Checks community… Ok I’m going to be downvoted. None of these are impressive feats. Interoception? Freeing others? Understanding movement/gestures? Not impressive and not worthy of what’s being assigned to it.
Animals don’t have to know language or be able to do math, I think it is enough to know they can feel pain, suffer when their children are taken away and have a desire to be free.
Most humans have no impressive feats, still would not want anyone to be treated like non human animals.
If we could discover more primitive behaviors in mycelium, I would be very impressed.
I do agree with you. Anyone that has been around animals long enough can tell you that they can be fairly intelligent and absolutely have emotions. It’s not as “oh wow!” as that article seems to portray.
Yeah, I’ve seen it happen a bit where a scientific “discovery” is made, but common sense and and first-hand experience has largely already pieced it together. I think it is sometimes just that it is nice to have it formally verified by a rigorous scientific study.
I think there is a whole lot to be uncovered in the world of fungi, this study finding that mushrooms have up to 50 different “words” is quite interesting [1] . Everything that Andrew Adamatzky is doing with the connection between computers and fungi is fascinating. I suppose this “words” discovery is another case where many people have known for ages through first-hand experience that mushrooms are able to “talk” to them ;)
The article was still a positive, IMHO. Some people probably haven’t been around enough animals to really understand the nuances of their behavior, so it could have easily been an eye opener.
It’s kind of a running joke in the psychedelic communities that a mushroom is sort of a guide. It won’t give you the trip you want, but rather, the trip you need. (I shit you not, I jokingly personify mushrooms now because of my own experiences. It’s a thing.)
Personally, I am just interested in learning what cognitive abilities various types of animals are capable of. Farm animal cognitive research, specifically, is an area that is largely understudied, there simply isn’t much money going into understanding the cognition of the types of animals that are the most preferred sources of food. You are absolutely correct that these studies have not revealed any new or previously unheard of abilities in non-human animals. There are other types of animals that have been found to do much more impressive cognitive feats.
I’m curious, what do you feel is being unjustly assigned to them? Humans are especially susceptible to a range of mistakes when trying to measure the inner worlds and abilities of animals, and any insight into these mistakes being made is very helpful in uncovering how things actually are. In fact, there is even something known as the Clever Hans Effect which is when scientists are giving cues to the animals as to which behavior they would prefer to have exist, even the scientist themself is unaware of the cues.
Checks community… Ok I’m going to be downvoted. None of these are impressive feats. Interoception? Freeing others? Understanding movement/gestures? Not impressive and not worthy of what’s being assigned to it.
Animals don’t have to know language or be able to do math, I think it is enough to know they can feel pain, suffer when their children are taken away and have a desire to be free.
Most humans have no impressive feats, still would not want anyone to be treated like non human animals.
If we could discover more primitive behaviors in mycelium, I would be very impressed.
I do agree with you. Anyone that has been around animals long enough can tell you that they can be fairly intelligent and absolutely have emotions. It’s not as “oh wow!” as that article seems to portray.
Yeah, I’ve seen it happen a bit where a scientific “discovery” is made, but common sense and and first-hand experience has largely already pieced it together. I think it is sometimes just that it is nice to have it formally verified by a rigorous scientific study.
I think there is a whole lot to be uncovered in the world of fungi, this study finding that mushrooms have up to 50 different “words” is quite interesting [1] . Everything that Andrew Adamatzky is doing with the connection between computers and fungi is fascinating. I suppose this “words” discovery is another case where many people have known for ages through first-hand experience that mushrooms are able to “talk” to them ;)
The article was still a positive, IMHO. Some people probably haven’t been around enough animals to really understand the nuances of their behavior, so it could have easily been an eye opener.
It’s kind of a running joke in the psychedelic communities that a mushroom is sort of a guide. It won’t give you the trip you want, but rather, the trip you need. (I shit you not, I jokingly personify mushrooms now because of my own experiences. It’s a thing.)
you are not alone
Personally, I am just interested in learning what cognitive abilities various types of animals are capable of. Farm animal cognitive research, specifically, is an area that is largely understudied, there simply isn’t much money going into understanding the cognition of the types of animals that are the most preferred sources of food. You are absolutely correct that these studies have not revealed any new or previously unheard of abilities in non-human animals. There are other types of animals that have been found to do much more impressive cognitive feats.
I’m curious, what do you feel is being unjustly assigned to them? Humans are especially susceptible to a range of mistakes when trying to measure the inner worlds and abilities of animals, and any insight into these mistakes being made is very helpful in uncovering how things actually are. In fact, there is even something known as the Clever Hans Effect which is when scientists are giving cues to the animals as to which behavior they would prefer to have exist, even the scientist themself is unaware of the cues.
I was referring to the adjectives the article assigned based on those observations.