Animal language (Animals)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Sunday, January 11, 2015, 21:12 (3386 days ago) @ dhw

DHW: .. They also think they may be able to “construct a Rosetta Stone of animal communication because some animals not only have sounds for specific things, such as food, but also build these into sentences with rudimentary grammatical rules.”
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> By observing the behaviour of the animals after their conversations, the researchers are able to work out what must have been said. “They seem to comment on all sorts of events. It's not just warning calls.” The gibbons even sing songs.
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> For those of us who believe that we are descended from earlier organisms, this can hardly be surprising. Communication is essential to survival, but clearly it is also used for matters which humans in their arrogance assume are exclusive to themselves, including love, parental guidance, education, and in the case of the gibbons, even a fair division of the domestic chores! Our language and our range of thought have clearly evolved far beyond theirs, but they have enough for their needs. This is not anthropomorphizing animals. We ARE animals. They got there before us, and we have merely developed what they passed on to us.-As someone that grew up on a farm, this is all quite obvious. Well, all of it accept that last bit. Information is the cornerstone of existence. Information without communication is meaningless. All living things communicate, and they all do so in manners FAR more complex and complicated than speech. My question is, what does this have to do with common descent? -ALL living things communicate, all the way down to the single cell. Many animals show affection, loyalty, even love. If you've ever seen one animal pine to death over the loss of a loved one their can be no doubt over the extent of their emotional range. If you've ever had a pet that pooped in your shoes because you upset it, you will quickly realize that they are capable of the less desirable emotions too. None of that really emphasizes common descent to me as much as the fact that it is only getting wide spread attention after being announced by scientists emphasizes human arrogance.-Perhaps that is what happens when people get too far removed from nature; they start to believe that other life forms are not as valid, precious, or complex as our own.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.