this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I have no idea if they're curious about the world around them. But that's also not the question at hand.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 0 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

It is the question at hand. It's a question about the mental process of animals

The question isn't are they curious - we know they are. The question is why they don't ask humans questions when you teach them how to speak

The answer is - it's because you're not speaking gorilla, the gorilla is learning a foreign language, which it learned by being motivated by food.

Animal languages have a different grammar to human languages. When they ask questions, they often do it by making statements to be agreed with or corrected. They might even disagree, and assert the statement again in reply

You have to meet animals halfway... Well, really like 10% of the way since they're the ones learning to speak to us in our languages

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 7 hours ago

These people aruginf against the intelligence of animals would fit right in with people who encounter savages on their voyages.

That label was based on cultural differences and these fools are too ignorant to see they are making the same mistake across the difference in species.

It's quite fascinating. Maybe if we give them treats they can be trained to recognize their superiority only exists in their mushy little brains.