Animal language (Animals)

by David Turell , Saturday, January 17, 2015, 01:36 (3597 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I don't expect a straight line from protocells to humans because I'm challenging two of your beliefs. Two questions will suffice: 1) Do you believe your God preprogrammed the first cells to pass on his design for the weaverbird's nest? 2) Do you believe that the weaverbird's nest was essential for the production of humans?-1) God played a role in part or in whole.-2) Yes, to provide a balance in nature. I see no other explanation. Does it have to be that specific nest? Of course not. But obviously since life exists in such a huge variety, it must exist that way with many oddball things on exhibit. 
> 
> DAVID: You just don't recognize the giant leap to us doesn't fit any orderly form of evolution.
> dhw: What do you mean by “orderly”?
> DAVID: A fairly gradual step forward. Both the Cambrian and our brain were giant leaps compared to evolutionary time from 3.8 billion years ago. Ten million for the Cambrian and six million for our brain.
> 
> dhw: Can you or can you not see an orderly progression from animals and early humans living in caves to modern humans living in huts, houses, skyscrapers; from animals and early humans communicating by sounds to communication by writing, telephone, Internet?-You neatly skipped my point, which is the size of the gaps. Of course, I see the progression, but I concentrate on the unexplained gaps, and I have my own explanation. 
> 
> dhw: So once the intelligence is there (perhaps God-given), it builds on each generation's experiences, knowledge, memories and inventions to create more and more improvements. Exactly the same process for intelligent humans as for other intelligent cell communities, except that the latter appear to stop innovating when they reach a certain point of efficiency, whereas humans go on.-Our complex brain, which we barely understand at present, must first develop before all the steps you describe can happen. Cell communities, in my view, are given their small capacities in the original instructions for life.-> dhw: So do you think our fellow animals are capable or incapable of emotion (including love), reason, design, planning, communication, learning, organization, invention?-Yes, to a much lesser degree than humans in the areas of reason, design, planning, communication and invention. With emotion they can show more love than we deserve, can show disappointment, depression, excitement, etc. All of this is quite clear with my poodle and his healing broken toe: he shows disappointment that I have greatly toned down our play and is slightly depressed.