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Sapient Cetaceans: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"[On Earth], man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars, and so on -- while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons."''|''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''}}
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Sapient cetaceans may demonstrate obvious sentience because of genetic engineering or magical phlebotinum, or human-level intelligence and the skills to prove it may just be natural traits of cetaceans in the setting.
For dolphins in particular, this may sometimes overlap with [[Friendly Playful Dolphin]], or [[Heroic Dolphin]], or both, but not always. Sometimes it's the result of being an [[Uplifted Animal]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''Damekko_Dōbutsu'' has a sentient orca that cannot swim and uses a life preserver.
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* ''[[Zettai Karen Children]]'' has the appearance of Lieutenant Ikyuugo, a dolphin with precognitive powers, whom The Children affectionately call "old man".
* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', [[Fish People|dolphin-men]] are one of the many denizens found in the [[Magic World]]. One of them works as a trucker who pilots an airship.
* The final episode of ''[[Gunbuster]]'' shows an Orca amongst a ship's crew.
* ''[[Digimon]]'' - Dolphmon possesses advanced intelligence, but its form of thought is too complex for a normal person to understand.
* The Five-Tails from ''[[Naruto]]''
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* The comic books based on the ''[[Ecco the Dolphin (series)|Ecco the Dolphin]]'' series explicitly portray Ecco as a very clever and resourceful dolphin, even to the point of tricking a jellyfish and a polar bear into attacking each other instead of him, and of course involve him discussing subjects like alien invasions with other creatures and even [[It Makes Sense in Context|talking crystals]]. See also the Ecco entry in the video game section.
* [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[The Ballad of Halo Jones]]'' has sapient Dolphins.
* ''[[
* "The Forty Year Old Hippie" made an apparatus to talk with whales and used it on a Greenpeace-style mission...but only ended up antagonizing a whale with a 'survival of the fittest' attitude who resented the hippie's patronizing.
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* The [[Diane Duane]] ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' novel ''Dark Mirror'' involves an alien race that's essentially dolphins <small>IN SPACE!</small> (They're not related to the whales <small>IN SPACE</small> from ''Star Trek IV''.)
** The ''Star Trek The Next Generation: Technical Manual'' notes that the Cetacean tanks on board contain the dolphin and whale navigational specialists. This is pretty much shout out to ''Gunbuster'', where cybernetically enhanced dolphins form the main navigational computer of the Eltreum.
** In ''[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Probe_%28novel%29 Probe]'', a sort-of sequel novel to ''[[Star Trek]] IV'', the Cetacean probe is traced back to its
** One ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' novel had a dolphin as a supporting character, which held the rank of commander in Starfleet. At one point, Riker whistles a specific sequence of notes to get its attention, implying he can speak (or at least swear) in Dolphin.
* Duane's ''[[Young Wizards]]'' book series also features Cetacean wizards (the Trek novel contains a [[Shout-Out]] to them). Of course, pretty much everyone and everything with more brains than a sponge has Wizarding potential in this setting.
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** They were already rather intelligent before uplift, they and the larger whales sharing a unique way of thinking referred to as the "Whale Dream". And whale songs are treasured by many alien races.
* [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' [[The Verse|'verse]] establishes that dolphins were recognized as sapient beings [[Alternate History|in the late 20th century]]. Not long after they sue us for our whaling practices in a suit that literally takes hundreds of years to get through the court system (the dolphins enjoy it too much to let it resolve).
* The 1986 computer novel ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20020603195216/http://portal.stodge.org/ Portal: A Dataspace Retrieval]'' gets downright philosophical:
{{quote|''Man does not take time to think things over, to sing about them completely. Too much like a monkey, they say. That's the problem with having hands, they say. Always trying to put them on things, move them around, turn them over.
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* In the ''[[Greatwinter Trilogy]]'' by Sean McMullen, scientists reconstruct ancient cetacean DNA and create three members of the species who turn out to be telepathic/smarter than humans.
* This concept gets a [[Take That]] in ''The [[Polity Series]]'' novel ''The Skinner''. The narrator notes that eventually people were able to accurately measure the intelligence of animals, and found that despite longstanding stereotype, dolphins and whales were actually pretty dumb. Instead, the novel has a swarm of wasps who form a [[Hive Mind]] / living computer of equal or greater than human intelligence.
* In the 1981 book ''Megalodon'' by Robin Brown, the protagonist scientist has developed the Janus device, a computer/vocoder/translator which enables him to teach two dolphins (nicknamed Doris and Macho) and a killer whale (Morgan) a rudimentary language (their own language is sophisticated enough to communicate three-dimensional sonar
* The 1967 novel ''A Sentient Animal'' by Robert Merle is about a scientist who successfully teaches human languages to dolphins, resulting (to his dismay) in the latter being used as living weapons by the US military.
* In [[Piers Anthony]]'s stories about a human dentist abducted by aliens to serve as their on-ship oral hygiene practitioner (''Prosthro Plus''), the intrepid orthodontist is called upon to do some filings for a life-form on a wholly aquatic planet, who turns out to be the son of a whale-like species who are planetary rulers and who can therefore pay the fabulous costs of ''tons'' of gold used to restore the cavity-laden rotten teeth. After several days of work with JCB's to excavate the rot and a portable blast furnace to melt the gold for the fillings - all done inside the creature's mouth as it really is that large - the dentist asks what caused catastrophic rot in the first place, learning that over-indulgent parents had allowed too many sweeties and not imposed a good enough teeth-cleaning regime...
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* [[Arthur C. Clarke]] once penned a short novel about the discovery of cetacean intelligence.
* In Sergey Volnov's ''Army of the Sun'', someone thought it was a good idea to uplift not only whales but also sharks (despite the latter being a fish and not a mammal). Oh yeah, and they also have incredible [[Psychic Powers]]. Interestingly, the only intelligent shark in the novel is pretty peaceful and bears humans no ill will and is a mentor to a young intelligent orca. For reference, orca's kill sharks for sport.
* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' novel ''Small Favor'', dolphins turn out to not only be intelligent, but smart enough to recognize that Harry is a good guy and the squad of [[Fallen Angel
* In the [[Hell's Gate]] series the Cetaceans of Sharona have been established as having intelligence at or near human levels. Some humans are able to telepathically talk to them and they act as ambassadors trading human services (such as medical treatment) for the Cetaceans' help with things like fishing and finding oyster beds.
* Betty Ballantine's ''The Secret Oceans'' features intelligent dolphin-like creatures which are dubbed Cetasapiens.
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* In ''[[SeaQuest DSV]]'', Ensign Darwin is a dolphin crew member of the titular submarine. He can speak [[You No Take Candle|passable english]] thanks to a translator device hooked to the ships computer, and is considered an honorary ensign in the Navy.
** A few episodes involve them telling Darwin what to do, such as "playing" with automated submarine drones, causing them to crash into each other.
* In ''[[Star Trek: The
** In ''[[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home|Star Trek IV the Voyage Home]]'', an alien probe is sent to Earth to re-establish relations between an alien race and humpback whales. Seems they didn't know that in the meantime human civilization had risen and {{spoiler|caused the extinction of humpbacks sometime before 2286.}}
** One of the Xindi races in ''[[Star Trek:
* Parodied during a skit in the ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000|MST3K]]'' episode "Devilfish". Mike and the bots make the mistake of talking disparagingly about
* In the candid camera show ''The Jamie Kennedy Experiment'' one victim is actually convinced that a dolphin can speak using a robotic-sounding translator. The dolphin asks to make a cellphone call to his girlfriend in another tank. It's really well-done, enough so that the mark actually accepts this, until the dolphin starts talking about their secret plans to overthrow the world, losing much of its credibility.
== [[New Media]] ==
* [[The Onion]] parodied this with the article "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100317092159/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28315 Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs: 'Oh, Shit,' Says Humanity]". The article is then filled with stories of the Dolphins' incredibly rapid technology development, and marine biologists committing suicide or preparing to serve the Dolphin overlords.
* Dolphins were one the earliest animal species to be uplifted, or 'provolved' to sentience in ''[[Orion's Arm]]''. They are quite common, living on water worlds and habitats all over the terragen sphere.
** There are also several genetically recreated and provolved whales on Old Earth, known as "Gaian whales".
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* ''[[The Far Side]]'' takes a few jabs at dolphins; the ones that immediately spring to mind is the dolphin whose husband is missing (dolphin cop: "We're going to let you go back to your canning in a minute...") and the dolphins who are trying to communicate with scientists (on blackboard: [[Funetik Aksent|Komo-esstass; say hablah es-pan-yoll]]).
* One comic by Don Martin had a scientist making a device that translated dolphin speech, and tested it on the dolphin present in the lab. Only he hears what the dolphin says, but immediately turns around and embarrassedly zips his fly.
* One series of ''[[Dilbert]]'' strips had him trapped miles from shore while dolphins taunted him for hours ("[//dilbert.com/strip/1996-09-27 Let's ask] the humming fish to do the ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' theme song...").
== Radio ==
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* In ''[[Blue Rose]]'', you can play a sapient, telepathic dolphin PC, or play a human who has one as a [[Bond Creature]].
* One early RPG inspired by Niven's [[Known Space]] novels had omitted rules for dolphin characters, but an article in ''Dragon'' corrected that, introducing such necessities as water-filled space suits and strap-on robotic arms.
* Some editions of ''[[Dungeons
** Some [[Space Whale]]s in ''[[Spelljammer]]'' (Delphinids and Great Dreamers).
** ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has a lot of cetaceans in the Sea of Fallen Stars sentient (many of them spellcasting - bard type magic works just fine with whalesong) or semisentient; most of the rest are domesticated by underwater races. Also, gods often have their own uses for sentient whales. The Earthmother even keeps a Leviathan as her powered-up (and beefed up, above and beyond their "usual" enormous size) divine minion.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''Whaleocalypse'' stars a sapient whale.
* In ''[[UNA Frontiers]]'', one of the main characters is Cyberna, an AI built in a (mostly) dolphin shape to act as a human/dolphin interface. Having spent time with them in their own element, she has few illusions about their actual nature, but she is capable of teaching them "civilized manners" just the same.
* Dolphins in ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' are not only intelligent, they also [http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/9p34/ remember]. [http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/14p70/ And can apparently use firearms.]
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* Dr. Blowhole, archenemy of ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'', is an [[Evil Genius]] bent on having his revenge on humanity for the humiliation he has suffered jumping through flaming hoops on Coney Island. Definitely not [[Friendly Playful Dolphin]] or [[Heroic Dolphin]].
* The final segment of ''[[Make Mine Music]]'', "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At the Met", is about a whale who was able to sing opera - in ''three different voices!'' - and whose big wish is to perform on the New York Metropolitan Opera. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, he is killed by a misguided opera empresario who thought he was rescuing opera singers in the whale's belly.}}
* "''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' vs Nevada" featured a dolphin who, like Blowhole, wanted to conquer mankind rather than amuse it.
* The number of [[Talking Animal
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* People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) apparently believes this trope to be [[Truth in Television]], given that they sued Sea World for allegedly enslaving orcas by making them do animal shows without pay.
** On a less lunatic note, many marine biologists believe the bottle nose dolphin may well be sapient. The difficulty of establishing communications between our species has made the testing of this hypothesis difficult.
** Different orca pods are known to have different
* Scientists have discovered dolphins use lower-pitched, slower sounds when interacting with humans. This appears to be very purposeful on their part, which suggests dolphins have realized we cannot hear the kinds of sounds they normally use to interact with each other. That's right: dolphins speak very slowly and purposefully when dealing with us, because they've figured out we're stupid.
* As mentioned above, dolphins may well be sapient, though due to fundamental limitations of their body and their environment, it's unlikely that they can ever form a civilization as humanity would recognize it, let alone develop technology.
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[[Category:Aquatic Animal Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Sapient Cetaceans]]▼
[[Category:Dolphins, Dolphins, Everywhere]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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