Do you guys think it's possible that sperm whales could have intelligence that rivals humans?

Posted by Sudden_Wind_8636@reddit | marinebiology | View on Reddit | 14 comments

Every study I see it seems like we find sperm whales are more intelligent than we previously thought.

Their language is more in depth than we thought, they use vowels in communication, they have different accents and dialects, etc.

It is pretty crazy to think they potentially might have similar cognitive abilities to humans.

Hopefully project CETI works out (for those that don't know, they are trying to decode whales language, and hopefully eventually communicate with them. It's using AI to decode it)

I am not a marine biologist so a lot of these studies I don't fully understand, I just have an interest. If anyone has any interesting facts or opinions on sperm whales please let me know!

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seatoun@reddit

This is a very good question with potential to smash open the current paradigm of animal intelligence research. Let me explain, how misleading some of the standard answers from those steeped in biological orthodoxy are, and how we came to this strange shallow thinking. Let's start at the beginning and move swiftly

Right from the publication of the Origin of Species, a major objection to Darwin's theory was the seeming anomaly of the gulf in intelligence between humans and all other animals whose behavior we could closely observe. One way we could attempt to overcome this objection is if the nature of intelligence in every animal was so different that we might not recognise it, so that became the reigning paradigm. This torch was carried highest in recent years by Frans de Waal, who used his brilliance to seek out and highlight uncharacteristic strengths and weaknesses among species. However, if we leave the world of the subjective and leap into the objective one (which should more rightly be the home of science), what do we find?

The only group of animals for which we have a variety of tests similarly performed across many species is non-human primates, and what do we find? It turns out that most of their intelligence can be explained by a single factor. This was found by both Reader et al 20011, and Deaner et al 2007, despite using completely different databases extracted in completely different environments.

Okay, so I admit that it's remotely possible that there might turn out to be no trans-mammalian g factor, even though there is such a super strong one across primates that it explains most of the intelligence variation between genera, but in the more likely scenario that we can compare species, sperm whales are the strongest candidate to finally vindicate Darwin. There are at least four lines of evidence pointing to them having a true language, one of which the OP seems familiar with.

Science develops in strange ways. Often everyone plows down the historically set path well after evidence logically dictates that they should examine equally in other direction.

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bladow5990@reddit

They have a larger brain to body ratio and their parietal lobe is a larger percentage of their brain then ours. It's very likely they are MORE intelligent. Humans tend to overestimate our intelligence, imo. It took humans thousands of years to develop a written language and once we did our perceived intelligence sky rocketed, but we didn't actually get smarter, we just got more organized and standardized.

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cilantroprince@reddit

We (as humans) were pretty quick to jump the gun when we saw animals with brains bigger than ours and say “they’re not smarter than us though! It’s now brain to body ratio that matters!” And then we pretend there aren’t animals with bigger brain to body ratios than us. Even the best studies trying to test the intelligence of other animals suffer from our biases. I believe wholeheartedly that we are not the only species capable of what we would describe as “human intelligence”. What’s funny is that people aren’t willing to say matter of fact that any animals is “because we just don’t know,” but we are more than happy saying that any animal isn’t.

So yes, sperm whales absolutely could have intelligence that rivals ours. Many cetaceans might, honestly. It will take a while, and lots of research, before we can truly understand it, though. As the other commenter said, different species have such different experiences that are hard to translate 1 to 1. Even different human languages are difficult to translate exactly, and reflect the unique experience of those native to where it was developed. Trying to fully grasp what they know is like trying to imagine a color you can’t see

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chipoatley@reddit

A color you can’t see

Or sounds you can’t hear…

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WaistedDaisy@reddit

If you're interested in the concept of animal intelligence 'Other Minds' by Peter Godfrey-Smith is a nice introduction and exploration of the evolution of consciousness.

It also gives perspective on how its pretty hard to quantify intelligence in a human vs intelligence in a crow, or an octopus. Because we all exist in very different environments and in different ways. But theres a lot of evidence if you like documentaries, that show many cetaceans have complex social structures, language, navigation, hunting strategies etc. Maybe check some out! 🐋

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Sudden_Wind_8636@reddit (OP)

I'll check that out, thanks.

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chipoatley@reddit

He was interviewed in a podcast a year or so ago: Sean M. Carroll and Preposterous Universe. It is a very thought provoking interview (pun intended).

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Victormorga@reddit

What do you mean by “they use vowels in communication?”

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Sudden_Wind_8636@reddit (OP)

I should have been a bit more clear on that, they have a phonetic alphabet and appear to use vowels in the same way humans do when they speak.

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Cha0tic117@reddit

I think the question "Are whales as smart as humans?" is fundamentally flawed from the start, as intelligence as a concept doesn't really have a concise definition, and whales and humans are fundamentally different animals that have a different evolutionary history and live in drastically different environments.

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't attempt to measure the intelligence of whales. I think the CETI project is an interesting attempt to learn more about sperm whales, and the findings so far are fascinating.

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mustachetv@reddit

Reminds me of that quote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” I’ve always seen it attributed to Albert Einstein but apparently there’s no evidence he ever said that lol.

Anyway point stands. An actual Einstein quote: “Everything is relative.” What humans regard as intelligence isn’t necessarily the definition of intelligence.

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