Lisa Walker

I am a whale researcher based in the Salish Sea. I apply my background in music to investigate the song of the humpback whale. My premise is that human music and whale song share a fundamental organization that unites both our systems of sound. By analyzing the organization of the song through a musical lens, we are gaining a better understanding of the richness of their communication system and the potential messages being transmitted. My focus now is to apply Ai and deep learning methodologies to learn how we might communicate with these other intelligences. I presented my findings at the 2024 Astrobiology Conference outlining how whale communication can be used as a proxy for detecting and understanding signals from extra-terrestrial life.