Scientists investigating video of a cow using tools say their findings could expand the list of animals capable of tool use.

Scientists investigating video of a cow using tools, and later conducting some basic psychology experiments on said cow, say their findings could expand the list of animals capable of tool use.

  • 5too@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61·
    6 hours ago

    I heard a fascinating notion on the radio the other day - the thing that makes us unique as a species is that we’re storytellers. Other animals can teach each other things, like whales and dolphins teaching their young how to hunt fish, or crows warning each other that one particular person is shady; but no other species invents Santa Claus to demonstrate that one should give for the joy of giving.

    Humans have a unique capacity to not only understand complex, abstract ideas about how we should interact with each other; but also to reinvent and transmit these ideas in an evolutionary eyeblink. This memetic transmission and interpretation of societal ideas is having an impact on the earth as profound as when genetic transmission came along. And it’s done through our capacity to tell each other stories, about how things might be and how we think they should be.

    I wonder how much of our sense of self, as an ongoing narrative, stems from that ability to invent a story.

    • thinkercharmercoderfarmer@slrpnk.netEnglish
      3·
      4 hours ago

      I think the ability to amass, retain, and augment information learned by our ancestors is our killer feature. Storytelling is an important part of it, using rhythm and rhyme to help us remember and pass on those stories, being able to encode those stories as art and writing, they’re all ways to make it easier for the next generation to get up to speed quickly and then push the boundaries of understanding even further, instead of every generation having to relearn all the basics the hard way. It’s not perfect and it’s still incredibly lossy, but I think that’s why we broke out and became, I think it’s fair to say, the dominant lifeform on the planet. Is that the bar for sentience? I don’t think so, but I don’t really have a better one.

      Also we invented santa claus to teach kids that every authority figure in your life will willingly engage in a conspiracy to gaslight and bribe you in order to make you behave the way they want you to.