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A biologist who believes that trees speak a language we can learn to listen to

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Re: A biologist who believes that trees speak a language we can learn to listen to

#31

Post by kulu2002 »

some_account wrote: post #23

Humans can't perceive a lot of things, and on top of that, we have egos that makes us feel superior even though in reality, we are the only ones on the planet who can't live in harmony with other species. If you ever had a cat and really observed it and communicated with it, you know it has feelings and emotions. Birds have it also, so does pigs, horses... But we just ignore all that when it's convenient for us to ea…

I found the book "Beyond Words - What Animals think and feel" pretty interesting in this case

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150714-animal-do...

Re: A biologist who believes that trees speak a language we can learn to listen to

#32

Post by Lewton »

mpfundstein wrote: post #30
kpnbg wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too enjoy watching the perfect harmony of a lion eating a live impala

The huge difference is that lions dont put impalas into huge factories, where they feed them afwul food, rob them of any dignitiy, slaughter them by the masses, ship them across the globe in order to throw half of it away because it didnt hit the market’s taste of the month!

They would if they could

Re: A biologist who believes that trees speak a language we can learn to listen to

#33

Post by kpnbg »

mpfundstein wrote: post #30
kpnbg wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too enjoy watching the perfect harmony of a lion eating a live impala

The huge difference is that lions dont put impalas into huge factories, where they feed them afwul food, rob them of any dignitiy, slaughter them by the masses, ship them across the globe in order to throw half of it away because it didnt hit the market’s taste of the month!

Hey, you're right. Although another huge difference is that lions didn't evolve to be intelligent enough to learn to farm, invent mathematics, leave the planet etc. We are hunters, and what is going on now is a logical progression of what hunters who got smarter and more powerful would do. It sounds silly but I think that if any other hunter animal evolved like us, it would lead to very similar results.

I am not a fan of the mass farming, but there are thousands of variables that lead to our current treatment of cattle and so on.

Re: A biologist who believes that trees speak a language we can learn to listen to

#34

Post by mpfundstein »

Lewton wrote: post #32
mpfundstein wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The huge difference is that lions dont put impalas into huge factories, where they feed them afwul food, rob them of any dignitiy, slaughter them by the masses, ship them across the globe in order to throw half of it away because it didnt hit the market’s taste of the month!

They would if they could

Who knows... i don’t believe intelligence necessarily implies tendencies for mass murder

Re: A biologist who believes that trees speak a language we can learn to listen to

#35

Post by fao_ »

kpnbg wrote: post #33
mpfundstein wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The huge difference is that lions dont put impalas into huge factories, where they feed them afwul food, rob them of any dignitiy, slaughter them by the masses, ship them across the globe in order to throw half of it away because it didnt hit the market’s taste of the month!

Hey, you're right. Although another huge difference is that lions didn't evolve to be intelligent enough to learn to farm, invent mathematics, leave the planet etc. We are hunters, and what is going on now is a logical progression of what hunters who got smarter and more powerful would do. It sounds silly but I think that if any other hunter animal evolved like us, it would lead to very similar results. I am not a fa…

How many people do you know have left the planet, or could solve a mathematical theorem, eh?

The difference is that before, we hunted enough to eat, but not so much that the species died, whereas now we are willing to exterminate a species if it means we can get rid of other versions of us ('Every buffalo dead, is a dead indian').

Seems like we've got more callous and stupid the more this 'intelligence' was displayed.

Re: A biologist who believes that trees speak a language we can learn to listen to

#37

Post by sjclemmy »

I was thinking about communication the other day and came up with an aphorism:

“We can’t even understand other people when we speak the same language - what hope do we have of communicating with an alien life?”

By which I mean we wouldn’t even recognise the nature of the intelligence presented to us, never mind work out how to exchange information.

Re: A biologist who believes that trees speak a language we can learn to listen to

#38

Post by kulu2002 »

mpfundstein wrote: post #30
kpnbg wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too enjoy watching the perfect harmony of a lion eating a live impala

The huge difference is that lions dont put impalas into huge factories, where they feed them afwul food, rob them of any dignitiy, slaughter them by the masses, ship them across the globe in order to throw half of it away because it didnt hit the market’s taste of the month!

Yeah! You are right https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction

Re: A biologist who believes that trees speak a language we can learn to listen to

#39

Post by powerapple »

what's the definition of language? You can communicate emotion through sound/voice, is it considered as language? Language is what makes human superior intelligently. It is the software makes us a computer rather than calculator. Language is where we store knowledge. A language needs to be able to store logic as well as data, and it needs to have a written form so that the knowledge can be stored for a very long time. I wouldn't call any signal language.

Re: A biologist who believes that trees speak a language we can learn to listen to

#40

Post by jpttsn »

some_account wrote: post #23

Humans can't perceive a lot of things, and on top of that, we have egos that makes us feel superior even though in reality, we are the only ones on the planet who can't live in harmony with other species. If you ever had a cat and really observed it and communicated with it, you know it has feelings and emotions. Birds have it also, so does pigs, horses... But we just ignore all that when it's convenient for us to ea…

Cats, birds, and pigs are in turn happy to eat humans when convenient.
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