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Thread: Will we ever be able to have a conversation with animals?

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    Default Will we ever be able to have a conversation with animals?

    Of course it dosen't have to be that animals must learn our means of communication. Since we are so clever, why don't we take what we learn of their language to speak to them.Why do some caged birds imitate us?Why are dogs to human so faithful, guide dogs can look after some blind, doesn't a dog can really understand human language? It certainly isn't to attract our attention, so perhaps it is simply because they can, or that the more sounds an individual can imitate, the more desireable it is deemed to be as a mate.What do you think?
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    It's more a capacity to understand what information is being conveyed.
    A dog can understand basic concepts like instructions and commands. But a dogs brain doesn't have the ability to process complex language. Information is picked up by them through actions, body language and tone of sounds.

    We do have some understanding of animal language. We're able to understand what bees say to each other and talk to them with a robotic bee (dance).
    Obviously bee's communications are limited to the operation of the hive. A bee is not able to express complex thoughts to other bees, though this does not limit the hive learning new things and adapting to them.
    An example is Japanese Hornets which raid honey bee hives. The bees have developed a method of defence. To do this they need to co-ordinate an attack on the scout hornet. So it shows they can communicate more than the location of food, even if it is an adaptation of another existing form of communication.

    We're able to understand Dolphin clicks and tones and we are able to determine that they have names for each other and are able to communicate with more than a basic herd mentality.
    Even chickens we've been able to decode some of their language. Again, there language is more specific to being a chicken. A cluck for "I've found food." and warnings of "eagle" or "fox".
    As well as instinctive calls like a distress cluck or mating, fighting and territory calls.
    But a chicken has a chicken's brain. You will never be able to teach a chicken calculus. While it's brain can be taught to adapt to certain things, like teaching a chicken to play tic tac toe for reward of food.
    It demonstrates that animals have the ability to achieve more than they are capable on their own, but there are limits.
    A dog will fetch a stick on your command but he will never understand why you want it.
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    huh?
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    Animals will not converse because everything they 'say' or do is somewhat related to their survival.
    The only way you can get them to 'talk' useless stuff is to reward them with something, so that again has something to do with survival.

    Animals have no need to communicate beyond this instinct.

    Also what we might experience as love from an animal is a survival instinct.
    A cat will sit on your lap and an purr because it seeks comfort in a safe protected environment, just like it did with it's mother cat.

    Some cats (especially Siamese) responds to your words, like they are talking back, even if they are not hungry or nothing else is threatening. It has learned to do this because it is rewarded for 'talking' by getting attention which ensures a protected environment with food and knows you as the owner is responsible for this.
    So it has learned to go beyond the instinct of purring and started to 'talk'.

    Nevertheless when it comes to survival they are definitely communicating. A Siamese cat woke me up one night with very strange persistent meow in my ear and lead me to the door and outside.
    30 seconds later there was a small earthquake.
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    Quote Originally Posted by nomeat View Post
    Animals will not converse because everything they 'say' or do is somewhat related to their survival.
    In majority of cases you are right. The only thing doesn't fit in this simple statement is dogs behaviour in a threatening to their owners situation. They go all the way to protect their owners sacrificing their life. It is hardly done for their survival.
    Also, I am pretty sure dogs can learn names and distinguish between objects by the object name. If they can do that then why can't we assume they can communicate the information to other dogs?

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    Quote Originally Posted by fromaron View Post
    In majority of cases you are right. The only thing doesn't fit in this simple statement is dogs behaviour in a threatening to their owners situation. They go all the way to protect their owners sacrificing their life. It is hardly done for their survival.
    Also, I am pretty sure dogs can learn names and distinguish between objects by the object name. If they can do that then why can't we assume they can communicate the information to other dogs?
    Well yes, my cat tried to save me from an earthquake.


    As I mentioned above, the domesticated animal has identified the owner responsible for a protected environment with food, and therefore has developed some kind of devotion in order to keep it that way.

    The instinct of love and affection leads to protection.

    A dog that has been conditioned to accept and protect the owner also behaves similar to a lion mother protecting it's cubs.
    It is still all about survival but in a much larger cause, survival of the species.
    Many animals have an inbuilt instinct to protect their offspring or fight for their partner until the last breath.
    In the case of domestic animals we may have reprogrammed that instinct slightly.



    While animals might have learned to identify some human noises, this is still combined with rewards, food, a hunting instinct (playfulness) or an instinctive need to entertain the owner (devotion).



    An animal will communicate with us but what an animal lacks is the creativity for a real conversation that goes beyond it's instincts.
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    my mrs tries to have a conversation with me, she's a real bitch.

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    Quote Originally Posted by fromaron View Post
    The only thing doesn't fit in this simple statement is dogs behaviour in a threatening to their owners situation. They go all the way to protect their owners sacrificing their life. It is hardly done for their survival.
    Actually, it is. Dogs are pack animals. Their survival depends on the pack so acting in the interest of the pack for the pack's benefit has it's own survival benefits.
    A human tribe is not much different and dogs treat a family in the same way they treat a pack.
    They will alert other members of the pack to any threat even if they are the lowest member of the pack.

    Even a single animal attacking a threat at risk to itself is survivalist behaviour. If one dog attacks, other members of the pack are more likely to join in.
    Not much different from humans either. Just watch a family of Bogans in St Mary's. One barney with the kid across the street and everybody including grandma is in on the action.

    Also, I am pretty sure dogs can learn names and distinguish between objects by the object name.
    Yes, they can be taught that. Though it isn't natural dog behaviour. They have the capacity to understand basic forms of human communication through the shape of the word and the tone.
    But it isn't natural behaviour and the ability is limited. A pack of wild dogs can communicate with each other in a basic way. Alerting the pack to a threat is simple enough and this make have a few forms.
    Chickens have a wider vocabulary for things like threats. It's important for them to distinguish between an eagle and a fox or something more specific.

    What dogs are better at is smell. And the way their brains process this information leaves ours for sense of smell for dead in the same way that our brains process language.
    We smell things in black and white in a 40x80 kind of resolution. By comparison a dog sees smells in high definition full colour 3D.

    So a dog can recognise the difference between two animals that have walked through long grass prior, but he can't tell another dog what he smells or even that he has smelt something.
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    Quote Originally Posted by trash View Post

    What dogs are better at is smell. And the way their brains process this information leaves ours for sense of smell for dead in the same way that our brains process language.
    We smell things in black and white in a 40x80 kind of resolution. By comparison a dog sees smells in high definition full colour 3D.
    Smell as a form of communication !



    Now I am imaging if humans could communicate by regulating the composition of flatulence, combined with the noise it makes when emitted.


    Maybe a solution for our parliament.
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    Indeed Animals try to communicate with us

    when one of their own is in need of help.....they will come & try to get your attention, to come & help....

    when there is immediate danger they communicate it.......you just know something is terribly wrong by the way the dog barks or the bird "shreiks" (like when there is a snake or goanna about)

    Animals obviously communicate with their own kind of animals....... & you wonder to what extent it is complex or basic....

    & Dogs & Cats & Horses, etc...... will come when you call their name


    it is an interesting question "Will we ever be able to have a conversation with animals?"

    I am tempted to think yes at some point in the future.....

    If we can decipher the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt & other lost languages in history....

    Hearing the same things that animals hear & talking the same way an animal speaks, & using other techniques, like smell, & "radar", & "body language" etc... could be the problem

    but technology has solved other human limits before like Flying, & Deep sea diving & Space travel etc.....
    Last edited by OSIRUS; 02-11-12 at 09:40 AM.
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    As someone that owns 5 parrots, I would say at some stage of the future, yes.

    Communication requires learning. Some animals such as various types of Cockatoo, live as long as 130 years. While their brain is not as large as ours, they have a long lifetime in which to learn. Have a look at some videos on Youtube of birds talking, particuarly African Grey parrots.





    I also thought for example that rabbits were pretty stupid. I was wrong on that one as well after "inheriting" one. It roams the house during the day, is toilet trained, knows where its food water and bedding are, go to bed when I tell her to etc.

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    I have a parrot sitting on me thats very interested in the video

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    Animals have a specific level of intelligence above what is needed to survive but wont ever get more than that.
    What we have to do is use our superior (RIGHT) level of intelligence to learn what their responses are to a situation.
    You see this with 'Companion' dogs who do magnificent things with the Blind, the hearing impaired and others along with those who we are seeing can detect certain ailments and warn of them.
    Of course like so many humans, there are those animals of all species that are dumber than the bark off a tree and will never progress beyond whinnying,Barking, Purring and Chirping but then I am sure we all know of some Humans who are struggling to even achieve even that high................
    Had Cats, Budgies, Chooks, goats and a sheep, got 3 dogs, one Galah now and children and G'children so I am an expert on all levels of intelligence quota's.
    Last edited by gordon_s1942; 02-11-12 at 12:36 PM.
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    we already do, with some apes anyway



    the way the guy explains that the chimps will sign for watermelon differently, some sign "candy fruit" other sign "water food" showing that they're having to think of thier responces as they dont have a sign for "watermelon", they choose to sign a descriptive of what they think of the object in question

    so depending on the level of intelligence of the subject, the question of "Can we communicate?" is already being answered
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    SCIENTISTS say an elephant in a South Korean zoo is using his trunk to imitate human speech.

    An international team of researchers says Koshik can reproduce five Korean words by tucking his trunk inside his mouth and modulating the sound coming from his throat. The discovery was reported online on Friday on the website Current Biology.

    Koshik can say "annyeong" (hello), "anja" (sit down), "aniya" (no), "nuwo" (lie down) and "joa" (good).

    Researchers believe the Asian elephant learned to speak out of a desire to bond with his trainers after he was separated from two other elephants.

    In 1983, zoo officials in Kazakhstan claimed their elephant could reproduce Russian words. But there was no scientific study.

    Read more:

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    African Grey parrots have shown numerous signs of communication, including counting. One in particular,I rememeber reading about, after meeting a woman she had seen in a photo with a monkey asked " got chimp" or something similar.

    Lets face it, we evolved why wouldnt other species?

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    A woman went to a pet shop & immediately spotted a large, beautiful parrot. There was a sign on the cage that said $50.00, which seemed awfully cheap.

    "Why so little," she asked the pet store owner.

    The owner looked at her seriously and said, "Look, I should tell you first that this bird used to live in a house of Prostitution and sometimes it says some pretty vulgar stuff."

    The woman thought about this, but decided she had to have the bird anyway. She took it home and hung the bird's cage up in her living room and waited for it to say something. The bird looked around the room, then at her, and said, "New house, new madam."

    The woman was a bit shocked at the implication, but then found it kind of amusing.

    When her 2 teenage daughters returned from school, the bird saw them enter and said, "New house, new madam, new girls."

    The girls and the woman were a bit offended but then began to laugh about the situation considering how and where the parrot had been raised.

    Moments later, the woman's husband came home from work.

    The bird looked at him and said, "Hi, Bob!"

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    Quote Originally Posted by ben10 View Post
    The bird looked at him and said, "Hi, Bob!"
    From the other hand it might be better for human race if we can't talk to animals, LOL

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    And the Band Played 'Waltzing Matilda' as they carried poor Bob away.........................
    No more to Roam, he Cant play away from HOME, now that the Parrot has gave him awaaaaayy.........
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sanity View Post
    Lets face it, we evolved why wouldnt other species?
    The question should be: Why didn't they evolve (like us) ?



    Many animals have been around far longer than us and they should have developed the concept of anti-gravity or nuclear fusion by now.
    A chimpanzee has quite a developed brain but it can not cook food or create tasty recipes.

    We might be able to teach it, but it will not come up with the idea on it's own.


    Until an animal posts it's opinion on this thread (in whatever form of language), we will not be able to have a real conversation with them.
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 03-11-12 at 02:40 PM.
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