News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Are animals conscious? How new research is changing minds by Jensson on Sunday June 16, 2024 @11:23PM (#40702054)
Animal language is obviously on the same level as human laughter and cries and whimpers. Animals don't teach language to each other like humans do.

But I don't see what that has to do with consciousness, to me animal language is much closer to consciousness than human language. Consciousness is all about emotions, not language, and animal language that humans also has is directly tied to emotional expression. Our ML models managed to mimic human language before animal language, human language is more robotic.

Sci-fi shows tend to also do this, robots talk with voices that lacks the animal components of humans and instead just do the human language. So the popular view is that animal language is the conscious parts and human language is the computational/intelligence part.

Re:Are animals conscious? How new research is changing minds by ivan_gammel on Monday June 17, 2024 @05:54PM (#40711516)
> Animal language is obviously on the same level as human laughter and cries and whimpers. Animals don't teach language to each other like humans do.

Obviously? There’s no reason to assume that. It is known that cetaceans acquire their language and dialects through social learning. It was very recently discovered that some whales even have names for each other. Their language may be different from ours, but it is not just emotions.

And then of course there are primates, elephants etc…

Re:Are animals conscious? How new research is changing minds by Jensson on Monday June 17, 2024 @10:47PM (#40713604)
That is one example, I am talking about the animals humans think about when they think animal language: dogs, horses, cats etc.

Maybe some animals have language closer to humans, but it is far from the common definition for "animal language".

Re:Are animals conscious? How new research is changing minds by maxbond on Tuesday June 18, 2024 @03:09AM (#40714912)
Say what you mean and people will understand. If you make a broad and generic claim and someone finds "one example" then there was a problem with your claim.

Have you never met a dog that knew it's own name? Or that developed specific signs to communicate it's needs with it's owner, like scratching at the door, barking at their food dish, etc? Do you think they were born knowing any of that? Is there any doubt in your mind that they're communicating in their own idiolect?

Re:Are animals conscious? How new research is changing minds by amanaplanacanal on Tuesday June 18, 2024 @05:58AM (#40715832)
Are you saying that domestic animals don’t have language, but wild animals might?
Re:Are animals conscious? How new research is changing minds by LocalH on Tuesday June 18, 2024 @11:08AM (#40718671)
Quite the human-centric view of the animal world you have there
Re:Are animals conscious? How new research is changing minds by czl on Tuesday June 18, 2024 @12:14AM (#40714015)
> Animals don't teach language to each other like humans do.

They do not teach language like humans because they are not humans. However studies show that some animals do teach their young language.

Many bird species, such as zebra finches and canaries, learn their songs through a process similar to human language acquisition. Juvenile birds listen to adult tutors and practice their songs, receiving feedback and adjusting their vocalizations accordingly.

Dolphins and whales use complex vocalizations for communication. Mothers and other group members have been observed teaching calves specific calls and whistles, which are essential for social interactions and identification within pods.

Meerkats exhibit teaching behaviors where older members demonstrate specific alarm calls and foraging techniques to pups. These calls convey different types of information, similar to vocabulary teaching in humans.

…