Why Dolphins Are Deep Thinkers

Photograph: Stephen Frink/Getty Images
The more we study dolphins, the brighter they turn out to be, writes Anuschka de Rohan.
The brain of an adult bottlenose dolphin is about 25% heavier than the average human adult's brain.

At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean.

Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans.

“The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend…” Aldous Huxley

Ode To Misunderstandings

Ode To Misunderstandings


I don’t know,
I don’t believe.
What I do is feel & perceive.

Sometimes my sensitivity is misunderstood as premature conclusion.
I don’t really understand what constitutes right,
That’s my personal plight.

Sometimes I am accurate or observant,
Maybe that’s my in sight,
Could it be my contribution?
Maybe it’s just blind luck?
But like they say,
I would rather be lucky than right.

I have little understanding,
I am rarely certain,
If I knew for sure,
I wouldn’t claim, (to logically), believe in nothing.

My sensitivity
Seems to be,
The key to my misunderstanding.

While I feel,
Everyone else seems to be searching for answers & relevant conclusions.
These similar but contradictory agendas,
They can often lead to meaningful communications.
Most of the time,
Our disagreements look like disconnections.
While I share the fault,
It takes two to tango.
I need to grow
I need to change
I need to act and behave,
I want you to believe that I feel repentant.
But I don’t know,
And
I don’t believe.
I feel,
I perceive.

By my relativistic nature,
I am.
So I succeed.
Stubborn
Intense
Loud
Proud.

I feel & I perceive,
Results like right & wrong are just secondary,
Tertiary,
Infinitely ordinary.

To know
To understand
To believe,
I fear that if I toe these lines
I will not be able to simply see,
I could lose my existential spontaneity.


I beg for sweet confrontations,
I don’t argue
I debate.

Arguments are won & loss,
To see right opposed to wrong,
A dead end,
Leaving our lives unduly predetermined.


It has been said that things are not always what they seem,
I agree.
I see.
I pay attention.
In the thick of it all,
I play.
I dance.
I fail.
When our day is done,
Hopefully no hard feelings.

I feel & I perceive.
I’ve learned things are not always what they seem.
Beliefs,
Knowledge.
They seem to be
To me
Born from what we think.

I tell you this...
Our minds are very fussy,
Changing at the speed of light,
Susceptible to every emotion.
Our minds pale in comparison to feelings and intuition,
Before we form opinions,
Our perceptions are forming us.

I want to be free of knowing
I want to escape right verses wrong.

To cope with being misunderstood,
I feel & I perceive.
Ultimately,
I let my soul make the decisions.

I trust what comes initially,
I leave in trust the answers to those with minds
To know and understand
Such complex issues like morals and values,
I trust that they will create enough beliefs for the two of us.

To cope with being misunderstood,
I pray that my feelings and perceptions
Are convincing enough for me to know & believe.