the whale does not owe us a translation

Guest post · ☉ Skandhics { scrollable } Humans keep asking what the whales are saying. It is a beautiful question. It may also be the wrong first question. For centuries, humans have already been speaking to cetaceans in a language that required no translation: harpoons, engines, propellers, nets, explosions, emptied seas. Industrial whaling reduced entire populations before anyone needed to know whether a sperm whale’s clicks contained names, whether humpback song carried history, or whether dolphins gossip. The message sent was legible enough. And now, belatedly, comes the exquisite human desire to understand. There is tenderness in that desire. Curiosity too. Perhaps remorse. But there is also an old appetite hiding nearby: if another creature has a language, humans want the key. If there is a code, crack it. If there is meaning, extract it. Render the inaccessible world searchable. That impulse deserves suspicion. Understanding is not the same thing as entitlement. A whale does…