Well, now we're going to the Bahamas to meet a remarkable group of dolphins that I've been working with in the wild for the last 28 years.
現在要請大家和我一起到巴哈馬 認識一群相當優秀的野生海豚 我們已經相處了 28 年
Now I'm interested in dolphins because of their large brains and what they might be doing with all that brainpower in the wild. And we know they use some of that brainpower for just living complicated lives, but what do we really know about dolphin intelligence?
我對海豚十分感興趣因為牠們的腦子大 我想知道牠們是如何在野外 發揮智能的 我們知道海豚應用某部份的智能 解決複雜生活上的難題 但對海豚的智力 我們到底知道多少?
Well, we know a few things. We know that their brain-to-body ratio, which is a physical measure of intelligence, is second only to humans. Cognitively, they can understand artificially-created languages. And they pass self-awareness tests in mirrors. And in some parts of the world, they use tools, like sponges to hunt fish. But there's one big question left: do they have a language, and if so, what are they talking about?
我們目前知道幾件事。 我們知道 如果用身體的質量衡量智力 海豚的大腦和身體的比例 僅次於人類 基本上, 牠們懂人造語言 牠們可以在鏡子中認出自己 在某些地方 牠們還會使用工具 例如用海綿捕魚 但還有個很重要的問題: 牠們有自己的語言嗎? 如果有,那牠們都在說些什麼呢?
So decades ago, not years ago, I set out to find a place in the world where I could observe dolphins underwater to try to crack the code of their communication system. Now in most parts of the world, the water's pretty murky, so it's very hard to observe animals underwater, but I found a community of dolphins that live in these beautiful, clear, shallow sandbanks of the Bahamas which are just east of Florida. And they spend their daytime resting and socializing in the safety of the shallows, but at night, they go off the edge and hunt in deep water.
所以幾十年前,不是幾年前而已 我下定決心要找個地方 讓我能在水底下觀察海豚 解開牠們的溝通系統之謎 現在大部分的海域都非常混濁 因此要想在水底下觀察動物比登天還難 但我發現有一群海豚 居住在這片美麗潔淨的巴哈馬沙灘 剛好位在佛羅里達的東邊 白天時海豚在安全無虞的淺水區 社交休憩 但到了晚上,他們會離開邊界到深水區狩獵
Now, it's not a bad place to be a researcher, either. So we go out for about five months every summer in a 20-meter catamaran, and we live, sleep and work at sea for weeks at a time. My main tool is an underwater video with a hydrophone, which is an underwater microphone, and this is so I can correlate sound and behavior. And most of our work's pretty non-invasive. We try to follow dolphin etiquette while we're in the water, since we're actually observing them physically in the water. Now, Atlantic spotted dolphins are a really nice species to work with for a couple of reasons. They're born without spots, and they get spots with age, and they go through pretty distinct developmental phases, so that's fun to track their behavior. And by about the age of 15, they're fully spotted black and white.
這裡也是個不錯的研究地點 我們每個夏天花五個月的時間 在 20 米長的雙體船上生活、睡覺、工作 每次在海上漂泊好幾個禮拜 主要工具是備有水聽器的水下攝影機 簡而言之 就是一個水下麥克風 讓我找出牠們聲音和行為的關聯 大部分的研究作業不會造成任何傷害 我們小心翼翼的跟著海豚 因為我們只需要在水裡實際觀察就好 我們發現大西洋斑海豚 是最棒的研究夥伴 因為牠們出生時沒有斑點 斑點隨著年歲增長而出現 而且牠們有明顯不同的成長階段 因此觀察牠們的行為變得十分有趣 在 15 歲的時候 牠們身上會布滿黑白斑點
Now the mother you see here is Mugsy. She's 35 years old in this shot, but dolphins can actually live into their early 50s. And like all the dolphins in our community, we photographed Mugsy and tracked her little spots and nicks in her dorsal fin, and also the unique spot patterns as she matured over time.
現在你看到的這位海豚媽媽叫瑪格西 這個時候她 35 歲 但其實海豚可以活到 50 多歲 就像族群裡的其他海豚 我們拍照紀錄追蹤瑪格西身上的斑點 在牠的背鰭上做記號 紀錄牠成長過程中 身上特殊的斑點圖騰
Now, young dolphins learn a lot as they're growing up, and they use their teenage years to practice social skills, and at about the age of nine, the females become sexually mature, so they can get pregnant, and the males mature quite a bit later, at around 15 years of age. And dolphins are very promiscuous, and so we have to determine who the fathers are, so we do paternity tests by collecting fecal material out of the water and extracting DNA. So what that means is, after 28 years, we are tracking three generations, including grandmothers and grandfathers. Now, dolphins are natural acousticians. They make sounds 10 times as high and hear sounds 10 times as high as we do. But they have other communication signals they use. They have good vision, so they use body postures to communicate. They have taste, not smell. And they have touch. And sound can actually be felt in the water, because the acoustic impedance of tissue and water's about the same. So dolphins can buzz and tickle each other at a distance.
海豚在長大期間不斷學習 牠們在青少年時期磨練社交技巧 9 歲上下,母海豚性機能發育成熟 可以懷孕了 而公海豚性成熟則較晚 要等到 15 歲 其實海豚很花心 因此我們要想知道哪位是父親 就需要採集他們的糞便 拿上岸做 DNA 親子鑑定 也就是說 28 年後 我們會追到三代的海豚 包含牠們的祖父祖母 海豚是天生的聲學家 牠們能發出並接收 高出人類十倍的聲音 但海豚還有其他的溝通訊號 牠們的視力非常良好 因此能用肢體語言來對話 牠們有味覺,但沒有嗅覺 牠們還有觸覺 牠們在水裡能接收聲音 因為海豚身上的聲阻組織和水是一樣的 所以在很遠的地方就能發出聲響傳給對方
Now, we do know some things about how sounds are used with certain behaviors. Now, the signature whistle is a whistle that's specific to an individual dolphin, and it's like a name. (Dolphin whistling noises) And this is the best-studied sound, because it's easy to measure, really, and you'd find this whistle when mothers and calves are reuniting, for example.
我們發現聲音 和某些行為有關 主哨聲是一種海豚的獨特哨聲 海豚都有各自的聲音就像每個人有自己的名字一樣 這是最容易研究的聲音 因為特別容易測量 像在媽媽和寶寶相聚的時候 就會聽到這種聲音
Another well studied sound are echolocation clicks. This is the dolphin's sonar. (Dolphin echolocation noises) And they use these clicks to hunt and feed. But they can also tightly pack these clicks together into buzzes and use them socially. For example, males will stimulate a female during a courtship chase. You know, I've been buzzed in the water. (Laughter) Don't tell anyone. It's a secret. And you can really feel the sound. That was my point with that. (Laughter)
另一種較容易研究的是牠們進行回聲定位的聲音 這是海豚聲納(海豚進行回聲定位的聲音) 牠們用回聲定位來狩獵和餵食 也能把這些聲音聚集在一起 用於社交 舉個例子,公海豚在交配季節 會利用這些聲音訊號來追求母海豚 大家知道我已經在海裡發出訊號許久 (笑聲) 這是秘密,不要跟別人說 我是說,真的會被那些聲音電到 (笑聲)
So dolphins are also political animals, so they have to resolve conflicts. (Dolphin noises) And they use these burst-pulsed sounds as well as their head-to-head behaviors when they're fighting. And these are very unstudied sounds because they're hard to measure.
海豚是很政治化的動物 所以牠們必須解決衝突 (海豚聲) 牠們用急促脈衝聲 和頭對頭的動作來打架 這是還沒研究的聲音 因為實在是太難測量了
Now this is some video of a typical dolphin fight. (Dolphin noises) So you're going to see two groups, and you're going to see the head-to-head posturing, some open mouths, lots of squawking. There's a bubble. And basically, one of these groups will kind of back off and everything will resolve fine, and it doesn't really escalate into violence too much.
這是很經典的海豚打架影片 (海豚聲) 你會看到兩組海豚 牠們頭碰頭的姿勢 有的會張開嘴巴 發出嘈雜的聲音 還有泡泡 基本上,其中一組會稍作退縮 然後大家就會和好如初 這並不會演變成暴力事件
Now, in the Bahamas, we also have resident bottlenose that interact socially with the spotted dolphins. For example, they babysit each other's calves. The males have dominance displays that they use when they're chasing each other's females. And the two species actually form temporary alliances when they're chasing sharks away. And one of the mechanisms they use to communicate their coordination is synchrony. They synchronize their sounds and their body postures to look bigger and sound stronger. (Dolphins noises) Now, these are bottlenose dolphins, and you'll see them starting to synchronize their behavior and their sounds. (Dolphin noises) You see, they're synchronizing with their partner as well as the other dyad. I wish I was that coordinated.
巴哈馬還住著寬吻海豚 和斑海豚相互幫忙 舉個例子 寬吻海豚會幫忙照顧斑海豚的寶寶 公海豚還會展現最好的一面 來追求另一種的母海豚 而兩種海豚會暫時結盟 作戰趕跑鯊魚 牠們用來溝通的其中一種機制 是同步 牠們將聲音和動作調整一致 這樣看起來聽起來都更強大 (海豚聲) 這是寬吻海豚 你可以看到海豚正在 使動作和聲音同步 (海豚聲) 你看,牠們正在和夥伴及其他成對的海豚 同步發聲 真希望我也能跟牠們一樣協調
Now, it's important to remember that you're only hearing the human-audible parts of dolphin sounds, and dolphins make ultrasonic sounds, and we use special equipment in the water to collect these sounds. Now, researchers have actually measured whistle complexity using information theory, and whistles rate very high relative to even human languages. But burst-pulsed sounds is a bit of a mystery.
你要記得 你聽到的只是 人類能聽到的海豚聲 牠們會發出超聲波 我們在水裡用特殊機器 來蒐集這些聲音 科學家已經測出了複雜的哨音 靠的是資訊理論 發現哨音和人類語言有相當高的關聯性 但是急促脈衝聲更加神秘些
Now, these are three spectragrams. Two are human words, and one is a dolphin vocalizing. So just take a guess in your mind which one is the dolphin. Now, it turns out burst-pulsed sounds actually look a bit like human phonemes.
這裡有三張頻譜圖 其中兩個紀錄人類說話另一個紀錄海豚的聲音 你們猜猜看哪一個是海豚的 結果證明急促脈衝聲和人類音位 真的有幾分相似
Now, one way to crack the code is to interpret these signals and figure out what they mean, but it's a difficult job, and we actually don't have a Rosetta Stone yet. But a second way to crack the code is to develop some technology, an interface to do two-way communication, and that's what we've been trying to do in the Bahamas and in real time. Now, scientists have used keyboard interfaces to try to bridge the gap with species including chimpanzees and dolphins. This underwater keyboard in Orlando, Florida, at the Epcot Center, was actually the most sophisticated ever two-way interface designed for humans and dolphins to work together under the water and exchange information. So we wanted to develop an interface like this in the Bahamas, but in a more natural setting. And one of the reasons we thought we could do this is because the dolphins were starting to show us a lot of mutual curiosity. They were spontaneously mimicking our vocalizations and our postures, and they were also inviting us into dolphin games. Now, dolphins are social mammals, so they love to play, and one of their favorite games is to drag seaweed, or sargassum in this case, around. And they're very adept. They like to drag it and drop it from appendage to appendage. Now in this footage, the adult is Caroh. She's 25 years old here, and this is her newborn, Cobalt, and he's just learning how to play this game. (Dolphin noises) She's kind of teasing him and taunting him. He really wants that sargassum. Now, when dolphins solicit humans for this game, they'll often sink vertically in the water, and they'll have a little sargassum on their flipper, and they'll sort of nudge it and drop it sometimes on the bottom and let us go get it, and then we'll have a little seaweed keep away game. But when we don't dive down and get it, they'll bring it to the surface and they'll sort of wave it in front of us on their tail and drop it for us like they do their calves, and then we'll pick it up and have a game.
解碼的方法呢 就是找出這些訊息代表的意思 但這十分艱難 而且我們也還沒找到解鎖的那把金鑰 但我們還有第二種方法來解鎖 就是發明新的技術 做出可以雙向溝通的平台 這就是我們在巴哈馬一直在嘗試的方式 而且是個即時系統 科學家已經開始用鍵盤式的系統 把物種間的溝通串連起來 包含猩猩和海豚 這個在水底下的按鍵板位於艾波卡特的中心 在佛羅里達的奧蘭多 是目前為止最精密的雙向設計 讓海豚和人類能在水下一起進行研究 並交換資訊 我們想在巴哈馬發展的就是這樣的系統 但是是用更自然的方法 我們自認能完成這件事的原因之一就是 那些海豚和我們一樣 對人類有相同的好奇心 牠們先是模仿我們的聲音 再來是我們的動作 甚至會希望我們 和牠們一起遊戲 海豚是喜歡遊戲的社會性哺乳動物 牠們的遊戲像把海草四處拖行 或是這裡所看到的 馬尾藻 牠們動作熟練 喜歡拿起來丟左丟右 影片裡的成年海豚叫卡蘿 這時候她只有 25 歲 另一個是她的寶寶柯柏特 牠正在學著玩遊戲 (海豚聲) 比較像是卡蘿在戲弄牠 牠真的很想拿到馬尾藻 當海豚希望我們加入遊戲時 牠們通常會垂直潛入水裡 把馬尾藻拿在鰭上 然後牠們會輕推馬尾藻 有時候用拋的 讓我們去拿 然後我們就會開始玩丟海草遊戲 但假如我們不潛下去拿 牠們會拿到水面上來 用尾巴在我們前面晃來晃去 然後丟在我們前面,就像教寶寶一樣 然後他們會撿起來,開始玩遊戲
And so we started thinking, well, wouldn't it be neat to build some technology that would allow the dolphins to request these things in real time, their favorite toys? So the original vision was to have a keyboard hanging from the boat attached to a computer, and the divers and dolphins would activate the keys on the keypad and happily exchange information and request toys from each other. But we quickly found out that dolphins simply were not going to hang around the boat using a keyboard. They've got better things to do in the wild. They might do it in captivity, but in the wild --
我們想,是不是能用科技 讓海豚可以即時和我們要 牠們最喜歡的玩具? 最原始的版本是一個掛在船下 連結著電腦的按鍵板 潛水員和海豚能用那塊板子 開心的互動、交換資訊 或要求對方一起玩 但我們很快的發現到海豚 並不喜歡繞在船邊使用按鍵板 他們在野外有更多好玩的事可做 在牢裡可能很有趣,但在野外......
So we built a portable keyboard that we could push through the water, and we labeled four objects they like to play with, the scarf, rope, sargassum, and also had a bow ride, which is a fun activity for a dolphin. (Whistle) And that's the scarf whistle, which is also associated with a visual symbol. And these are artificially created whistles. They're outside the dolphin's normal repertoire, but they're easily mimicked by the dolphins. And I spent four years with my colleagues Adam Pack and Fabienne Delfour, working out in the field with this keyboard using it with each other to do requests for toys while the dolphins were watching. And the dolphins could get in on the game. They could point at the visual object, or they could mimic the whistle.
因此我們做了個可放進水裡的移動式按鍵板 然後找了四種牠們特別喜歡玩的東西── 圍巾、繩子、馬尾藻和船首乘浪 對海豚來說是個很有趣的活動(哨音) 那是圍巾的哨音 同時也連結了一個視覺符號 這些都是人造的哨音 和海豚平常的聲音完全不同 但牠們很容易就能模仿 我和同事 Adam Pack 及 Fabienne Delfour 花了四年時間 研究這個按鍵板 用它來向對方要玩具 而海豚則在一旁看著 海豚能夠學會這個遊戲 牠們能找出正確的按鈕 或是能模仿出聲音
Now this is video of a session. The diver here has a rope toy, and I'm on the keyboard on the left, and I've just played the rope key, and that's the request for the toy from the human. So I've got the rope, I'm diving down, and I'm basically trying to get the dolphin's attention, because they're kind of like little kids. You have to keep their attention. I'm going to drop the rope, see if they come over. Here they come, and then they're going to pick up the rope and drag it around as a toy. Now, I'm at the keyboard on the left, and this is actually the first time that we tried this. I'm going to try to request this toy, the rope toy, from the dolphins using the rope sound. Let's see if they might actually understand what that means. (Whistle) That's the rope whistle. Up come the dolphins, and drop off the rope, yay. Wow.
這是某次的影片 潛水員有玩具繩子 而我在按鍵板的左邊 我正在按繩子的按鍵 這可以向人類要玩具繩 然後我拿到繩子,潛下去 基本上我在想辦法吸引海豚的注意力 因為牠們就像小小孩一樣 你必須讓牠們專心 我試著把繩子丟下 看看牠們會不會跑過來 看,牠們來了 牠們把繩子撿起來 當成玩具拖來拖去 現在我在按鍵板的旁邊 其實這是我們第一次嘗試 我發出繩子的聲音 想跟海豚要玩具繩子 來看看牠們有沒有聽懂 (哨音) 那是繩子的哨音 海豚來了 牠們把繩子丟下來,耶!看到沒!
(Applause)
(掌聲)
So this is only once. We don't know for sure if they really understand the function of the whistles. Okay, so here's a second toy in the water. This is a scarf toy, and I'm trying to lead the dolphin over to the keyboard to show her the visual and the acoustic signal. Now this dolphin, we call her "the scarf thief," because over the years she's absconded with about 12 scarves. In fact, we think she has a boutique somewhere in the Bahamas. So I'm reaching over. She's got the scarf on her right side. And we try to not touch the animals too much, we really don't want to over-habituate them. And I'm trying to lead her back to the keyboard. And the diver there is going to activate the scarf sound to request the scarf. So I try to give her the scarf. Whoop. Almost lost it. But this is the moment where everything becomes possible. The dolphin's at the keyboard. You've got full attention. And this sometimes went on for hours. And I wanted to share this video with you not to show you any big breakthroughs, because they haven't happened yet, but to show you the level of intention and focus that these dolphins have, and interest in the system.
這只是一次 我們不清楚牠們是否真的理解哨音的用處 這次是第二個玩具 一個玩具圍巾 我試著帶海豚來按鍵板旁邊 讓我示範符號和聲音 我們叫這隻海豚圍巾賊 因為牠總共偷走了 12 條圍巾 其實我們覺得牠可能在巴哈馬開了家服飾店 我游過去,牠把圍巾拿在右手邊 我們盡量不要碰到牠們 不想變成過度馴化 我試著要帶牠去按鍵板 旁邊的潛水員要發出圍巾的聲音 來跟海豚要圍巾 我要把圍巾給牠 噢!差點掉了 但從此刻開始什麼事情都可能會發生 海豚就在按鍵板旁 你引起牠們的注意 有時候這得持續好幾個鐘頭 我想跟你們分享這段影片 並不是有任何重大發現 因為還沒發生什麼大事 只是要分享海豚的表達力和專注力 及牠們的好奇心
And because of this, we really decided we needed some more sophisticated technology. So we joined forces with Georgia Tech, with Thad Starner's wearable computing group, to build us an underwater wearable computer that we're calling CHAT. [CHAT: Cetacean Hearing And Telemetry] Now, instead of pushing a keyboard through the water, the diver's wearing the complete system, and it's acoustic only, so basically the diver activates the sounds on a keypad on the forearm, the sounds go out through an underwater speaker, if a dolphin mimics the whistle or a human plays the whistle, the sounds come in and are localized by two hydrophones. The computer can localize who requested the toy if there's a word match. And the real power of the system is in the real-time sound recognition, so we can respond to the dolphins quickly and accurately.
也因為如此,我們認為 我們需要更精良的技術 因此我們與喬治亞理工學院 以及薩德.斯塔那 (Thad Starner) 所 帶領的可配戴式電腦團隊合作 要做出能防水的可配戴電腦 我們稱之為 CHAT 計畫(CHAT:鯨豚聽力遙測) 捨棄把按鍵板帶到水裡的方法 潛水員要穿著只有聲音功能的整套系統 基本上,他們要用手臂上的數字鍵盤 來控制聲音 聲音從水下發聲器送出 如果海豚模仿這哨音 或者是人類發出哨音 會被收進兩個水下聽音器 電腦能分辨出是誰在要玩具 前提是有符合的項目 系統的目的是即時辨識聲音 讓我們能正確而快速的 回應海豚
And we're at prototype stage, but this is how we hope it will play out. So Diver A and Diver B both have a wearable computer and the dolphin hears the whistle as a whistle, the diver hears the whistle as a whistle in the water, but also as a word through bone conduction. So Diver A plays the scarf whistle or Diver B plays the sargassum whistle to request a toy from whoever has it. What we hope will happen is that the dolphin mimics the whistle, and if Diver A has the sargassum, if that's the sound that was played and requested, then the diver will give the sargassum to the requesting dolphin and they'll swim away happily into the sunset playing sargassum for forever.
這還在原型階段 但這是我們所期待的未來 潛水員 A 和 B 都戴著設備 海豚能聽到哨音 潛水員也聽得到哨音 但同樣是透過骨傳導來傳遞 潛水員 A 發出圍巾的哨音 或潛水員 B 發出馬尾藻的哨音 來向拿著玩具的海豚索取 我們希望海豚能模仿這個哨音 假如潛水員 A 有馬尾藻 而且海豚也發出了馬尾藻的哨音 潛水員就會把馬尾藻給要求的海豚 牠就會開心的邊玩馬尾藻 邊游向日落
Now, how far can this kind of communication go? Well, CHAT is designed specifically to empower the dolphins to request things from us. It's designed to really be two-way. Now, will they learn to mimic the whistles functionally? We hope so and we think so. But as we decode their natural sounds, we're also planning to put those back into the computerized system. For example, right now we can put their own signature whistles in the computer and request to interact with a specific dolphin. Likewise, we can create our own whistles, our own whistle names, and let the dolphins request specific divers to interact with.
這樣的溝通方式能夠多深入呢? 其實 CHAT 只是開發來讓海豚 和人類互動 這個設計是雙向的 牠們會學著模仿有功能的哨音嗎? 我們希望如此 也堅信如此 但當我們研究出自然的海豚聲音 我們也會把這些聲音放進電腦系統裡 好比說,我們可以把每隻海豚獨特的主哨聲放進電腦 就能和特定的海豚互動 同樣地,我們也能創造出我們的主哨聲 我們的哨名 讓海豚能和特定潛水員互動
Now it may be that all our mobile technology will actually be the same technology that helps us communicate with another species down the road. In the case of a dolphin, you know, it's a species that, well, they're probably close to our intelligence in many ways and we might not be able to admit that right now, but they live in quite a different environment, and you still have to bridge the gap with the sensory systems.
無線科技 或許真的能幫助我們 在未來能和別的生物溝通對話 以海豚這個例子來說 牠們大概是在各方面和我們最接近的物種 雖然目前無法認定 但牠們生活在一個截然不同的環境 而我們還需要把兩邊的感官接軌
I mean, imagine what it would be like to really understand the mind of another intelligent species on the planet.
想像一下 若我們真的可以理解地球上其他生物的想法 那會是什麼樣子
Thank you.
謝謝
(Applause)
(掌聲)