THE INTERSPECIES INTERNET? AN IDEA IN PROGRESS
The following article is about Diana Reiss. After Unit 9, you’ll have the opportunity to watch some of Reiss and her colleagues’ TED talk and learn more about their idea worth spreading.
What happens when you give a dolphin a mirror or a computer keyboard? Just ask Diana Reiss. She studies the cognition and communication of dolphins. Scientists believe that dolphins and other animals are self-aware and have emotions. They are able to think, learn, and remember.
Diana Reiss showed these abilities in her research with dolphins and elephants. Reiss used a mirror in her studies. The animals recognized themselves in the mirror. That shows that they are self-aware.
Reiss also made a special keyboard that could work underwater. The keyboard had keys that the dolphins could touch. When touched, the computer would make a whistle and the dolphins got a fun object or activity. In the experiment, the dolphins learned which keys to touch to get what they wanted.
Diana Reiss’s Keyboard experiment showed that dolphins have cognitive abilities and can use them to communicate. But that experiment was many years ago. Now, she is interested in what today’s technology can show us about animal minds. What do you think of an orangutan using an iPad? Or other animals being connected through the lnternet?