However, two congressional aides pushed back on the idea that Boeing’s team is inexperienced or uncommunicative.

“I do feel that in a city that is known for being cold and uncommunicative, it was a very uniting project,” Lungwitz said.

Analyzing the aquatically loquacious may also give us clues about whether midbrain injuries in humans may be linked to a person being mute or uncommunicative, according to Bass.

He suggested that this research may help us understand how a malfunctioning human midbrain may render a person uncommunicative or mute.

For a man who came from a culture that prizes conversation as a high art form, and has provided more than its fair share of hyper-articulate storytellers, he was famously uncommunicative with journalists and writers.