[baavgai]

gabehabe, on 11 Jun, 2009 - 03:23 PM, said:

But I was actually referring to b.ihde, his first name is Benji.

Dude's named after a dog? That's harsh. I thought my friend John Thomas had it bad...

This post has been edited by baavgai: 11 June 2009 - 03:48 PM

[Raynes]

I talk to my dog all the time. She understands what I say. We usually discuss monads and category theory over tea.

This post has been edited by Raynes: 11 June 2009 - 05:38 PM

[OliveOyl3471]

baavgai, on 11 Jun, 2009 - 05:48 PM, said:

Dude's named after a dog? That's harsh.

Bindi Irwin is named after a crocodile and a dog.

[Martyr2]

I talk to my two chinchillas. They are smart animals and they understand what I say to them.

They say that when you talk to your pets it actually leads to them showing more affection to you and also helps with their temperament.

[OliveOyl3471]

Wow, you understand what your chinchillas say? You're so l33t!

This post has been edited by OliveOyl3471: 11 June 2009 - 09:43 PM

[paperclipmuffin]

My toilet-trained bunny (who freeranges around the house) is the smartest 20cm creature ever to have walked the earth. I talk to him all the time. I swear he can understand english; when I am about to go to the vets, he runs behind the bookcase and won't come out.

He's physic.

lol

Raynes, on 11 Jun, 2009 - 04:38 PM, said:

I talk to my dog all the time. She understands what I say. We usually discuss monads and category theory over tea.

Does she know java yet, or are you too lazy?

[gabehabe]

Martyr2, on 12 Jun, 2009 - 01:46 AM, said:

I talk to my two chinchillas. They are smart animals and they understand what I say to them.

They say that when you talk to your pets it actually leads to them showing more affection to you and also helps with their temperament.

I used to have a chinchilla. His name was Chilly and I loved him lots :')

He died when he was about 18, which I think is quite old for a chinchilla, isn't it? I used to talk to him and he was sooooo cuddly ^_____^

[Kanvus]

can't believe im the only one who voted to lock you nuts up. talking is completely ridiculous. on the other hand, learning to be psychic to communicate with superpowers is different. you think im joking.....

[NickDMax]

When I was a little kid all I did was bark commands at the animals. Mostly consisting of the word "NO"

When I was a little older I found the pets were better to "talk to about your troubles" than stuffed animals because they can actually tell your upset -- and some times they seem to sympathize and other times they obviously think you should get the over it and quite whining.

Then when I was about 11-12 or so I did go a little soft in the head and liked to think I had "natural super powers" -- like I could talk to animals and could make plants (especially trees) grow faster -- I don't really remember what brought this little delusional stage on but I do remember looking at a tree and seeing "energy lines" radiating up from the ground and racing out the leaves of a big Oak. -- maybe I had eaten an unidentified mushroom or something -- who knows.

I did outgrow this fancy (as I did many others) but I seemed to retain the habit of talking to animals as though they are human.

[NeoTifa]

I don't think animals understand what you say. I do believe, however, that they can understand your tone of voice to understand what you mean, and they have a sixth sense for emotions. If you're sick a cat will cuddle on your tummy, if you're angry they will hide, if you're sad they will rub against your legs and try to cuddle, etc. They're smart, but they don't understand your language per se.

[NickDMax]

It has been shown that animals (dogs and cats anyway) pick up a small (sometimes large) vocabulary. Mostly of nouns and verbs.

Sure they are only doing this though association -- but children use the same mechanism -- this is how neural networks/brains work.

Dogs have been shown to understand some basic sentences (combining different nouns and verb in new ways they have not encountered before). Dogs have been shown to have remarkable reasoning skills.

From what we understand of neural networks there really isn't much of a reason why animals aren't capable of greater things -- but we live in a culture that does not give animals much credit. Even though the evidence of animal intelligence is pretty overwhelming and has been for years.

We have know for centuries that most animals have a number sense -- hunters generally know this, farmers know this, we documented it hundreds of years ago -- yet the idea that an animal could be taught basic arithmetic is pretty crazy to us. Many human cultures that only have words for 1,2, and many can't actually count (or even keep tack of a count) much past 4 since 2 2's is the largest group they are capable of really seeing (because past that they don't have a conceptual model of numbers).

Like us even though animals may not be able to maintain a mental count much past 4 they can tell the greater of two sets. So while they may not have the conceptual models we use to do mathematics, they seem to have most (perhaps all) of the basic tools that we use to form them.

Anyway -- my point really is just that I think our understanding of animal intelligence is limited by cultures that have a egotistical arrogance about man's superiority over animals. We have built skyscrapers, airplanes, lunar landers, and the internet -- giving Rover credit for understanding, "go find your bunny" does not seem like much of a threat to our achievements.

[Raynes]

paperclipmuffin, on 12 Jun, 2009 - 12:15 AM, said:

Raynes, on 11 Jun, 2009 - 04:38 PM, said:

I talk to my dog all the time. She understands what I say. We usually discuss monads and category theory over tea.

Does she know java yet, or are you too lazy?

Why would I teach her Java of all languages...

I'm teaching her Haskell!

[Smurphy]

Raynes you make me laugh.

I talk to my dog Duke because hes fat and lazy, so you know hes not going anywhere. Some times he stares at you the whole time your speaking and when your done he rolls his fat self over and you can use him as a pillow.

[Raynes]

Smurphy, on 12 Jun, 2009 - 07:03 AM, said:

Raynes you make me laugh.

I talk to my dog Duke because hes fat and lazy, so you know hes not going anywhere. Some times he stares at you the whole time your speaking and when your done he rolls his fat self over and you can use him as a pillow.

My Chihuahua is fat. That's why I'm teaching her to code rather than fetch. If she jumps up in the air to grab something, it better be a turkey leg.

[baavgai]

NickDMax, on 12 Jun, 2009 - 08:22 AM, said:

Like us even though animals may not be able to maintain a mental count much past 4 they can tell the greater of two sets.

The are a number of cognition type tests that show humans are capable of holding no more than 6 to 9 "things" in memory, without the benefit of symbols. You can test this by flashing a image quickly of randomly placed objects and asking the count. If the image didn't lend itself to immediate abstraction, the number is less than 10.

Curiously, they know that crows can count to about six. The test goes like this. Crows scatter when a man crosses a field and enters a shed. They don't come back until the man leaves. Two men enter the shed, one man leaves, the crows wait for the other guy. It's not until you get to about half a dozen people that the crows miscount the total leaving for the total that entered and return.

NickDMax, on 12 Jun, 2009 - 07:06 AM, said:

I do remember looking at a tree and seeing "energy lines" radiating up from the ground and racing out the leaves of a big Oak... I did outgrow this fancy

Aww, that's sad. Most people don't readily perceive qi, chi, ki, prana, etc. It's there. Traditional Chinese Medicine would be useless without it. Tai chi and chi gong just wouldn't be any fun without the energy flow. And tantric... nm.