3 ms·
This was see-and-do behavior, but a chimp won't be able to describe in language the act of washing a potato. A chimp who never watched another chimp do somethin
by iwwr 16y ago
This was see-and-do behavior, but a chimp won't be able to describe in language the act of washing a potato. A chimp who never watched another chimp do something can't then replicate that behavior.
- JoeAltmaier 16y agoLanguage is more than words. Much more.
- endtime 16y agoOther than words, what are you using to express that sentiment?
- JoeAltmaier 16y agoDon't confuse a bare encoding of words with language. Gesture, timing, posture, expression can change everything. Pedant: "A double negative can mean the positive. But a double positive never means the negative" Smartass: "Yeah, right"
- endtime 16y agoI don't disagree with that, but I don't think it's relevant. We can encode purely in words the instructions for washing a potato. Monkeys can't.
- JoeAltmaier 16y agoWe can also build lasers (some of us anyway), conceive of social security, vote, believe in money, trust the post office. When determining what is fundamental to being human, these peripheral, incidental things don't get to the core of the matter.
- endtime 16y agoI'm not sure that the ability to encode arbitrary information is peripheral in the same way that lasers and welfare are.
- JoeAltmaier 16y agoSure, but you haven't hit bottom yet. Why can we encode arbitrary information? How does it help us? Where does the ability live? What is it connected to, and where did it come from?