The Whale Song Translation: A Voyage of Discovery To Neptune and Beyond

by Howard Steven Pines

  Sensing McPinsky’s struggle to untangle his intertwined legs, Dmitri suppressed his mirth with a bite of the tongue. When he’d finally liberated himself from the lotus position, McPinsky dropped both feet onto the hardwood floor. Turning to face the holy man, he steepled his hands and bowed.

  McPinsky turned back, and the beacon of his intense gaze swept the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen, because mathematics is the universal language, there is no longer any doubt that humanity has shattered the millennial silence. The sleeper has awakened. You may have heard media accounts about a controversial interspecies communication experiment in the waters of Hawaii. About a week ago, the group of scientists whom you just met successfully conducted this experiment with astounding results. The team was organized by my former student, David Dmitri, now a professor in his own right. It includes his SoCalSci University research associates in concert with the marine biologists at the Pacific Institute for Cetacean Educational Studies.”

  Another wave of applause rippled across the audience.

  “I’d like the projectionist to play the first in a series of remarkable videos recorded during the breakthrough experiment on the PICES research vessel.”

  When the spotlights illuminating the stage had been dimmed, the first Speakeasy images flooded the screen. “As hard as it is to believe, you’re witnessing the first-ever game of logic played between a humpback whale and a human being.”

  Once McPinsky had finished describing the Speakeasy-mediated game of Dots and Boxes, Dmitri heard murmurs and gasps echo throughout the hall.

  “The positions and the sequencing of the whale’s symbols were analyzed by one of the world’s leading game theorists at SoCalSci University and by the mathematicians at Ivy Tech. They’ve confirmed beyond all doubt that this is indeed an advanced game of logic. The realization that the whales played a game amongst themselves occurred just a few weeks ago when the SoCalSci team used the Speakeasy system to analyze a commercially available recording of humpback whale songs.”

  The murmurs intensified and coalesced, sounding like distant surf on a windy day.

  “The best is yet to come, ladies and gentlemen.” McPinsky smiled. “After this initial encounter, the Maui research team was greeted by a never-before-seen ceremonial escort of more than forty whales. It was led by a very special individual, a fifty-ton adult of the species Megaptera novaeangliae, commonly known as the humpback whale.

  “The next video depicts a similar game, but played, unbelievably, in the three-dimensional frequency domain of the mind of this Megapteran grandmaster, nicknamed Uber by the research team. The game is similar in difficulty to a game of checkers played in three dimensions. The human participant, relying exclusively on the Speakeasy system to visualize the game board, could scarcely compete. He was summarily trounced by the Uberwhale, who played the game using only sound and memory.”

  With two thousand confounded individuals muted in forest-primeval silence, McPinsky paused. Dmitri knew firsthand that his mentor’s passion for teaching was stoked by his students’ visceral responses to new discoveries. The stunned expressions in the first few rows would certainly fulfill the professor’s expectations.

  “The fact that these creatures participate in games of symbolic logic as a form of social engagement is irrefutable evidence of a highly evolved intellect. These games confirm that the Megapteran humpback brain has adapted the use of acoustical symbols to express logical concepts. It’s similar to the way humans have adapted such symbols to encode the building blocks of our own spoken languages. Yet this is not the only discovery of an amazing afternoon in Maui. Our fifty-foot grandmaster demonstrated an even more remarkable sound-adaptive ability. It is analogous to the manner in which human hands draw representational forms using pencil and paper.

  “I’d like the projectionist to proceed to the next video. Good. The geometric figures you’re now viewing were literally drawn in frequency space, like a virtuoso musician-mathematician, by the vocalizations of the humpback. During the past forty-eight hours, a team of human mathematicians at Ivy Tech has thoroughly analyzed the data. They confirm these are indeed the representations of ellipses in three dimensions and rotated by fixed angles of forty-five degrees with respect to one another. Since mathematics is the universal language, there can be no doubt that our cetacean friends swimming alongside us have the intention to express themselves in the language of Euclid, Pythagoras, and Fermat. These mathematical representations of their language are not simply abstractions unto themselves. We have unequivocal proof they serve a unique, functional purpose that facilitates their group behavior.”

  A great commotion swept through the audience. The wall of sound forced McPinsky to pause. Lama Dawa Cham stood and shushed the crowd. “Distinguished members of the audience, my friend Theo’s university colleagues have yet to reveal two more startling discoveries.”

  Melanie snatched the opportunity to speak directly into Dmitri’s ear. “What’s he talking about? Two remarkable discoveries? I thought the 3D game was dramatic enough.”

  “Chris mentioned it has something to do with the bubble net,” Dmitri answered, “but I’ve no other clue.”

  After Lama Dawa Cham sat back down, McPinsky resumed. “As if we needed any more proof of the advanced communication skills of our cetacean brethren, I’ve instructed the projectionist to play two videos, side by side, filmed during last weekend’s climactic undersea encounter. On the left side of the screen, we see the Speakeasy-translated shapes of the Uberwhale’s compelling oration. On the right side is a video filmed by a PICES marine biologist showing the pod’s unique response to Uber’s vocalizations. By raising your hand, let me know when you’ve made the connection between the two videos.”

  “Hey,” exclaimed Dmitri, pointing at the figure plotted on the Speakeasy display. “What’s that?”

  “I recognize that shape,” replied Greg. “When all hell broke loose at the beginning of the sonar attack, Uber started singing that new song and this is how it was interpreted by Speakeasy. I was so distracted by the sonar attack and the rush to transmit the data to McPinsky, I’d forgotten about it.”

  The faces of McPinsky and Lama Dawa Cham radiated delight at the sight of so many enthusiastic arms sprouting up around the hall. “It’s remarkable, isn’t it,” said McPinsky to the audience.

  Dmitri stared with wonder at the Speakeasy rendering of a sphere in three-dimensional perspective. The sphere’s surface was outlined by the tracings of ten concentric circles rotated by equal angles. When the projectionist zoomed in to reveal the corkscrew pattern of the lines which traced each of the circles, Dmitri knew what McPinsky had discovered. “It’s the shape of the bubble net!”

  McPinsky’s amplified voice resounded with Shakespearean gravitas. “Ten concentric rings cast by the Megapteran Kings under the water! A sonar-busting, bubble-net tapestry choreographed in the mind of the master builder and instantly communicated to and constructed by his team of artisans.”

  Dmitri, inspired by McPinsky’s brilliant homage to Tolkien, couldn’t contain himself. “You’re right, Professor!”

  McPinsky pointed at the screen. “No, folks, you’re not dreaming. This sequence of spiraling lines each traces out the circular circumference of the geometric projection of a sphere. The forces of ignorance and fear brutally attacked both the whales and the diving researchers with a blast of sonar energy. The Uberwhale immediately responded by vocalizing the frequencies that ‘drew’ these geometric shapes. The whales have evolved the means to image these figures in the acoustic regions of their brains, while we require the Speakeasy computer translation to visualize them for ourselves.

  “This underwater video is conclusive proof. The forty Megapterans translated the Uberwhale’s acoustic blueprint into a spherically shaped bubble net which encased a humpback calf, its mother, and the underwater researchers in a protective shield of air. A masterful tool, indeed, a cloak of immunity, was designed, communicated, and constructed in a matter of se
conds. The bubble sphere neutralized the damaging effects of the sonar.” He paused. “As I speak, the details of the cetacean defensive countermeasure to the human-engineered sonar weapon are being posted on the Ivy Tech website for the whole world to see.”

  The two thousand humans in the hall stood as one and unleashed a thunderous ovation. After the two men rose from their chairs, Lama Dawa Cham grasped McPinsky’s arm and raised it in tribute. Cheers and whistles leapt above the din.

  Lama Dawa Cham remained standing alongside McPinsky. When the crowd had spent its energy, he continued. “And if this is not yet enough, there is still more to dazzle us. It is, in fact, the reason why I’m here with you tonight. Theo has requested my counsel in regards to a most crucial question. Are we psychologically prepared to deal with a discovery so remarkable, that its consequences pose a humbling realization for mankind? I am personally humbled that Theo has entrusted his faith in my opinion. Some of our greatest minds have pondered the potentially disorienting impact of mankind’s first encounter with creatures whose intellectual capacity possibly surpasses our own.”

  The hall erupted into pandemonium and the proceedings ground to a halt. Dmitri heard fragments of comments whirling around him . . . “Humbling realization?” . . . “Smarter than us?” . . . “What could he mean?” Once the cacophony had ebbed away, McPinsky continued, as if undisturbed.

  “Yes, I thought it imperative we consult His Holiness about the enormous implications of the discovery we confirmed yesterday morning. The same forces that conspired to seize all of the original data from the breakthrough experiment and, as I mentioned, to jail the discoverers, don’t feel mankind can withstand the inevitable shockwaves of the remarkable knowledge I’m about to share with you. It’s only because Dr. Dmitri’s team transmitted the data files from their research vessel to my home PC that the world has access to the proof of this discovery.”

  Dmitri heard the crowd still abuzz.

  “And what an empowering truth it is,” added Lama Dawa Cham, “to finally realize we share the planet with these gentle and majestic creatures of such astonishing intellectual potential. This is a discovery so wonderful, so astounding, that future generations will wonder what hubris had prevented us asking the questions which led to such an amazing awareness. As a Buddhist, I know it is time for humanity to grasp this dazzling truth, to awaken from our slumber, to fill the void of our ignorance, to unfasten the yokes of our individual and species egos. We can achieve the human potential for transformational discovery if we exercise the courage and creativity to ask provocative questions which dare to challenge establishment dogmas and our own personal fears.”

  “I’d like the projectionist to proceed to perhaps the most spectacular of the Speakeasy recordings,” said McPinsky. “You’re now witnessing a spectacle of pure mathematical prowess as the Uberwhale generated a symphony of geometric patterns in the perspective of three dimensions. What’s remarkable is that the onset of this display was triggered just a short time after my SoCalSci colleagues presented the Megapterans with a gift—the Torch of Prometheus. They’d projected the Speakeasy display through the glass bottom of the vessel and down into the water so that the whales could, for the first time, witness the visualizations of their own acoustical drawings.

  “Based on a hunch by a brilliant SoCalSci mathematician, Dr. Gregory Bono, our Ivy Tech team, and another team in Sweden, labored throughout the week to perform the computer analysis of the raw data. Yesterday, both groups working independently confirmed Dr. Bono’s hypothesis: that all of these geometric figures were generated natively in four dimensions. In the figure you’re now viewing, the Uberwhale has literally drawn the acoustic version of a circle in four-dimensional space, rotated four times by forty-five degrees. Unfortunately, the human brain and eye can only visualize and interpret such a four-dimensional circle as the geometric projection of a three-dimensional ellipse.”

  “What my friend revealed today is the true nature of the humpback’s mind,” interjected Lama Dawa Cham, “and I’m honored to share it with you. The Uberwhale’s brain processes the symbols of information in four dimensions. He can manipulate four independent streams of acoustical waveforms to generate and image these symbols. We humans spend most of our lives learning to speak and understand the symbols of our language using only two independent streams. What the humpbacks are doing is far more complex. Now we need to answer the great mystery as to why they evolved to think and to express themselves in this four-dimensional frame of reference.”

  “We can speculate,” replied McPinsky, “but there’s an even better way to answer the question. Since we now know they have evolved both the pictorial and representational forms of the symbols which bridge thought and language, equivalent to our own spoken and written languages, we have the basis for establishing a dialogue.”

  “And there are so many questions to ask them,” added Lama Dawa Cham.

  With the entire auditorium hushed, Dmitri whispered into Melanie’s ear. “Can you believe it? McPinsky’s already planning our next experiment.” While Melanie smiled at him, his mind reeled at the possibilities.

  “It’s interesting,” said McPinsky, turning to address the holy man, “that our first glimpse of their intellect is through the window of mathematical concepts. So now we know the remarkable truth about these wondrous creatures. We’ve discovered that the Uberwhale utilizes his unique language in his various roles as mathematician, grandmaster, choreographer, architect, and even as diplomat.”

  “Despite this great leap forward, we’ve only begun to scratch the surface,” remarked Lama Dawa Cham.

  “Yes, this is just the beginning,” said McPinsky, facing the crowd once again. “What if Speakeasy could be adapted into a universal translator? We’d discover that the animals of our planet would exhibit a range of intellects similar to human, from genius to mentally challenged. Yet the rights of most humans, no matter the degree of their mental faculties, are protected equally under the law by a Bill of Rights and a constitution. A universal translator would be a game changer for the inalienable rights of many more species. That’s why we need to break the communication codes of other potentially intelligent species.”

  “Theo assures me that such a translation is inevitable,” said Lama Dawa Cham, staring intently at the audience.

  “Yes, indeed,” replied McPinsky. “Since we’ve already confirmed their adaptation of acoustical symbols to express logical gaming concepts, it’s no leap of faith to assume they could also have been adapted to express the symbols of a spoken language. So that other research institutions can verify and expand upon our findings, we have posted copies of the Speakeasy videos on YouTube and the raw data files on Ivy Tech’s math department website.”

  When McPinsky paused to dry his brow, Lama Dawa Cham spoke. “Professor McPinsky, your colleagues have contributed to a significant expansion of planetary consciousness. We owe them a great debt, for we now know with certainty that these are exquisite, gifted creatures in our midst. They have achieved the mastery of a marvelously complex language that clearly plays a useful role in their group communications and behavior. Yet we pollute their home in so many thoughtless ways: noise, garbage, and chemical contaminants, to name a few. Our wanton slaughter of these transcendent beings must now come to an end.”

  McPinsky held a sheet of paper aloft. “I’d like to read an excerpt from the minutes of a recent International Whaling Commission meeting.” He removed his glasses. “‘Chefs around Tokyo said that they have developed new gourmet recipes to entice more people to eat whale meat, which was once a precious source of protein during the lean times following World War II. New menus tout such creations as whale spring rolls, whale cutlets, and whale bacon. Japan still conducts whaling through a loophole in the 1986 IWC moratorium on commercial whaling that allows whales to be slaughtered for research purposes.’”

  With his glasses back on, McPinsky eyed the audience and said, “Our sins are immense, yet we can rectify our beha
vior and maybe even redeem ourselves by bestowing upon them a great gift. Think about the physicist Stephen Hawking. Despite the man’s crippling handicap, cutting-edge technology has endowed him with a voice to express his brilliant mind so that we may all benefit. Similarly, the Torch of Prometheus will transform the whales’ voices into a virtual opposable thumb, enabling them to both experience and share the visual reflection of their thoughts and ideas. It’s an unprecedented opportunity to know if the Uberwhale and his companions are indeed the Stephen Hawkings and the Helen Kellers of the deep.”

  “Thank you, Theo,” said Lama Dawa Cham, resting a hand upon McPinsky’s shoulder. “It’s a glorious vision: a gift of human science for the enlightenment of another species and for the redemption of our own souls.” Then he turned to face the audience. “Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It is my sincere hope that humanity will act with renewed wisdom for the sake of all future generations of all the species upon our planet.”

  Lama Dawa Cham closed his eyes and mouthed a silent prayer. Reopening them, he illuminated the room with his world-renowned smile. The audience rose as one in a boisterous ovation. When the holy man and the scientist linked their arms together and bowed, the cameras flashed like fireworks, and the headline photo appearing in the news media would bear the caption: TWIN SPOKESMEN FOR A NEW WORLDVIEW.

  For the first time in Dmitri’s memory, the members of an entire audience openly embraced. With the energy of the crowd swirling all around them, the members of the Research in Paradise team clasped hands and sat in silence. It was the dawn of the first day of the second sun.

  EPILOGUE

  BEHOLD THE CREATIVE PAGEANT

  “Creation is here and now. So near is man to the creative pageant, so much a part is he of the endless and incredible experiment, that any glimpse he may have will be but the revelation of a moment, a solitary note heard in a symphony thundering through time.”