The Dolphin House
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as a decent, entertaining summary of Lilly's life and work whenever dolphin communication research comes up.
What it is
Atrocity Guide covers the 1965 dolphin experiments of Dr. John C. Lilly and Margaret Howe, who tried to teach dolphins English. It traces the bizarre methods and Lilly's later drug-fueled beliefs.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2021 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends bonnie76 · 2021-12 · on “John C. Lilly ‘modified human agents’ human, dolphin neuropsychology experiments”
This video does a decent job of summarizing his life and work: [this video] . It emphasizes his later decent into drug abuse and new age pedagogy. The man was clearly something of a monster. I have a macabre interest in the no holds barred era of 50’s and 60’s military and government research. I find it fascinating that such a lack of restraint resulted in both the horrors of ice pick lobotomies on traumatized veterans and the unmatched achievements of the moon landing. I also find contrast between a government that is happy to engage in LSD research in pursuit of brain washing) and one that routinely locks people in tiny cages for the use of the same substance highly revealing.
Recommends bonnie76 · 2021-12 · on “John C. Lilly ‘modified human agents’ human/dolphin neuropsychology experiment's”
This video does a decent job of summarizing his life and work: [this video] . It emphasizes his later decent into drug abuse and new age pedagogy. The man was clearly something of a monster. I have a macabre interest in the no holds barred era of 50’s and 60’s military and government research. I find it fascinating that such a lack of restraint resulted in both the horrors of ice pick lobotomies on traumatized veterans and the unmatched achievements of the moon landing. I also find contrast between a government that is happy to engage in LSD research in pursuit of brain washing) and one that routinely locks people in tiny cages for the use of the same substance highly revealing.
Recommends meindnoch · 2025-04 · on “DolphinGemma: How Google AI is helping decode dolphin communication”
>A woman named Margaret Howe Lovatt lived full-time with the Dolphins attempting to learn a shared language between them. She also had sex with a male dolphin called Peter. >He would take LSD and place himself in the tank and believed he was psychically communicating with the Dolphins. He eventually came to believe he was communicating with a cosmic entity called ECCO (Earth Coincidence Control Office). The story of the Sega game "Ecco the Dolphin" [1] is a tongue-in-cheek reference to this. I recommend watching the Atrocity Guide episode on John C. Lily and his dolphin "science" [2]. It's on par with The Men Who Stare at Goats (the non-fiction book [3], not the movie). He has a website that
Cites darepublic · 2024-05 · on “Scientists Find an 'Alphabet' in Whale Songs”
I dunno if sometimes the language would be contextual, and utterances could not be understood without taking into account the context of what is occurring, or the speaker. Yes I know human language can be subject to these variables too. Anyhow it's all speculation and the dream of talking to animals is surely exciting. Also, a Youtube doc about researchers attempting to teach dolphins english: [this video]