{"id":157,"date":"2025-05-02T02:55:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T02:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/?p=157"},"modified":"2025-05-26T21:42:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T21:42:39","slug":"the-untapped-potential-of-whale-brains-fishbuxtm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"The untapped potential of whale brains: FishBux(tm)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"684\" src=\"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/long_fish-1024x684.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/long_fish-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/long_fish-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/long_fish-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/long_fish-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/long_fish-2048x1368.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[The authors do not condone exploitation or abuse of wildlife.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whales are an underappreciated part of the marine ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the basis of their brain-to-body mass ratio, they have a similar capacity for learning as humans or elephants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dolphins and killer whales, in particular, can collaborate via intentional acoustic communication to achieve tasks like hunting for food and entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whales are the closest thing we have on Earth to intelligent alien life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Presenting the Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frustratingly, the fact that whales&#8217; don&#8217;t have hands prevents them from rapidly developing technology. This caps their per-capita earning potential at only a few dozen fish or a couple seals per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For fear of drowning, whales also need to swim while sleeping; this means they cannot experience bihemispheric rapid-eye-movement sleep, which in humans is critical to fully develop long-term memories through the hippocampus. Only in utero can a whale consistently enjoy bihemispheric REM sleep. [0]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Our Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowing this, how can whales&#8217; contribution to GDP [1] be improved? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We propose a new strategy to extract value from cetaceans. Over time, we will train whales to expect rewards for dropping items of value into buckets or for fulfilling information-based task assignments (captchas, labeling tasks, music ratings, preference optimization).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our strategy will be enacted in two phases inspired by Crow Box. [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Prototype a dolphin-targeted information or resource extraction platform using electronics and audiovisual systems. \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Verify feasibility through case studies on captive and wild cetaceans. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Exclude human presence to avoid the Clever Hans failure mode.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Develop a blockchain-based cryptocurrency, code named FishBux, to track the available dolphin-based labor market. \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Through a small investment into FishBux, any human or company (&#8220;the Whale&#8221;) can purchase plans for or an instance of a dolphin exploitation station. They can link this station to their FishBux account.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Each time the Whale&#8217;s dolphin exploitation station is used, they receive a reward which can be traded or exchanged for other purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Example tasks could include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Harvesting fish or algae<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Collecting plastic netting or trash<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Inspecting and cleaning sailboat keels<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Playing games<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hunting invasive predators (crabs, molluscs, zebra mussel)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Rewards to incentivize cetacean participation might include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Music:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>supporting cultural modernization and linguistic development<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>making room for potential integration into human society<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Food:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Fish, crustaceans, and\/or highly addictive human desserts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Access to a social network:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Connecting dolphins from around the world via acoustic-visual posts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Secure, hydrostatically-balanced sleeping pods:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>where dolphins can rest their whole brain at once, evolving their long-term memory safely with no risk of suffocation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Call to Action<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Would you like to invest in FishBux? Reach out fishbux-invest@kc1g.pw.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Footnotes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[0] <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s00429-013-0660-1\">https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s00429-013-0660-1<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/full\/10.1098\/rstb.2020.0532\">https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/full\/10.1098\/rstb.2020.0532<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[1] gross dolphin product<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[2] <a href=\"https:\/\/thecrowbox.com\/\">https:\/\/thecrowbox.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[The authors do not condone exploitation or abuse of wildlife.] Introduction Whales are an underappreciated part of the marine ecosystem. On the basis of their brain-to-body mass ratio, they have a similar capacity for learning as humans or elephants. Dolphins and killer whales, in particular, can collaborate via intentional acoustic communication to achieve tasks like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-optimism","tag-humor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulhansel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}