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Bird brains (2023)

dhanishsemar.com

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Re: Bird brains (2023)

#51

Post by psychoslave »

bdamm wrote: post #46
jrrv wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: octopus does not come from Latin, which would give the plural an -i ending. It comes from Greek, which means that if you want to be particularly correct about your plurals, then the plural is octopodes.

That's fun. Octopii rolls off the tongue though, doesn't it? Since we have survived both the Greek and Roman cultures, and have absorbed aspects of both into languages now widely distributed, I'd like to propose that we seed the path of a true lingua franca and declare the plural of octopus to be octopii. It's no worse than inserting greek words (octopodes) into English language.

They are all already in use https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/octopus

Re: Bird brains (2023)

#53

Post by DiffTheEnder »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26

> Dr. Irene Pepperberg studied an African grey parrot named Alex for 30 years. Alex could identify objects, colours, shapes, and numbers. He understood abstract concepts like "same" and "different." His vocabulary exceeded 100 words. When he died in 2007, his last words to Pepperberg were reportedly "You be good. I love you. See you tomorrow." I don't care how you define intelligence -- that one's hard to brush off.…

Ah yeah that's exactly what it was but thought I'd try to add a bit more emotion to this point haha. Even if the parrot said this every night as a good night - its still very sweet that Alex said that every night :)

Re: Bird brains (2023)

#54

Post by psychoslave »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #12
Bender wrote: post #2

Adding to this a chart of neuron count [1] [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_by_number_of_n...

Interesting... I would have thought Octopi have more total neurons than dogs, given their problem-solving capabilities. Now I wonder if the decentralized organization / hub and spoke model octopi alone exhibit offers some advantage when it comes to problem-solving

This code base is larger, so it’s certainly a smarter product!

"Simplicity Is The Ultimate Sophistication" was likely not uttered by Leonardo Da Vinci, but it’s still a pretty cool expression. Anyway, architecture matters.

[1] https://checkyourfact.com/2019/07/19/fact-check-leonardo-da-...

Re: Bird brains (2023)

#55

Post by mock-possum »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #21
small_model wrote: post #10

Given parrots can talk, there must be a neuron count that activates language (assuming anatomy allows it), similar to LLM parameter count.

Parrots can't "talk". They just mimick noises they've heard before

I mean, isn’t that just what you’re doing too? If you see a cow, and you’ve been taught that ‘cow’ is the sound that describes a cow, don’t you say “cow?”

Re: Bird brains (2023)

#56

Post by mock-possum »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #26

> Dr. Irene Pepperberg studied an African grey parrot named Alex for 30 years. Alex could identify objects, colours, shapes, and numbers. He understood abstract concepts like "same" and "different." His vocabulary exceeded 100 words. When he died in 2007, his last words to Pepperberg were reportedly "You be good. I love you. See you tomorrow." I don't care how you define intelligence -- that one's hard to brush off.…

iirc there’s a similar mythos around coco the gorilla

Re: Bird brains (2023)

#58

Post by PurpleRamen »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #21
small_model wrote: post #10

Given parrots can talk, there must be a neuron count that activates language (assuming anatomy allows it), similar to LLM parameter count.

Parrots can't "talk". They just mimick noises they've heard before

Bumblebee (the Transformer) might have an objection here. Purposeful mimicry can be used for talking on certain complexity. It does not have to be human-level to be communication.

Re: Bird brains (2023)

#60

Post by throwway120385 »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #21
small_model wrote: post #10

Given parrots can talk, there must be a neuron count that activates language (assuming anatomy allows it), similar to LLM parameter count.

Parrots can't "talk". They just mimick noises they've heard before

This is also what toddlers do until bit by bit they're repeating everything you say back to you in context.
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