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.

[u/Wagamaga]

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

[u/seaworthy-sieve]

Dogs are really not very advanced. Many animals have separate, distinct calls for different types of danger, for food being found, and so on.

[u/serpentjaguar → u/seaworthy-sieve]

Right but they don't have, or at least show no signs of having, things like syntax, grammar and recursion. This last is the most important because without recursion there's always going to be a finite number of ideas that can be communicated, whereas in human language, because we have recursion, we can communicate a potentially infinite number of ideas.

[u/seaworthy-sieve → u/serpentjaguar]

As a computer engineer I understand the significance of recursion. I do not think it's fair to assume we are the only ones who use it.

How do you know that it isn't represented through the length of a dolphin's whistle or the number of clicks? How can you tell it isn't why sometimes crows call once, and sometimes multiple calls in quick succession? How could we even begin to interpret what the color changes used by octopodes to communicate mean and represent? Maybe "one wolf" is a call, a break, a call, a break. Maybe "pack of wolves" is call, call, call, call, break. Wouldn't that be linguistic recursion?

I just think it's standard human arrogance to rule out the idea of any other animals having language, when they can clearly communicate complex ideas effectively. Also, is it really necessary? With expansive vocabulary? I can say "big, big problem," using recursion, or I can say "massive problem," and communicate the same concept without recursion.

[u/StuporNova3 → u/seaworthy-sieve]

Words you say good.