1000 grams. In them language jer remains extremely primitive or does not appear at all.® Imbeciles, idiots, and very low-grade morons belong in this group. Apparently this is true even in those cases in which there are complete nervous mechanisms for motor control and for hearing but there is a deficiency in the total mass of cerebral cortex: in the storage capacity and in relational abilities within the mental sphere. ‘As I stated in Chapter 1, very few earth animals other than man achieve this critical brain size of 1000 grams. The Cetacea in general all seem to achieve this, as do the cle~ * Moore, 0. lo. ot sep For esc Cami of xcungs tthe aw of 950 gras wth thy ard taperonce, seu island, We We Mental Actions of Children he ‘Churchill, London, 1900). 2 ae168 MAN AND DOLPHIN ‘Table I: Absolute Weight of Brain: Small Animals Grams of Brain Adult Animal 04 mouse 16 rat 4 guinea pig 93 rabbit 31.0 cat 65.0 dog 885 monkey (M.r.} 350.0 chimpanzee & beef (after Tower's figures) ‘Table Bi: Absolute Weight of Brain: Animals, Human and Prehuman Gramsof Human, Age brain in Months Animal Preliumans 350 chimpanzee Avstralo- pitehecines 1 gorilla 3 4 Pithecanthropus 6 2 Pekiniensis (fire) APPENDIX TWO 169 ‘Table TI: Absolute Weight of Brain: Early Man, Modern Man, and Speech Grams of Human Early Speech Brain Age Men 950 14 mo. Neanderthal 2 1000 18 mo. (understandable) 1200 36 mo. Cro-Magnon (typing, Moore) 1250 4 yrs, (mesiery intern, Voives, Hrikson) 1400 10 yrs, 1450 17 yrs, (average mex. weight) 1800 2 (ax, found for medern man) Table IV: Absolute Weight of Rreint Man and Dolphin (Tursieps eranes toe) Grams of Age of Age of Length of Brain Man Dolphin Tursiops Truncatus 1200 41 mo. 23 mo. 6 ft. 6 in, 1350 78 mo. 28 mo. Tt. 1 in. 1450 17 yrs, 8 yrs. 7H in 1600 19 yr 7 ft. i i 1700 2 8 ft 6 in. phants. The elephant’s adult brein varies from 4000 grams to 6000 grams (Table V). Apparently the Proboscidea to be studied from the viewpoint pi this. boo Some scientific study of their intelligence has been made. "Rensch, B. The intelligence of elephants, Seluntiic Auericany Feb, pp. 44-49,APPENDIX TWO 7h 170 ‘MAN AND DOLPHIN, ERE 5 F . aeble Vi: Threshold Quantities for Human ¥ aa Bad F a s Acquisition of Speech: Age and Brain Weight TEzOgEe Ra § onneee s 2 2 2 stad og & e 3 Aco Rein Weihet Sroech Stnees? Fee eee z Months Grams (First Appearances) greceas 2 480 Responds to human voi gees Sexes a Eease82 8 8 § S52 &- cooing, and vocalizes S3hgeF, 73 4 Shs Ss i pleasure pideee? 77 PEboes! Ze & 4 580 Vocal play Bebe = Pl Bleraii < Bagerness and displeasure tsts——S—S—S phoog expressed vocally g 2 PY “S28 38 F 6 660 Imitates sounds Sugeke q Pests g 9 710 First word g°2Eh OF22e732 = SPA Egneaeea & u 850 Imitates syllables and BResese2 2 oo . Saagleres - words eh gress BEE gore Second word BEEP G3? 8 = nee e434 e ; 4 B 930 Vocabulary expands rapidly pe TR i gift 17.0 —‘Nanes obits and ice 2, geo def = 2 Foe ffeg «BES BRR 3 i 2 1060 Combines words in speech ef 95s ~ i 2 1070 Uses pronouns, understands Ee FS prepositions, uses phrases 2 Roy 8 2 segs = Fe BP eeg & and sentences we od ¢ eee ze eb og EEE R38 2 Zk z 3 8 1 From Boston Children’s Hospital data, 1198 records, by Coppoleta, J. My Fe fed _ and Wolback, & B, Am J. Pathology 9: 55-70, 1953. eee Eprom summary by McCarthy, D., in Manual of Child Paychotogy, Ly Cate Fn 384 ALA michael, ed. (Wiley, New York, 1946). 48S GaGa®.ain aeCHAPTER TWELVE Implications Ir we can succeed in communicating with an alien, nonhuman species the implications are obviously exciting. If we fail to communicate, it may mean that we lack suili- ciently sophisticated methods or that communication is im- possible with any of the species with which we are ac- quainted today. To prove an impossibility takes a very long tie, a lot of research, and the exploration of many possible methods. An impossibility cannot be proven by means of crucial experiments; only possibilities can be so explored. Impossibilities are realized gradually in time by consistent and never ending failures of attempted crucial experiments. This point of view was once expressed by my colleague Wade H. Marshall, who said, “There should be a special scientific journal devoted to reporting negative results, i. reporting the failures to reproduce previous findings.” He named it the Journal of Negative Results, At times 1 feel that this is more than a whimsical idea, Obviously if man fails to communicate with an alien species within the next two decades it does not prove that my thesis is impossible. However, if be does so communi- cate, then the thesis is correct and the crucial experiments will have been accomplished. ‘As anyone who has slaved at scientific experimentation for a sufficiently long period of time knows, the above con- siderations are not merely logical juggling or semantic sleight of hand. The big problem is to demonstrate that something is first of all discoverable and then to discover it. It is much more difficult to prove that a given “discovery” 119120 ‘MAN AND DOLPHIN does not exist. If someone makes a discovery and then some- one else tries to repeat the demonstration and fails, he has not in general disproved the original discovery. The failure of the second man may merely mean that he was somehow or other on the wrong trail, using wrong methods at some crucial point. Thus the Journal of Negative Results would be filled with attempted reproductions of previous research and might just as well be a record of failure to do exactly what the first man did, or a mete demonstration of what the first man did not realize and, hence, did not write down, all of the unwritten crucial things that he really did to make his discovery. With the increase in numbers of moder sc entific papers and the insistence of editors upon tersens, succinetness, and condensation, it is sometimes extremely ditl- cult to reproduce from a scientific paper the exact experiments that a man did. This is trus especially in biological and psychological fields. ‘Many scientists, including myself, have often had maxi- mumr success with the first of a long series of experiments and then have spent many months trying to reproduce that first success. It is during these many months that we find out how many things we unconsciously did correctly the first time. It is then that we become fully aware of the many, many possible paths to failure and the very, very few paths to success. Such tasks keep scientists working day and night, ‘The knowiedge that one successful experiment has been ad- equateiy recorded, so that it can be reviewed, keeps us going Guring these long difficult hours. Sometimes we get off into technical byways, methodologies, that are essential to the successful prosecution of that successful experiment. I am thoroughly convinced, along with many other experimen- ‘alists, that certain people somehow or other get themselves “in tune with their preparation.” Dr. Frank Brink at the University of Pennsylvania (now at the Rockefeller In- stitute) made this clear to me many years ago. He de- scribed one colleague Who was one of those few experimental scientists who could assume this “in-tune” state rapidly and produce significant results. This was a very sophisticated IMPLICATIONS 121 scientist, well versed in all of the techniques of his field, who had many years’ experience in scientific research. Many times a rather eerie experience occurs. When the chief investigator Icaves the room, something happens that makes the whole experiment disintegrate. In long twenty- four-hour runs I have often left the preparation in the hands of an assistant and gone home to get some sleep, only to be awakened from my sleep by the assistant saying that some- thing has gone wrong in my absence. Going back to the laboratory, I either find that it is an easily correctable defect in the apparatus, or that the alleged defect disappears while 1 am present. At times this coincidence is so remarkable that I feel there is no logical reason for it and that the “in tune” process has roots far deeper than we can understand at the present time. However, such experiences occur only when I am deeply involved with the apparatus and with the animal in question over a sufficiently long period of time so that, as it were, there is a miniature replica of the expe ment continuously going on in my own head. This situation occurs only with unremitting, uninterrupted effort over many days and weeks; such preparation may be part of the “in- tune” phenomena. T emphasize all of these points to avoid some of the mi understanding that certain persons promulgate in the name of science. Research at the frontiers of science is not a clean- cut, dry, planned affair. One works continuously at the edge ‘of mystery; and the cussedness of one’s own mind, the difficulties of the preparation, and the slowness to understand the true basic processes going on are challenging, at times discouraging, but never boring. Even if within the next two decades we do not establish communication, the results along the way will be extremely important. These are some of the possibilities: We may be faced with a new class of large brain so dissimilar to ours that we cannot within our lifetime pos- sibly understand its mental processes. The large brain of the dolphin may have no speech centers such as we have in our brain, This brain may be doing something else entirely than What we do with our brains.122 ‘MAN AND DOLPHIN These may be really stupid animals and the large brain may merely be used for motor control in an aquatic environ- ment: chasing fish and making peculiar noises that have to do with emotions and ranging but make no sense otherwise. It may be impossible for these animals to learn to speak any human language because of the differences in their vocal apparatus. It may be impossible for us to speak their lan- guage because of the difficulty with our vocal apparatus. ‘We thus may be forever separated in separate universes of discourse; the pathways to communication may not be solv- able al the present time. Of these four possibilities, some seem to violate the gen- eral proposition that a biological system developing under the usual evolutionary processes on the earth does not de- velop a large brain as just a useless computer for display to humans. In general, it seems to me that large brains have developed and are used to their capacity within the limita- tions of the body that houses them. There may be limitations within the body of the cetaceans that are not shared by humans, even as there may be limitations in the body of humans not shared by cetaceans. ; When you struggle day after day to identify with, person- ify, and empathize with the real position of a dolphin in captivity and then see the effect of adding a mate to that captive situation, you rapidly get the impression that many humanlike—“humanoid"—events go on in their dives. Such intimate contact with the actual living organisms provides continuous source of new clues, some of which are ab- sorbed unconsciously and generate faith, as it were, in the prediction that we shall eventually communicate with them. Now let us consider the implications if we do manage to establish communication with dolphins or other alien intelligences. 2 If we succecd in establishing communication on an intel- figent, intellectual level with one of the Cetacea or some other species of the earth or not of the earth, the implica- tions will run ail the way through philosophical, scientific, ethical, legal, social, military, propaganda, utilitarian, and even humorous categories. IMPLICATIONS, 123 Let us consider the last category first. After the various press reports on our work with the dolphins, several cartoon ists began to draw talking dolphins. Callahan showed how the oceans would become incredibly noisy places, with areu- ments in English going on between dolphins. It was sug- gested that people who live close to the sea might be troubled with the telephone constantly ringing for the dolphins in the neighborhood. Another cartoonist showed a man under wa- ter, with the proper equipment, saying to a dolphin, “Take that back!” The news releases also gave rise to a fantasy, published in the Baltimore Sun, that combined the news stories about the 600-foot radio telescope at Greenbank, West Virginia, and the story about the intelligence of dolphins. The fantasy was conversation occurring between humans on earth and some planet near Tau Ceti at a distance of eleven light-years. The author neglected the twenty-two-year lag between question and answer and had an argument going on between the inhabitants of the distant planet and those of earth. The aliens somehow seemed to think we were not very far ad- vanced, if we were upright, featherless bipeds on land. The scientists on earth were stung into boasting about our attain- ments and said, “Why, there is even a man in the Virgin Islands who is talking to dolphins! (Not that we had, but it made a good story.) The answer came back from Tau Ceti that there was hope for earth if we could establish contact with the dolphins and porpoises. About this time the earth- lings asked the Cetians what they were and the answer came back that they were porpoises—and that they used to have featherless bipeds on their planet but they all killed one another off. ‘The day that communication is established, the particular other species becomes a legal, ethical, moral, and social problem. At the present time, for example, dolphins corre- spond very loosely to conserved wild animals under the pro- tection of the conservation laws in certain parts of the United States and by international agreement, and to pets under the protection of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.124 MAN AND DOLPHIN So far the dolphins have a good reputation with the gen- eral public, derived mainly from the circus shows and GS oceanaria and from the traditional stories about their rela- tionships with men. They may be generally considered in a special class somewhat different from human pets or other aimals. ‘one of them starts to speak English and this becomes widely known, they will gain a little more status and may be considered sontewhat like parrots or mynah birds, which seem to have slightly more value to certain human beings than do other birds because they can enunciate our lan- wuage to some extent, 7 that of a parrot and continue to enlarge their bag of tricks beyond what is at present possible in the oceanaria, they will achieve status with TV and circus ratings similar to that of chimpanzees, which once again have special values for human beings in terms of entertainment, Ii they achieve a bilateral conversational level, corre- sponding, say, to a low-grade human moron and well above a human imbecile or idiot, then they become an ethical, legal, and social problem. They have reached the threshold of humanness, as it were. If they go above this level the problem becomes more and more acute and if they reach the conversational abilities of any normal human being, we are in for trouble, Some groups of humans will then step forward in defense of these animals’ lives and stop their use in experimentation; they will insist that we treat them as humans and thet we give them medical and legal protection. If the means of their further education in humanity is avail- able, there probably will be an explosive development of such education. What they then become under the law—and the laws might have to be changed in order to include them—depends upon the intellectual attainment of individual animals. The humans then have two major choices: a few people will probably join in the conspiracy to leave the animals igno- rant and drop the whole program; others will press for the whole educational process, so that we may learn more and IMPLICATIONS 125 more from these animals and teach them more and more about us. At this point the number of available animals be- comes an important problem. If there are only several thou- sand animals available for such an edu tional process, the social load on the educational system of, say, the United States will be very small. (Of course, this presupposes that the dolphins are unabie to set up their own schools to educate their own kind.) For a long time presumably they will be in the position of the Negro races in Africa who are attempting to become Westernized. They will be a dramatic but definite minority, initially with extremely good publicity and then with less good publicity unless they can prove their Usefulness in those things which the human races in general tempt to achieve. We shall explore some of these Possibil- ities below. The dolphins, porpoises, and whales are “ocean-centered” instead of “continent-entered” as humans are. This implies that almost four-fifths of the world is theirs, without known boundaries within the oceans. Most of the continents are separated from one another but oceans are connected by water with other oceans, so theoretically every cetacean is an international traveler as far as humans are concerned. These are true tourists of the sea and they may not recognize territorial rights of other cetaceans or humans. The founda~ tions of their culture may be centered about their feeding habits, fish Migrations, etc. This may ultimately lead to difficulty for the humans, who are more nation-centered and city-centered than these animals probably are. if we try to employ them in a national way or in any other “localizing” or partisan fashion, We may run into difficulties with their way of life and their way of thinking, For example, many people have asked me if it is possible to teach these animals to detect submarines and to com- municate their detection to human beings, First of all, I don't think we have to teach them to detect submarines; I think they detect submarines already. That is not the problem, The problem is whether they will communicate such detections to us, whether they will go on submarine-hunting expeditions and then report back to one human side and not the other,126 MAN AND DOLPHIN, If dolphins come to understand our cold war and similar quarrels between large segments of the human race, we don't know bow they will proceed to operate. I once said in a joking fashion, “They may all be pacifists"; on the other hand, they may be highly military types. Let us try to find out. Obviously if we establish communication it may help us to solve many of our own marine problems. For example, if the cetaceans are willing to communicate and are suffi- ciently numerous, they might help in rescuing survivors of plane crashes and shipwrecks. They might search for survivors, protect them from sharks, provide them with food, communi- cate with other human beings without the use of radios or similar gadgets. Cetaceans might be helpful in bunting and retrieving nose cones, satellites, missiles, and similar things that men insist on dropping into the ocean. They might be willing to huht for mines, torpedoes, submarines, and other artifacts con- nected with our naval operations. They might also be wi ing to do scouting and patrol duty for submarines or surface ships and they might carry their protagonist activities to the point where they can be used around harbors as underwater demolition-team operators. If they are military types they could be very useful as antipersonnel self-directing weapons. They could do noc- turnal harbor work, capture spies let out of submarines or dropped from airplanes, attacking silently and elficiently and bringing back information from such contacts. They could deliver atomic nuclear warheads and attach them to sub- ‘marines or surface vessels and to torpedoes and missiles. ‘They could help us carry on a sort of psychological war- fare. Many times in World War II watch officers on navy vessels recorded phosphorescent-wake “torpedoes” heading directly toward the bow of their ship; generally these turned out to be some of the cetaceans swimming very fast toward the ship. The bodies of these animals are not detect- able by magnetic metallic methods. They can be detected only by bouncing sonar beams off their bodies and by lis- tening to their own vocal productions. In psychological war- IMPLICATIONS 127 fare they might sneak UP Of an enemy submarine sittin m1 the bottom and shout something into the Tistening gear eit this were a human communicating with them, Such, voices from the sea could also be used near the seashore in harbor work; perhaps the animals can be taught to speak loudly Their usefulness need not be exclusively military; they might help us to make friends throughout the world if wa employ their abilities in peacemaking activities, However, as I see it, the really solid help would be in the various scientific fields. They could help us to obtain newr information, data, and natural laws about fisheries, oceenoc, Taphy, marine biology, navigation, linguistics, various sc ences of the brain, and space, " No human is quite as good at deteeting, tracking, hunt herding, and catching fish as are dolphins, porpoises, and whales. If we could communicate with the dolphins and ¢ their co-operation, the science and industry of fishing. inay be entirely revised. Our knowledge of tho ways of fishee their migrations, etc., woul be increased immensely. 4 In the ficld of oceanography, they could help us to measure and to map surface currents, temperatures, salinities, ote over vast areas of the occan without the expensive. ships that are presently used for this purpose, They could collect the information and bring it back to us at our laboratories In marine biology they could report on and bring back rr Er—“—tir———L They might report on the behavior of many marine organ. isms with which we are not yet acquainted. Similarly we could learn much about other cetaceans from ones that are friendly to us. There are many mysteries about the so-called ile whales that might be cleared up by the dolphin, killers are misnamed: atte ybe Maybe the kil snamed: after all, maybe they call They may have navigational means with which we are not yet acquainted, I suspect that theirs is a multivariable ‘method of navigation, using temperature, epecd, taste of the water, position of the stars, sun, und so forth, all fed. into128 ‘MAN AND DOLPHIN their huge brains simultaneously and instantaneously. They may have some sort of multidimecsional maps that they have developed over the years and by which they travel irom one sea to the next over the surface of the carth, Obviously the science of linguistics will benefit tremen- dously from these studies, Interspecies languages and new intraspecies languages will do much to push this science in new areas. In the same way the science of the brain—neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, psychology, psychoanalysis (intra- and in- terspecies)—will benefit. Communication with these animals will provide a whole new array of dimensions for the scien- tists of the mind and for the humanists. ‘The nonterrestrial, interplanetary and astral sciences, the so-called space sciences, will benefit from our having estab- lished contact here on earth with alien creatures that had an evolutionary development separate from ours in another kind of environment, I want to emphasize the fact that even if we are successful, we shall still not be fully prepared to en- counter intelligent life forms not of this earth. Even if we press this research program to its ultimate extreme speed we shall not be far enough along if and when we meet beings from other portions of our galaxy. At the present rate at which progress is being made in the space program, there is not time for a leisurely program of research, At most we shall have graduated from the kindergarten of interspecies communication before it becomes absolutely essential for us and all of the human races to enter the graduate school of interspecies relations, Our own spot in the universe, our own view of ourselves, will be tremendously modified if such a communication is established. Any other species that could talk with us on our own level will give us a perspective of which we can only be dimly aware at the present time. Our own com- munication among ourselves will be enhanced and improved ‘by such contact. Our own views of one another will change radically under the influence of interspecies communication. ‘The very fact that we try to communicate with them is an IMPLICATIONS 129 importan maturity. We shall try to learn what we can and cannot teach them, what they can and cannot teach us, and what we can learn together. We shall find them of value in teaching us about themselves, in teaching us how they look at us, in teaching indication of our own stage of evolutionary Us about others at present unknown to us. ‘The ideas presented in this chapter have occurred to me in the course of my rescarch but I have held them in strict abeyance. However, if we do not at least consider them, we may one day find ourselves totally unprepared for the results of our research program. Such neglect might be more devastating in its ultimate effect than was neglect of the pol fzal implications of the atomic bomb and the V-2 rockets.John C. Lilly Frank 8. Essapian ‘A head-on view of a dolphin The open mouth, showing the ee co or Left, Elvar’s eye looking downward, showing the position of the ear opening behind the eye. Right, Elvar’s eye looking upward, showing the position in relation to the back of the mouth opening. John C. Lilly Frank 8. Essapian Side view of 1700-gram brain of dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Jerzy E. Rose, Johns Hopkins Medical School Top view of 1700-gram brain of dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Jerzy E. Rose, Johns Hopkins Medical School The brain of an adult dol phin, view from above for- ward and laterally, showing the complex folds in the surface of the cortex. Photo shows its size in relation to the human hand,Alice and Tolva: vocal provocation and response. John C. Lilly She barks in response to Alice flicking the water. Frank S. Essapian Elisabeth and Elvar: he keeps both eyes on her. Tolva and Alice: open wide, baby! (The Plexiglas box filled with water gives a prism effect; one sees Tolva’s beak twice at two dif ferent angles.) John C. Lilly Elisabeth and Elvar: he keeps one eye on the photographer.