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Paul Watzlawick in his "Pragmatics of Human Communications" explains that (at least so far) animals seem unable to meta-communicate (in the sense of communicati

by Pamar 9y ago

Paul Watzlawick in his "Pragmatics of Human Communications" explains that (at least so far) animals seem unable to meta-communicate (in the sense of communicating about communication). If I remember correctly (it has been decades) he mentions as an example that cats are perfectly capable to communicate "I want food", using a combination of vocal and "gestures". What they cannot do is communicate something like "Listen, I have used the meow for gimme food 9 times already, what are you? deaf? stupid? or just trying to punish me for when I threw up on the carpet?"

agumonkey 9y ago
Quite possible, maybe that kind of meta level requires more gray matter.. That said the sentiment of exasperation (which triggers our "listen I did this and no result occured") is probably accessible to many life forms, except it's probably expressed as "body language" .. or a more violent behavior.
- Pamar 9y ago
  I suppose (but I am just a layman) that animals do not really have any sense of time. They can express "I am hungry" or "I am extremely hungry" but they cannot express "I have told you I am hungry for the last 20 minutes" because they have no conceptual model for "things as they were 20 minutes ago". This does not mean that they have no ability to learn (including learning to recognize humans) but for them I suppose it is just a bunch of "state" which classify me as "nice guy who feeds me" or even just "I know I can trust him not to be a menace" but they have no way to reminisce about when we met for the first time, etc. ("Future state" is probably even more inscrutable to them - they have strategies to cope with the present, some ingrained as instinct, some learned "by experience" but I sincerely doubt that they can contemplate something like "tomorrow I will try doing this").
  - agumonkey 9y ago
    Makes me wonder about the link between alleged prediction plane in humans, self perception, perception of others and communication

by Pamar 9y ago

agumonkey 9y ago

Quite possible, maybe that kind of meta level requires more gray matter.. That said the sentiment of exasperation (which triggers our "listen I did this and no result occured") is probably accessible to many life forms, except it's probably expressed as "body language" .. or a more violent behavior.

Pamar 9y ago
I suppose (but I am just a layman) that animals do not really have any sense of time. They can express "I am hungry" or "I am extremely hungry" but they cannot express "I have told you I am hungry for the last 20 minutes" because they have no conceptual model for "things as they were 20 minutes ago". This does not mean that they have no ability to learn (including learning to recognize humans) but for them I suppose it is just a bunch of "state" which classify me as "nice guy who feeds me" or even just "I know I can trust him not to be a menace" but they have no way to reminisce about when we met for the first time, etc. ("Future state" is probably even more inscrutable to them - they have strategies to cope with the present, some ingrained as instinct, some learned "by experience" but I sincerely doubt that they can contemplate something like "tomorrow I will try doing this").
- agumonkey 9y ago
  Makes me wonder about the link between alleged prediction plane in humans, self perception, perception of others and communication