Whale culture: Hal Whitehead at TEDxHalifax

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11 жыл бұрын

Hal Whitehead is one of world's foremost experts on the social behaviour and culture of whales. In any culture, information moves between individuals through social learning. This cultural flow is important and affects evolution, ecology, and society. The various cultures of modern humans are undeniably complex. But are humans the only species to have important cultural constructs? Hal Whitehead will speak at TEDxHalifax 2012 about biologists' emerging understanding of the culture of sperm whales.
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Пікірлер: 34

@TaranJHook 3 жыл бұрын

It's wild how far we've come in researching this topic. Here he is in 2012 saying whales and dolphins don't have a syntaxial language but just recently a paper was released saying that syntax was detected in bottlenose dolphin clicks. Researchers are starting to pick up these patterns with more time in the water and better technology.

@kelly-charmainemarieflanag1098 6 жыл бұрын

I'd like to add my own quote from Hitchhiker's guide to the Universe: "So long, and thanks for all the fish."

@cdnerin 6 жыл бұрын

How is it that some of the most amazing talks ever given at TED have hardly any views??! This was awesome!

@gabrielburris3935 4 жыл бұрын

I'm gonna answer your question. Because it's not marketable to actually help people with non sugary information but practical info. Hes also not the most socially adept guy despite his appreciation of culture. Hope that helps. Tldr: Its academic not social which is what hes talking about social systems are structurally more important than strictly academic systems for humans.

@moremerry57 3 жыл бұрын

@@gabrielburris3935, there is nothing lacking in his social skills: he was struggling with the tel-a-prompter, to the extent that it appeared the operator was lagging rather than leading him. It’s not a good sign of social skill to be condescending of another when one doesn’t understand a situation.

@zorro2757 3 жыл бұрын

I think deep and important things seem to be boring to many people who are busy to run though life, insted of enjoying it.

@GiffysChannel 5 жыл бұрын

I guess I'm a whale nut too. I'm watching every video about whales on youtube.

@subg8858 3 жыл бұрын

He is making whale communication sound much simpler than it is. A single click contains tens of thousands of data points. One short sequence of clicks is therefore transferring more data than a human can transmit via speech in an hour of speaking.

@nonegone7170 Жыл бұрын

Possibly, however our speech also contains many data points in a similar manner, if looked upon from the outside. The patterns are the part that matter most.

@ykim8545 5 жыл бұрын

Awesome speech, very interesting and impressive talk!

@whaleharmony5984 4 жыл бұрын

Amazing information thanks a lot

@richardhelliwell1210 6 жыл бұрын

Cultures die, but evolution goes on.

@Tfreezy259 6 жыл бұрын

That Canadian metaphor was great haha

@joannawie 5 жыл бұрын

Great !!! Thanks !!

@elkimmyy 10 ай бұрын

Super interesting!

@user-lc9lc3my4y 6 жыл бұрын

Coda clicks sound like Morse code!

@musicbox2466 6 жыл бұрын

I think all creatures have culture and a unique language system.

@CleverClover2023 4 жыл бұрын

Those species with high intelligence and the ability to be self aware makes them able to have cultures. Primates (humans), elephants and cetaceans are those beings that are self aware, have distinct dialects that vary between families and are highly intelligent. Being able to understand 'self' and have diverse marine cultures is what sets whales and dolphins apart from other animals. Other animal species simply dont have this ability or society specific behaviors. A Robin will speak the same language as other robins and they have the same instinct based behaviors. The same goes for a pet dog. They speak a universal body language, have basic instincts and (even though some breeds are smart) they are not self aware. This goes for many many other species.

@subg8858 3 жыл бұрын

Dogs are obviously self aware

@subg8858 3 жыл бұрын

The mirror test proves self awareness, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those that don't pass it are not self aware