And Listen When They Talk To You
A Lifelong Fascination
I admit that the idea of communicating with animals, at the level we communicate with each other, has been a lifelong fascination for me. Who would not give a lot to be able to do this with all sorts of creatures? IMany of you feel the same, and perhaps feel you come closer to this than do most people. As for me, well, my favorite hat says “I like dogs, and maybe 3 people”
Part of this, I suppose, is the human desire to connect and our love of animals. But there is a practical or overriding aspect to such a goal as well. Just imagine if we could have real conversations with animals. If that ever happens (and I think it will), what may they share with us, teach us, that could make us a better species?
My gut feeling is that the experience would be profound. I suspect we would come out of this new level of communication a bit more ashamed of our performance as stewards and high-end species on our planet. Oh, what we could learn and what philosophical growth we could experience!
What Makes This Difficult
A long known problem in this search is our tendency towards anthropomorphism – assigning human qualities and processes to other species. Of course, sometimes that is the right response. Does anyone doubt that animals experience love, fear, hunger, joy, curiosity, et al? But thinking that other species think and react in exactly the same ways we do likely causes us to miss connections.
Another long standing problem has been the resistance of science to seriously consider cross-species communications beyond the most basic levels. Jane Goodall hit that wall repeatedly in her early work, with other scientists accusing her of erroneously making assumptions about human-like qualities in animals. Only her persistence and decades long, detailed research and observation slowly turned the tide on recognizing the possibilities.
We also lacked the tools to figure all this out, but new approaches and new resources, especially Artificial Intelligence, are making real progress, if not yet breakthroughs. Groundbreaking research is ongoing right now on dogs and whales in particular. I think (hope?) we are on the cusp of real breakthroughs sooner rather than later.
We also are beginning to suspect that animal intelligence may not be all brain based, which makes our search for connections a bit more challenging. It seems that some traits and skills are passed down through generations of animals genetically and that some of these capabilities may be based somewhere besides the brain. My understanding is that this is so foreign a concept to us that we don’t even know exactly how to pose the question of how all this works. But the hunt is on. I have read a couple of interesting articles on how work with crows and ravens are moving down this path of inquiry.
Two Very Different Bridges – Artificial Intelligence and Music
We have already noted how important AI is to this endeavor. The research on whales in particular relies very heavily on AI. As Artificial Intelligence continues to evolve at incredible speed, the impact will grow exponentially. We may yet find the ability to have intelligent conversations in our lifetime. Have some fun: If you could ask 2-3 questions of any creature, what animal would you chose, and what questions would you ask?
Another very different link is music. The effects of music on people has long been appreciated, if not fully understood. But it turns out that music seems to have very similar effects on a wide range of creatures. What does that tell us about our commonality?
I leave you today with a bit of fun on this last point. The internet is full of short videos of someone playing music around animals. Invariably, the animals come to be close to the music, are clearly attached to it, and often sway or move in other ways with the beat. I have seen this with horses, elephants, birds of all sorts, lemurs; you name it, they like it.
It is a delightful scene to watch, every time. Here are a couple of fun examples.
Enjoy!
Bill Clontz
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I am right there with you Bill. In my work with animals and having, over the years, lived with numerous dogs and cats and in my youth worked on a farm with cows and horses and there certainly is a ommunication that happens.