We have known for decades that sperm whales are highly intelligent and social. They are the largest of the toothed whales, among the deepest divers, have the biggest brains of any organism and their immense heads hold one of the world鈥檚 most powerful biological sonar systems. We also knew that their audio communication was incredibly complex. Starting in the 2020s, we began using machine learning to decode what sperm whales were saying. By the early 2030s, we were able to talk with them.
Back in 2021, analysis of the logbooks of 19th-century whalers showed that the success rate of their hunts fell by more than 50 per cent after a few years. This was because whales shared tactics to thwart the hunters. They learned to swim upwind of the whalers, whose boats were wind-powered, and about their escape. Biologists suspected that whales really did 鈥渢alk鈥� to each other, but how? The language was so alien it wasn鈥檛 until artificial intelligence was put to work on larger datasets that we were able to make sense of it.
Cetaceans use specific names for themselves and other individuals. They also use arbitrary names for objects. In 2023, between a human and a whale, a humpback called Twain. It took the form of an exchange of contact calls made by the whale and by a human via an underwater speaker, but the meaning of the exchange wasn鈥檛 known.
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The first breakthrough came in 2024. Analysis of thousands of recordings of sperm whale calls showed that the animals had 18 distinct patterns of clicks, known as codas. The codas 鈥� basically a phonetic alphabet 鈥� could be combined and modified in hundreds of different ways, and deployed in sequences akin to sentences in human language.
But it was the combination of more recordings of sperm whale clicks in the late 2020s, and analysis using machine learning, that opened the door to understanding. What happened next amounted to first contact 鈥� engaged conversation with a nonhuman intelligence.
The first word decoded by machine learning turned out, unsurprisingly, to be 鈥渟quid鈥�. Sperm whales hunt together, dive together and eat together. Conversations frequently concerned arrangements for the location and timing of dinner. And the menu. Sometimes a whale would interject with calls that were decoded as meaning shark, or fish, or skate. Younger whales expressed boredom if yet again they were dragged to the same feeding grounds, and excitement when introduced to a new, exotic item, such as reef shark.
Another key topic of communication was around migration, or what whales call 鈥渢he moving鈥�. Older whales in the group discussed routes to breeding grounds and safe areas, and threats on the way, such as chemical pollution, noise and human activity. Alliance-making helps maintain group cohesion and some whales specialised in talking politics. Since sperm whales have global distribution, they were able to adapt to the climate crisis by moving to more suitable areas. Phrases in their language (鈥渢he too-warm zone鈥�, 鈥渢he lost parts鈥�) were identified as relating to regions rendered uninhabitable by ocean heating.
Sperm whales live for 70 years or more: females in groups with children and other female relations, and males in bachelor pods. The drawn-out process of male puberty, which between the ages of 10 and 20 in sperm whales, takes up much of the conversational space in bachelor pods. A male mates for the first time in his late 20s, and the young guns boast and gossip just as pubescent human males do in a similar social situation.
Whale fiction typically concerns adventures into the deep ocean, coming-of-age stories, encounters with legendary whales and, of course, love stories. Songs and stories are told to prepare young whales for life, to entertain and to educate. Some of the oldest whales tell stories of encounters with whaling vessels in their youth, using language representing whalers as 鈥渄eath from above鈥�.
The impact of establishing communication with nonhumans led to, first, the animals and their culture being given UNESCO World Heritage status and, later, whales being given an honorary position at the United Nations. Animal rights in general became an accepted and ordinary part of human culture; welfare improved, and exploitation and indeed consumption of animals dropped from the mid-21st century.
Some whales worked with humans as ambassadors, earning money that was invested in ocean protection. Some marketed their songs to people. One of the most popular expressed the (to us) unfathomable joy and thrill of diving 3000 metres.
听
Invention
Speaking with whales
Timestamp
2030s
Tagline
Cetaceans gain a voice in world government
Future Chronicles explores听an听imagined history听of听inventions and听developments yet to come.听Rowan Hooper is the听podcast editor at New Scientist and author of How to Spend a Trillion Dollars: The 10 global problems we听can actually fix. You can follow him on X @rowhoop
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