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This discussion on crow vocalizations linked in the blog post was a bit more interesting to me: https://corvidresearch.blog/2019/03/14/crow-vocalizations-part-i

This discussion on crow vocalizations linked in the blog post was a bit more interesting to me: https://corvidresearch.blog/2019/03/14/crow-vocalizations-part-ii-qa/ https://corvidresearch.blog/2019/03/14/crow-vocalizations-pa... Demonstrates how little we know! Our inability to understand the relatively-simpler communication of other life on earth generally makes me think we would fail spectacularly if we ever meet aliens...

vmception 6y ago
There was a movie where the aliens patiently let humans try to devise a way to teach a way to communicate, but they were teaching the humans a superior way of communicating the whole time. Would be a spoiler if I said the movie name and you hadn't seen it. I wouldn't be surprised if various domestic and cohabiting animals feel that way about us. A lot of what we do is built around verbal nuance but isn't really necessary to get the same results in our daily routine, acquiring goods or hunting, or sex. Analogous to how adult cats do not vocalize to each other (at least in a frequency we can hear), or a person that is into you doesn't really care what you say only the tone. Our hierarchy of needs and wants are a shared protocol already, and it is communicable to other people that don't speak the same language, other mammals, birds, and cephalopods without speaking.
- mistermann 6y ago
  Please post the spoiler in a few days, I have no idea but want to watch this.
  - vmception 6y ago
    google alien communication movie good luck
  - poulsbohemian 6y ago
    I think parent poster is referring to Arrival: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/
    - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
      The book was better :)
      - taejo 6y ago
        As somebody who loves both, I recommend watching the movie before reading the short story; IMO there's something the viewer only gradually understands in the movie that's explicit up front in the story.
- phreeza 6y ago
  If you are talking about the movie that I think you are talking about, I don't think it is really so much about a superior way of communicating, just a different one.
  - vmception 6y ago
    It was superior to what the humans were trying to teach the visitors which was more akin to putting a primate through a communication test.
jhedwards 6y ago
If you haven't read him, this spectacular failure is the central theme of many of Stanislaw Lem's works. Worth a read if you like sci-fi.

vmception 6y ago

There was a movie where the aliens patiently let humans try to devise a way to teach a way to communicate, but they were teaching the humans a superior way of communicating the whole time. Would be a spoiler if I said the movie name and you hadn't seen it. I wouldn't be surprised if various domestic and cohabiting animals feel that way about us. A lot of what we do is built around verbal nuance but isn't really necessary to get the same results in our daily routine, acquiring goods or hunting, or sex. Analogous to how adult cats do not vocalize to each other (at least in a frequency we can hear), or a person that is into you doesn't really care what you say only the tone. Our hierarchy of needs and wants are a shared protocol already, and it is communicable to other people that don't speak the same language, other mammals, birds, and cephalopods without speaking.

mistermann 6y ago
Please post the spoiler in a few days, I have no idea but want to watch this.
- vmception 6y ago
  google alien communication movie good luck
- poulsbohemian 6y ago
  I think parent poster is referring to Arrival: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/
  - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
    The book was better :)
    - taejo 6y ago
      As somebody who loves both, I recommend watching the movie before reading the short story; IMO there's something the viewer only gradually understands in the movie that's explicit up front in the story.
phreeza 6y ago
If you are talking about the movie that I think you are talking about, I don't think it is really so much about a superior way of communicating, just a different one.
- vmception 6y ago
  It was superior to what the humans were trying to teach the visitors which was more akin to putting a primate through a communication test.

jhedwards 6y ago

If you haven't read him, this spectacular failure is the central theme of many of Stanislaw Lem's works. Worth a read if you like sci-fi.