5 ms·
I'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 scie
by light_hue_1 5y ago
I'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.