MUTATIS MUTANDI

Humans as Marine Mammals and vice/versa.

The love affair between humans and dolphins may have started with the Television program "Flipper". An entire generation was led to believe that these marine animals had an intelligence and an ability to communicate and understand that was equal or superior to that of humans. The careful experiments of Dr. Lou Herman at the University of Hawaii has injected reality into the film makers illusion. Whales and dolphins do indeed exhibit single trial learning, and they do indeed "play games" with the trainer. But the nonverbal communication, scenario and solution generation capability that is attributed to Flipper requires an evolutionary step that these creatures have not yet taken. Humans, on the other hand need only recall or replace the capabilities that they once had at a time when their ancestors lived in the sea. The caring, sharing and loving community relationship envisioned by the romantics of TV and film cannot be achieved by adapting marine mammals to behave humans. A far better solution is the adaptation of humans as marine mammals and a mutual adaptation such that the two species can appropriately meet and interrelate. The surrealistic modern artist Magritte has captured this mutual adaptation in a painting which he calls "Love". He rejects the mermaid fantasy which produces a mutant that is almost all human except for a slight improvement in marine locomotion. In lieu thereof, Magritte visualizes two creatures in contemplative harmony. They will appear grotesque to all but those who really understand the sea and its creatures, inclusive of humans.

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