And God Created the Great Whale
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
SOCGRAD MINI-LECTURES
by
National Public Radio had a piece on whale songs on 24 May.
Listening to it twice opened up my curiousity about the varieties of Symbolic Interaction
much farther than ever before.
Until I heard that bit of research, I had given thought only to forms and content of human
speech. But there are several interesting questions for the next generation of
Interactions to consider.
First the findings:
1. Whales use at least 17 different sounds/notes/signals in the tapes assembled by John
Buck and Peter Hayek (?).
17 notes provide a large base for symbolic interaction...the human genome in all its
complexity, relies on but four information bits.
English Literature with its rich potential, relies on but 22 or so different letters. On
the other hand, there are some 385,000 words in the English Lexicon...and, in Hamlet,
Shakespeare uses over 20,000 of them...I would doubt whales reflect upon the falsity of
whale uncles or the fidelity of whale mothers.
But, an animal species could build a very, very complex social order using 17 or fewer
symbols...I wonder just how complex such undecodeable social life worlds
are....undecodeable to us, that it.
2. Susuki used information theory analyse both rate of information flow as well as the
ratio of noise to code. He found that:
a. Whales speech/song is very slow compared to humans...while human
speech flows at between 10 and 20 bits per second, whale signals convey only .1 to .6
information bits per second. Compare that to your modem which transmits some 56000 bits
per second.
b. Whale songs/signals have a syntax...that is there are rules by which
the signals are combined.
Those of us interested in information theory in particular and symbolic interaction theory
in general have much to do.
First...I wonder what difference speed of information flow makes...in the world of the
whale, maybe .5 bits/second is fast enough...given the distance and distortions, faster
rates might transform all speech into noise.
I wonder just what are, in the animal kingdom, the relationships are between rate of
information flow and:
a. size of the animal
b. nature of the environment
c. complexity of the social life world
d. number and nature of predators
Given the social life world of a whale, maybe .5 bits/second is adequate to inform other
whales of:
Who it is speaking
What is going on
Where we shall meet
What kind of food is available
What dangers lurk
Who is courting whom
I wonder if there are complex social relationships not predicated on family ties and early
bonding...stratification, 'tribal' and perchance, oceanic.
I wonder what kind, if any, definitions of the situation emerge out of the symbolic
interactions of whales; do they build family relationships not based upon kinship and
early bonding?
Do they have complex political systems in which leadership is not based upon kinship and
physical force?
Do they play complex games, keep score and run tournaments of a sort?
Do they think about mystery and magic in their social life course?
What do they do with death, grief and the pain of loss?
Second...maybe such rates are adequate to create culture: re-affirm relationships, make
group plans, remember significant events, remind all of traditional gatherings, teach
young ones about dangers and delights, control deviancy and perchance punish violation of
the norms...
Do whales create norms, mores, moralities and try to impose ethical standards...questions
which arise if symbolic interactional patterns are complex enough.
And, if so, then the boundaries of culture and symbolic interaction...and social theory
have to be opened up much wider than we might suppose. The boundaries between animal and
human culture might not be as clear as we assume. If whales, dolphins and the great apes
create complex cultural patterns, questions of ethics and morality are much more complex
than our poor philosophy might suppose.
Thirdly..I wonder what other information systems whales might have to supplement/enrich
symbolic interaction.
Human beings have as least five: voice, body talk, clothing/cosmetics/body decoration,
lines of behavior as well as architecturual encodings which help define
situations/relationships/identities.
I can think of two short range information flow systems which might serve: manta rays use
electro-magnetic fields to pick up information; moths and ants use chemical to send and
recieve information.
Whales have such large brains and brain cases, I wonder if there are still other symbolic
interactive systems about which we know nought...the US Navy uses ultra-low range
electro-magnetic waves to communicate with subs around the world...I wonder if whales do
some similar.
Whatever the case, I suspect that the next generation of symbolic interactionists will
learn far more than did the first, second or third generation...and all good luck to them.
TR Young
Scholar in Residence
The Red Feather Institute
May 27 2000