Live data from Hacker News

If parrots can talk, why can’t monkeys?

english.elpais.com

111–120 of 221 posts

Re: If parrots can talk, why can’t monkeys?

#111
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we just put some AI via electrodes into the monkeys. If we can also add some blockchain, I think we'll have a winner. Let's circle back Monday on this idea, I'd like to pick your brain some more.

You're mocking the parent but isn't this what most BCIs do? Electrodes + signal processing to estimate some output.

[deleted]

Re: If parrots can talk, why can’t monkeys?

#112
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I've also been wondering this. Can we train an LLM on dolphin noises? I suspect the problem is the training data. If we don't know what the dolphin squeaks mean, we can't really filter the training data to include only meaningful "language." But I do wonder how far we could get by just dumping a bunch of dolphin recordings into an LLM and getting it to make the same noises... The other side of that same problem is th…

It would be cool to develop robots that can follow a group of whales for a long time and observe and record. That should give us real training data.

Re: If parrots can talk, why can’t monkeys?

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have very good color eyesight, are unusually flexible when it comes to weather, are pretty omnivorous and disease resistant, and we're absolutely unbeatable endurance runners. IIRC we actually smell as well as dogs too, if we get down to floor level.

Don't forget being able to throw accurately.

Or juggle.

Re: If parrots can talk, why can’t monkeys?

#114
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now do dogs. Are they missing any anatomy for speech or is that also neural?

The fact that parrots and humans with different anatomies can speak means it’s likely just neural.

I'm amazed at the range of vocalizations from huskies

Re: If parrots can talk, why can’t monkeys?

#115
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chimpanzees are intelligent and willing to do something like communicating, and can maybe produce words/signs, but they don't produce sentences/syntax and they never ask questions. Supposedly parrots can do that one. Related question: which animals understand humans pointing at things?

There are a number of interesting videos on social media sites ostensibly demonstrating dogs and birds using buttons and tablets to generate reasonably coherent communication like might be expected out of a two year old. Some of these have some backing scientific literature that provide some validation of the claims. If true it would indicate they have quite advanced mental faculties and are basically entirely limite…

Those are less than "sentences" because word order doesn't matter and they're not recursive (so they can't go on forever).

Re: If parrots can talk, why can’t monkeys?

#117
Parrots can't use sign language, but some great apes can(koko)[0]!

Even thought monkeys don't have the vocal complexity to generate all the vowels(a,e,i,o,u) I think "great ape language" communication is more complex and nuanced than a fricking parrot repeating some phonemes after some form of stimulation.

Fascinating.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koko_(gorilla)

Re: If parrots can talk, why can’t monkeys?

#118
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a number of interesting videos on social media sites ostensibly demonstrating dogs and birds using buttons and tablets to generate reasonably coherent communication like might be expected out of a two year old. Some of these have some backing scientific literature that provide some validation of the claims. If true it would indicate they have quite advanced mental faculties and are basically entirely limite…

Those are less than "sentences" because word order doesn't matter and they're not recursive (so they can't go on forever).

This is overly pedantic. How many conversations with a two year old have you had?

Word order does not matter, recursion doesn't matter (a two year old can make a sentence go on forever without recursion even)

Re: If parrots can talk, why can’t monkeys?

#120
Strange that this article doesn't mention any of the current research into what the cause is. [Erich Jarvis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Jarvis) has done research into the neurological mechanisms and seems to have discovered that animals capable of complex speech patterns have some mutations that permit a neural connection to grow from the motor cortex to the larynx (or syrinx in birds) by way of the brain stem. In other words, we can make complex vocalizations in part because we have fine motor control over our voice box, whereas most other animals do not.

This is only part of the story — there's still the question of how auditory information makes it in as an input so that we can replicate sounds we've heard — but it's a pretty big part for TFA to omit.

Post reply on HN