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Ask HN: Can Primates Learn to Code?

• gregjor 4y ago
  Obviously. Humans belong to order of primates. No other species of primate has symbolic language as far as we can tell, so they probably can’t learn to code.
  • anon115 4y ago
    ffs
    • gregjor 4y ago
      That was my first reaction to the question, but it seemed to deserve a more pedantic response. “I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question,” I thought, so I tried to interpret the question in the most generous way and decided perhaps the OP doesn’t know what “primate” refers to.
      • anon115 4y ago
        I obviously didn't mean humans i need to reword my question next time. sorry not sorri
        • gregjor 4y ago
          It wasn’t completely obvious to me. The answer is still no. We can’t teach non-human primates to speak or write, so coding seems out of reach. Maybe they can learn to use no-code tools.
• t-3 4y ago
  Depends on how simple your code is. I can imagine that a smart tool-using animal could be trained to use a mechanical computer or 'program' a simple sequence, but the prime motivator (that humans can supply) for most animals is food, so you would end up with a Rube-Goldberg food dispenser or something, not literal codemonkeys.