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The dolphin who loved me: the Nasa-funded project that went wrong (2014)

114 points| Thevet | 7 years ago |theguardian.com | reply

57 comments

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[+] SapporoChris|7 years ago|reply
This is such an out there article, I'm not surprised at the lack of comments. I suspect very few want to comment and possibly be associated with zoophila. It did remind me of a site I stumbled upon in the 90's possibly later describing in a fairly clinical manner how to have sex with a dolphin. It is not graphic at all, but definately NSFW. Not Safe For Work! https://web.archive.org/web/20040131140419/http://www.dolphi... I'm not attracted to dolphins, but my purient interests found the site interesting and amusing.
[+] coolaliasbro|7 years ago|reply
I recall when my college roommate showed that site to the rest of the apartment. The combination of hilarity and incredulity was intense.
[+] jobigoud|7 years ago|reply
I had read about these stories separately, the consensual, interspecies sex and the dolphin suicide, but for some reason I failed to realized or had forgotten it was the same dolphin.

I admit I sort of fail to understand the outrage about the sex thing and about the attempt to teach it English. I'm probably naïve but I still think some basic form of communication should be possible, like with great apes.

[+] peteretep|7 years ago|reply
> the consensual

As a species, we’ve pretty universally said that some humans can’t legally/morally consent. A prisoner can’t consent to sex with their captors, even if they want to. A minor can’t consent to sex with an adult, even if they want to.

In short, I think declaring this as consensual is in question, rather than assumed. The power disparity here is huge between human and dolphin, in this context.

[+] DoreenMichele|7 years ago|reply
I sort of fail to understand the outrage about the sex thing

I will suggest that, in this case, the outrage may be rooted in the fact that the dolphin literally killed itself.

She didn't masturbate the dolphin for her own sexual pleasure. To her, it was a perfunctory part of her job. It was expedient, to free up time to teach the dolphin. And no one stopped to wonder what the emotional and psychological consequences would be for the dolphin.

It was smart enough to try to teach language to, but then it was simultaneously assumed to be a "dumb animal" just needing to ejaculate, like that's a necessary bodily function like peeing and that's it. But the dolphin apparently experienced emotional bonding and was completely devastated when separated from her and literally committed suicide because of it.

So I think on some level people are reacting not to the "sex" per se, but to the "You did a thing that caused an intelligent creature to want to be dead because of the thing you did. Seriously? What is wrong with you?"

[+] newqer|7 years ago|reply
I think the mindset of the 60's was way different. Today nobody blinks twice when a horse needs to be manually gotten-off to ship off the semen to other parts of the word.
[+] HocusLocus|7 years ago|reply
Here are the remains of Dolphin House,

https://zoom.earth/#18.318131,-64.859424,19z,sat

We used to sail past it in the 1970s, and the buildings were abandoned but had roofs then. Back in 2011 there were plans to develop the area but I guess they fell through. Back then the risque part of the story was well known, though the LSD experiments were not. They had it all backwards, the LSD should have generated an outcry instead. Mammals are similar enough that the scent of female human would surely provoke such a response.

[+] jessaustin|7 years ago|reply
Mammals are similar enough that the scent of female human would surely provoke such a response.

This couldn't possibly be correct. Female humans don't need to worry about e.g. amorous stallions, bulls, or even male chimpanzees. The fact that sexual relations of some sort have occasionally taken place between different species doesn't make anything about it "sure". If it were, mammals would waste a lot of time and energy on behavior that does not contribute to genetic fitness. Besides dolphins don't have olfactory nerves.

[+] goldcountry|7 years ago|reply
I very highly recommend reading up on Dr. John Lilly, easily one of the most interesting scientists during that era. Along with interspecies communication, he heavily researched psychedelic drug experiences and combining them with sensory deprivation tanks. He became heavily addicted to ketamine (reports say that he would come to work every day with a spray bottle full of ketamine, and noisily snort it throughout the day), and eventually became convinced of the existence of a cosmic organization called the Earth Coincidence Control Office (E.C.C.O.), which directed the actions of individuals on Earth. His story is also the inspiration for the video game Ecco the Dolphin.
[+] trollied|7 years ago|reply
There's a really good documentary about this: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3822614/

The BBC showed it a few years ago, it's fascinating: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b046w2n8

[+] eggy|7 years ago|reply
I heard an interview with the researcher on the radio while I was driving to work a few weeks ago, and it floored me. I then thought about the movie with George C. Scott, 'Day of the Dolphin', which my Dad took me to see when I was nine. I cried at the ending (no spoiler here, see the movie!).
[+] Haghn|7 years ago|reply
Thevet, thank you for the quality of your submissions. I really enjoy reading about these little-known pieces of history.
[+] ggm|7 years ago|reply
Context for some of what's in 'the day of the dolphin' by Robert Merle which I now understand is fictionalized from the Lilly story.

Szilards 'the voice of the dolphins' story is much more a political work post bomb physiscs career.