The same attitude was shown by humans towards other humans a thousand years ago. If they couldn't understand the language of another tribe, they considered that tribe inferior and called them names signifying that.

The ancient Greeks called non-Greek-speaking peoples "barbarians", suggesting they are uncivilised, primitive. To this day, the name of Germany in Polish means "those-who-cannot-speak".

Just because we don't, or can't understand the way those patterns manifest does not imply that they are meaningful.

One of our major advantages against other animals are versatile hands with opposable thumbs.

I wonder what corvids could do if they had hands and not just beaks. They are fairly smart, I would expect them at least to build some more complex structures. Which would trigger a self-reinforcing cycle between improving tools and improving brains.

Now it dawns on me that it might be possible in the future to give them the necessary genes to grow hands ... wild.

> fail to manifest in any meaningful way

To you. If someone doesn't speak to you and doesn't respond "meaningfully" to your input, does that mean they do not have complex thought patterns? With that philosophy, it's probably for the best that you don't take care of sick people :)

Maybe they’re just wiser than us.