The advancement of the times and technology, to some extent, some people are carrying the weight forward. The United States, a super progressive country, attaches more importance to this aspect.
In 1964, NASA and the U.S. Navy teamed up with John Leeley, a well-known neuroscientist at the time, to conduct an experiment that shocked the world: teaching dolphins to speak (English).
John and Usley
Working with then-anthropologist Gregory Bateson, John Leeley built a two-story building on St. Thomas and called it the "House of the Dolphins."
Dolphin House
Some people wonder, why do such experiments? In fact, at that time, the "alien" theory was popular, and NASA believed that it was necessary to find some way to communicate with aliens, but did not know whether they could understand English.
Therefore, with the funding of the Aeronautical Aerospace Administration, John Lewi, an experimental madman, began to conduct experiments on gorillas and other animals, trying to perceive the communication essentials of human language and the outside world by talking to them.
However, orangutans are similar to people, and it is true that they are smarter, but they are not the smartest. Data show that the average brain weight of orangutans is less than 0.25 kg, while the average brain weight of humans is 1.5 kg, a significant gap.
John Leeley
However, John Leley believes that the animal that is really close to the human brain, even smarter than a human, is the dolphin, because the average adult dolphin's brain weight is 1.6 kilograms.
Because of this, an experiment by teaching dolphins to speak had a foundation: the Aeronautical Aerospace Bureau paid for it, and John Leeley produced the data.
Of course, this experiment did not really become the fact that it became an unstoppable "human dolphin love" until a woman named Margaret appeared.
Old age Margaret
Margaret, who was only 22 at the time, was a college student. At the beginning of the year, she went to St. Thomas and accidentally learned that there was a "dolphin house" on the island, so curiosity made her go over.
Things in the world are so special that some people call it "fate." Originally, the "Dolphin House" was closed to the outside world, but Margaret knocked on the door and communicated with John Liley, and was able to enter and have a close encounter with the dolphin.
Peter
At that time, the "Dolphin House" had three dolphins: one male, not yet an adult, and two females, already adults. In the face of Margaret's visit, the dolphin interacts with her very kindly.
Watching Margaret having fun with dolphins, Goley Bateson suggested: why not invite Margaret to volunteer and have someone who loves dolphins play with them more with less.
Pete and Margaret
So, Margaret happily agreed to the invitation, she thought it was a very meaningful thing, at least for her, it was quite a joy to be with the "smiling angel".
Margaret spends time with dolphins six days a week and names three dolphins: Sissy, Pam and Pete (male dolphin). She also painted her mouth white and her lips black, so as to imitate dolphin pores and let them learn their own mouth shape.
Apparently, Pete seems to prefer interacting with Margaret, and he learns the fastest. To achieve her goal, Margaret stays with Pete 24 hours a day in order to make it a better learning environment.
It turns out that Pete is indeed very smart, he learned to count one, two, three, and also learned to answer Margaret. Whenever Margaret said "work," Pete would reply to her: "play."
But after just over a month of successful guided learning, Margaret discovered the problem: Pete seemed to like her very much, and clearly entered the period of sexual desire.
Later, Margaret said in the documentary "The Girl Who Talks to the Dolphin" that Pete always touched her knees, feet, and even swam between her legs. But usually, as long as she doesn't feel uncomfortable, she won't refuse Pete.
"It will make suitor movements, rub on my legs, knees, I allow, as long as it is not too hard...", it seems already clear that Pete has feelings for Margaret between the opposite sex, and Margaret also has deep feelings for Pete.
Of course, the relationship between Pete and Margaret should be different, after all, humans can distinguish between the same kind and the other, and whether dolphins can be unknown is unknown.
In 1965, skepticism arose about the experiment, especially some anthropologists, who argued that teaching dolphins to speak didn't mean anything, because it was just imitation, similar to parroting how to speak.
Under these circumstances , NASA stopped funding the experiment on the grounds that it was insufficient funds. John Leeley was so distressed that he was once fascinated by hallucinogenic drugs and even injected dolphins with the drug to stimulate changes in their brains.
To no avail, John Leeley had to dismiss the staff of the "Dolphin House", including Margaret. On the night she left, she stayed with Pete for the entire night.
Pete and the other dolphins were also removed from the "dolphin" house, and they were moved to an above-ground building outside of Miami, which meant that Pete lost the open space of the sea.
When Margaret was gone less than two months ago, she received a call from John Leeley: Pete was dead, and he committed suicide by holding his breath underwater.
The news saddened Marilet, but there was nothing she could do about it. After all, raising a dolphin is not qualified for everyone, not to mention, raising a dolphin requires a lot of money, and with Margaret's situation at that time, there was no way to do it.
50 years after Pitt's death, Margaret was interviewed for the documentary "The Girl Who Spoke to the Dolphin", and she was quite moved by the incident.
However, at that time, Pitt's suicide caused a lot of public opinion, and some people even wrote this story into erotic novels, calling it a sexual affair.
Margaret told the truth in the documentary: when Pete had a desire, she would work with many staff members to help it relieve the desire through her hands. It's a tribute to Pete and the only way to get it back into the classroom.
The reason why Pete committed suicide may be because of his longing for Margaret, but a large part of the reason is caused by the environment. Because at that time, the living space on land was obviously not comparable to the sea.
According to the recollections of those involved, Pete lived in a small space, with little water, coupled with their excrement, the environment was very filthy.
Thinking that Pete couldn't endure such a living environment, he finally chose not to surface under the water and committed suicide by holding his breath.
Now think about it, this statement is not surprising, many times, people will give up the will to live because of the suppression of the environment, let alone a dolphin?
It's just that we seem to have reason to question, is the so-called teaching dolphins to speak really a feasible experiment? If the funds are sufficient, can John Leeley really find some clues about communicating with the "aliens"?
Obviously, this is unconscionable. Each creature has its own right to live, Pete has the freedom in his own sea, and entering the dolphin house is accompanied by Margaret.
These external things may seem indifferent to an animal, but they can deeply affect its will to live. Far from the unsatisfied world is probably Pitt's biggest indictment of this world.
John Leeley deprived Pete of his freedom to live in the name of experimentation, and finally forced it into a small space; He gave Pete the hope of love, and equally ruthlessly took away its belief in survival. All this is nothing more than human selfishness.