How Would Physics Differ with a Whale's Intellect?

[Loren Booda]

Your initiation to physics, your heroes there, the beauty it imparts to you, your personal achievements in the field, and physics' influence on your view of reality.

 

[Danger]

It kept me afloat in a sea of fools.

 

[LURCH]

For me it was musical inspiration. When I was very young, I became aware of the concept of periodicity. I came to realize that most things in nature happened in regularly-recurring cycles; from molecular vibration to the orbits of entire galaxies. In other words, nearly everything in the universe has a frequency, and to me these many differing frequencies suggest notes, and the many differing notes being played simultaneously, chords. I was struck with the idea that all of creation is playing at a single song of unfathomable complexity and subtlety.

I am certain that no mortal being can ever know the whole song, but I am determined to learn as much of it as I can. When I was still quite young, I arrived at the idea of the "oscillating universe" as a cost logical model. Still later, I began hearing about "string theory". The more I learn, the more accurate that initial moment of childlike awe appears to be.

 

[Loren Booda]

I believe that physics manifests itself to great part in the thinking process. When one learns physics, one eventually pushes the limits of that philosophy, imprinting its system on the brain. Our neurology becomes compatible with the interactions that are intuitive, practical, academic, applied, theoretical and speculative. The human brain is more than mere calculator; it is representative of the physical patterns our brain realizes, shapes and conforms to. The Ancients were not incorrect to believe that nature could be explored comprehensively in thought.

How would our physics differ if we had a correlative intellect, e. g., that of a whale?