Re: Uplifting: Linguistics (Communication With Animals)

Mike Coward (mikec@ilnk.com)
Mon, 17 Nov 1997 11:14:26 -0500


>Date: 17 Nov 1997 10:29:40 +0100
>From: Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>
>Subject: Re: Uplifting anyone?
>
>Twink <neptune@mars.superlink.net> writes:
>
>> Third, the gains for the culture/memescape might be great.
>> We get the bonus of an added perspective.
>
>uplifting: how do we do it?
>maybe the addition of a more advanced
>language system would be a good start?

Yes, I want a more advanced language to share with other species.
How should it work?
What can any animal use to communicate with?

Let all animals including humans be fed smart drugs
and go to the same schools.
Let's treat all animals like persons,
because they have personalities.

Teach more chimps sign language.

Have people learn more animal languages.
Humans already record and replay sounds
to analyze their meanings by reactions they get.
If we simply interpret body language we can learn an amazing number of
phrases.
The easiest signals to identify are:
"Danger"
"Food"
"I'm happy"
"I'm going to hurt you"
"I'm hurt"
"I'm angry"
Limiting communication to audio frequncies is absurd.
Some cats, dogs, and cacatoos(sp? "Polly want a cracker" and "Pretty bird"s)
can say a couple simple english words like food and out.
but in general they understand us more than we understand them.

Any animal can communicate.
The only reason very few do is because we do not try
We need to teach them when they are young.