Xref: utzoo sci.psychology:37 rec.birds:467 sci.bio:971
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!actnyc!gcf
From: gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,rec.birds,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Intelligent Parrots, or Self-deception and Gullibility.
Message-ID: <727@actnyc.UUCP>
Date: 11 Mar 88 17:22:05 GMT
References: <1988Mar4.162334.18184@utzoo.uucp> <4299@blia.BLI.COM> <1988Mar9.132722.3364@mntgfx.mentor.com>
Reply-To: gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Organization: InterACT Corporation
Lines: 33

In article <1988Mar9.132722.3364@mntgfx.mentor.com> msellers@mntgfx.mentor.com (Mike Sellers) writes:
}In article <4299@blia.BLI.COM>,heather@blia.BLI.COM (Heather Mackinnon) writes:
}} <lots of refutations of the abilities of animals to communicate and 
}} act intelligently have been deleted}
}
} [lots of stuff deleted]
}
}} Why, when it comes to cerebral activity, do we assume that other animals
}} can't communicate and aren't intelligent?  Why do we assume that humans
}} are the only animals who can think and communicate meaningful concepts?
}
}Assuming you mean communication above the level of the mechanistic, 
}predictable, non-abstract modes (e.g. the sun-dance of the bee), the simple
}answer is that we have no evidence for it.  Science tends to be minimalist;
}if there is no reliable evidence for the existance of something, it is 
}assumed not to exist.  There are some things that we still don't know what
}to think about, for example whale-songs.  We don't know if these are mating
}calls, depth soundings, lures, or conversation.  Until we know otherwise, 
}however, it is imprudent to assume the whales are discussing Beauty, or 
}algebra, or God, when all they are *most probably* doing is something much
}more prosaic.
}
If Science were really minimalist, "it" would assume that "it" didn't
know whether what the whales were doing when they sang was prosaic or
not.  It is imprudent to assume they are discussing Beauty, algebra,
or God, because these are, as far as we know, concepts of the human
mind, but they might be doing something else equally abstract or
complex.  Recent (20th-century) scientific work has validated 
Eddington's famous & perhaps mythical remark about the universe
being queerer than we can imagine.

I wonder if the information content of the whale songs has been
measured.  Must have been.