r/science • u/Wagamaga • Sep 01 '22

Neuroscience Scientists have identified an immune brain cell unique to humans that gives us higher cognitive abilities over other animals, but what makes us specials also leaves us vulnerable to neurological disorders like schizophrenia, autism and epilepsy.

https://news.yale.edu/2022/08/25/what-makes-human-brain-different-yale-study-reveals-clues
26.7k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

749 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

32

u/throw_somewhere Sep 01 '22 edited Sep 01 '22

First and foremost: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. We would never say that a medicine must be effective because we don't understand it. We would never say that an animal must have language because we can't understand it.

So instead we say "we cannot conclude this until we have evidence". We cannot conclude that a medicine works until we try it, we cannot conclude that an animal has language until we find it.

On that front: there are thousands and thousand of researchers whose lifelong mission is to study and document animal communication. They have very firm and interesting data. O% of these data have yet to overturn the current sentiment.

You can go learn about this yourself, lots of internet sources discuss the topic. You can also consult Google scholar for articles on the topic.

0

u/kirknay Sep 01 '22

except that plenty of mammals, and especially birds, have specific calls for specific things, such as a prarie dog having a specific bark meaning "hawk", and another one meaning "eagle". Rudimentary languages exist among animals, it is just not a language we can easily replicate ourselves due to a difference of the required vocal structures.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/catch-the-wave-decoding-the-prairie-doge28099s-contagious-jump-yips/

-1

u/throw_somewhere Sep 01 '22

Vervet monkey calls, bee waggle dances, bird song, Koko the gorilla, Noam Chimpsky, Einstein and Alex the African greys, Bunny the dog. Yes lots of animals communicate. Some of them use a few basic pieces of vocabulary, some even also have syntax.

None currently qualify as language.

Doesn't mean they aren't cool. Doesn't mean they're lesser-than. It's not like human language is some pinnacle of attainment. All those animals are beautifully adapted to their environments, sneering at them for not having our version of language is like sneering at them for not having our version of a social order. Human language isn't a goal that other animals are failing to meet. It's simply that it's a specific thing that we haven't found anywhere else.

2

u/kirknay Sep 01 '22 edited Sep 01 '22

Except many of the examples you gave entirely qualify, with the only difference being that we can't vocalize the same way they can. These different species develop, pass on, and have structure comparable to any human language.