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Most of that can be said about whales, but we still don’t see many whales-motivated scientific research being carried out even if there’s a possibility we could
by ironmagma 5y ago
Most of that can be said about whales, but we still don’t see many whales-motivated scientific research being carried out even if there’s a possibility we could communicate. Who’s to say aliens would be any different?
- light_hue_1 5y agoI'm not sure what to say to this. Whales are obviously not intelligent in the way humans are? They have no technology, no language, and don't engage in any scientific inquiries. So.. no. None of this can be said about whales.
- shkkmo 5y agoWhales have at least a rudimentary form of language. There is evidence for syntactic structure, even if the information density is an order of magnitude (or more) less dense than human speech. Whales also teach each other new hunting techniques and have other complicated social behaviors. Without a better understanding of whale language and cognition, I don't think you can safely say they don't engage in a form of scientific inquiry.
- ironmagma 5y agoRight, so they are intelligent in a different way, which I would argue is going to be no different with the aliens we discover. Their language will be intractable. As for scientific inquiries, that’s kind of unknowable and dubious considering that whales can get quite inventive with their hunting techniques, involving experimentation and cunning in a way that’s pretty similar to the scientific method of inquiry with hypothesis testing. Technology, I will grant that’s an exception.
- adrianN 5y agoWhales have language. Most animals have some forms of language, even plants communicate with each other. Whales have a pretty complex one.
- shkkmo 5y agoWhale share a significant part of their developmental history, genetics and brain chemistry with us humans. They don't really qualify as alien in any of the interesting ways that were mentioned.
- ironmagma 5y agoThey’re biologically related to us, and yet we still can’t communicate with them. That should show how motivated or able we are to figure out language with other species.
- sidlls 5y agoSo? Whales are (relative to humans) quite dumb. Communicating with an intelligent alien species isn't the same--in any way.
- ironmagma 5y agoThat’s going to need a citation, because it’s not what a lot of researchers say. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16270270 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16270270 [2] https://www.orcanation.org/2019/10/10/the-social-intelligence-of-orcas/ https://www.orcanation.org/2019/10/10/the-social-intelligenc...
- sidlls 5y agoIt's a bit of a stretch to go from basic imitation of simple words to intelligence on par with homo sapiens.
- ironmagma 5y agoIt’s not basic imitation if they can communicate using the language of another species [1] nor is it that big of a stretch when they have larger brains than us. [1] https://www.zmescience.com/science/biology/killer-whale-dolphin-24102014/ https://www.zmescience.com/science/biology/killer-whale-dolp...