Cetacean voice · deciphering communication · Rua · Kai
Folder: cetavox · Public brand: CetaVox · Started: 2026-07-28
ceta- (cetacean) + vox (voice, sound)
Discover what cetacean sounds mean — units that may work like letters, phrases, sentences, or other kinds of meaning — by finding patterns and new ways of looking at recordings the world already has.
We are not competing to collect the most audio. Others already record at scale.
We build honest deciphering tools and methods: structure first, meaning as evidence allows.
Tools to decipher cetacean communication — structure, repertoires, and possible meaning
CetaVox helps humans work with existing marine mammal recordings to:
- Segment sound into candidate units (calls, codas, phrases, unknown structures)
- Compare units across time, context, individuals, and species
- Hypothesize meaning — function, reference, social use — with an evidence trail
- Test those hypotheses without pretending the language is already solved
The long goal is understanding: something like literacy in their systems, if the data support it.
The short law is integrity: no fake dictionaries, no “we can talk to whales” product claims.
Same integrity posture as Leitner Learning: exact signal over theater.
Decipher carefully. Claim only what the patterns and context support. Invent better ways to see.
EvoForm (../evoform) designs biologically inspired marine vehicles that can hang with marine mammals longer — quiet, efficient co-presence — not only a slow underwater box.
| CetaVox | EvoForm | |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Decipher meaning from sound | Platforms that stay in their world longer |
| Needs | Rich, honest long-dwell recordings + archives | Fluid competence copied from life |
| Together | Understanding + the machines that make deeper listening possible |
Archives and partners first; EvoForm is the long path to better new data without thrashing the animals.
| Source | Role |
|---|---|
| Ocean Sounds | Local (Bodø / northern Norway). Nonprofit studying whale and dolphin vocal and social behaviour, human impacts, decades of field listening. Founded by Heike Vester. Primary local relationship to respect and learn from. |
| Project CETI and other research programs | Large structured datasets, methods inspiration |
| Public / published archives | When licenses allow use and citation |
| Future co-presence platforms (EvoForm) | Long-dwell, low-disturbance vehicles — when ethics and capacity allow |
CetaVox posture toward Ocean Sounds: use and amplify what careful field people already capture — pattern discovery, tooling, novel analysis — not duplicate their boat and hydrophone work without permission and partnership.
- Classical bioacoustics: spectrograms, catalogues, dialect maps
- Structure discovery: combinatorial units, sequence models, “alphabet” candidates
- Context join: behaviour, group, location, noise, season (when labels exist)
- Unthought-of angles welcome when labeled: cross-species analogy, information theory, multi-modal context, human-language method transfer (not forced word maps)
- Always: hypothesis status visible (established · inferred · speculative)
| OK | Not OK |
|---|---|
| Seeking meaning (letters / phrases / sentences / other) as a research goal | Shipping a “translator” that invents meanings |
| Pattern tools on real recordings with citation and license | Scraping or using Ocean Sounds / others’ data without rights |
| Hypotheses with evidence trails and falsifiers | Fake meaning maps sold as fact |
| Novel methods, clearly experimental | Overclaim past what structure supports |
Research map: docs/cetacean-research-map-2026.md
Success research pack (2026-07-29): docs/research-success-pack-2026-07-29.md
Personal library: Desktop/Ruairí/Marine Mammal/
Sperm whales, orcas, dolphins, belugas, long-finned pilot whales
(Pilot-whale intelligence hypothesis stays labeled as hypothesis.)
- Brand + folder locked; mission sharpened to deciphering (2026-07-28).
- Public face live: https://cetavox.com (GitHub Pages · HTTPS · v2 residual · 2026-08-05).
- Check version: https://cetavox.com/version.json
- North star: listens for structure in cetacean sound · claims only what evidence allows.
- Product workbench UI not built. First tool slice still open.
- House map: under RevRune; EvoForm not a second public face.
- Partners: Ocean Sounds not named on site until founder blesses.
- Masters (Marine Ecology, from 11 Aug 2026) is primary capacity.
- Use the success research pack — reading order + partnership ladder
- Map what Ocean Sounds (and others) already publish or share (access, ethics, collaboration path)
- Define v1 decipher tool (workbench: segment → catalogue → hypothesis trails) only when capacity allows
- Scaffold only that