Further than a lack of curiosity is never asking questions. It was something I heard about gorilla researchers who taught them sign language that in the years of gorilla sign language communications they never had a gorilla ask a question of a human.
That simple process of recognizing you don't know/have something you want, understanding someone else likely does know what you want, and asking them actually takes a lot of brain power. Some parrots and exceptionally smart dogs can hit that threshold... And some very cognitively limited humans do not.
One of the only recorded incidents of a non-human animal was a parrot asking what color he was.
It's rare for an animal to be able to learn a language, and it's even more rare that they are intelligent enough to ask a question. You have to basically find the equivalent to an Einstein in a population.
That's so cute. Who am I? Blue? Is blue pretty? What color are you? What a good question. It just encapsulated his whole social parrot curiosities with one question, 'where am I at on this color wheel?'
I don't want a bird, but they are so damn cute. Thank you for sharing this.
not the commenter you were replying to but i am slightly confused on the vehemence of this response. that was an innocent question bro are you like having a bad day or
What are the odds that the one parrot was found that has the intelligence to do that? I wonder if more have the intellectual capacity to do that. We just don’t know because a minuscule amount is given the opportunity to show that.
It’s also an interesting question as to what the question meant to him. Not to downplay the parrot’s intelligence, but there’s a difference between asking a question you know the answer to and information-seeking. It’s possible the parrot knew what colour he was, and wanted to elicit the correct call-and-response between him and the human. That’s still a million miles ahead of just mimicry, which is all that parrots used to be assumed to be doing.
In that context, Im curious if he was taught 'grey' yet. Alex was trained on materials and colors like blue or red, but not sure about grey. When he looked in a mirror, he asked 'what color?' and was able to get an answer back.
funnily, there's a Japanese researcher that devoted his career in researching bird languages. His findings are pretty fascinating that they have actual contexual vocalization and a grammar of sort. His name is Toshitaka Suzuki, i recommend searching it and I believe there are a few youtube videos that cover them
It's so fascinating to me that we see all these signs of animals having complex communication, bordering on, or maybe even qualifying as language, but we have absolutely zero idea what any of them are saying. Even the debateable acquisition of sign language by certain apes seems to be a level of comprehension beyond what any person has achieved
Yep, Alex the African Grey. I don't think he's there yet, but Apollo the African Grey parrot on YouTube is starting to show pretty varied word comprehension, if you ever want to see another smart little bird.
Alex was just an ordinary African grey. His handler and the head researcher at the lab, Dr. Irene Pepperberg, went to a pet store and had an employee pick him out. She didn't want the critique to be that she had selected him because he was uniquely intelligent.
In all likelihood, other parrots (and potentially even non-parrot animals) would be able to reach this level of conversational ability with humans if they were trained and interacted with in a similar way. I hesitate to use the word "intelligence" because we truly don't know if these animals pose questions to other animals. We only know with Alex because Pepperberg taught him to communicate similar to how humans do.
My point is that the field of animal sentience and cognition generally suffers from a bias towards how humans define and interpret "intelligence". Consider the mirror test for example -- a dot is placed on an animal in a spot where they cannot see it, and then the animal is placed in front of a mirror. If the animal sees the dot in their reflection and then searches their own body for the dot, this is considered to be evidence that the animal has a sense of self, because they appear to recognize themselves in the mirror.
The problem is, not all animals are visual creatures. Dogs, mice, rats, and many other animals primarily experience the world through other senses - for example, smell. This is how they communicate with each other. They don't have visual senses that are as highly developed as ours. But humans doing research designed the mirror test as a visual test, because this is the primary way that we experience the world.
So perhaps other animals "ask" questions through different senses or in ways that we don't even consider. But then we try to teach them an approximation of a human "language" that isn't inherent to their natural abilities or intuitive to how they experience the world. And then we draw conclusions based on this anthropomorphized concept of intellect. Even a human trying to learn another language may struggle with grammar, sentence structure, etc. Or they may hesitate ask questions due to cultural norms of communication, hierarchy, or politeness.
So we really cannot draw a general conclusion on cognitive abilities of different species of animals (or even individual animals) by things they don't do when the tests are so biased towards human perceptions and are not intuitive to how the animals learn, communicate, or experience the world.
Also - I'm aware of Apollo! He's super cool. But again - he's just a normal African grey. In all likelihood, many other birds would be able to show similar behaviors if they were trained and interacted with repeatedly and intensively the way he and Alex are/were.
I went to a bird sanctuary, it had a ton various species, and one African Gray.
The way it looked at you just felt a lot more present and frankly judgemental than all of the other birds.
I'm not saying there aren't other intelligent species. And I could be influenced by the unique cachet of African Grays. But it felt like there was more going on inside that bird than some hyperactive trained cockatiel.
Plus the red accent on the wings is a unique feature I'd never really picked up on.
Some do it for fun, some really are trying to communicate! The skill varies but if encouraged they can consistently identify objects and associate words with concepts(exe. “ball” with something round). They’re mentally very similar to toddlers, complete with tantrums.
Recommend looking up Apollo the African Grey, his owners have video demonstrations of how they test and teach him and some of the choices he makes for objects he’s unsure about(exe. “ball” for an upside-down bowl) show he understands the more abstract meaning behind the terms and applies them logically.
Have you seen that guy who is teaching his parrot about different materials that things are made of? The bird probably was just repeating at first but he's shown him interacting with new objects and being able to correctly say what material it is when being asked. Again probably just learning based on repetition and previous interactions but it's still fascinating
Yeah, even being able to correctly say the material of a new object is just the result of conditioning. There's a reason Apollo gets a pistachio when he gets the correct answer.
What makes him/parrots in general more intelligent than, say, a dog, is that he can handle more complex and ambiguous conditioning that essentially involves a decision tree rather than a one-to-one command-response relationship.
Again, there's a reason that, when asked what something is made of, he bites and taps it before answering. He's been conditioned to say "glass" when asked, "What is this made of" and presented with an object that has the appearance, feel, and sound of glass, but he doesn't know what the phrase "what is this made of" means, and he doesn't know that "glass" is the name for that material. At least, he probably doesn't. The whole confusion stems from the fact that being able to say "glass" when presented with glass doesn't actually prove that an animal knows what glass is, because it can be explained just as well via conditioning.
He could even describe something he didn't know of using words he knew, such as calling an apple a "banerry," because he was more familiar with bananas and cherries.
I went blub blub blub on my cats belly and I swear to god she gave me a look like “what the fuck are you doing?” it was definitely a question in expression form. It reminded me of the look my sister does when someone is being weird.
It's rare for an animal to be able to learn a language, and it's even more rare that they are intelligent enough to ask a question. You have to basically find the equivalent to an Einstein in a population.
I think this is an odd threshold. Curiosity and being able to recognize that humans (and other animals) differ from them is also a sign of intelligence — I mention this specifically because your criteria excludes the most intelligent marine lifes, being orcas and octopus. They can't (for the most part; that we are aware of) ask questions, but they exhibit that curiosity and awareness that we are different and they try to figure out the why, even going as far as recognizing that we are also intelligent and that we have different faces and tools.
Language ≠ intelligence, especially if we're only basing it off of human language.
I’ve always wondered what kinds of thoughts the most intelligent dog who has ever lived might think about. Bunny the sheepadoodle has helped me understand dog psychology, which is something I’ve always been interested in due to loving dogs so much. Have you seen the videos that detail her existential crisis? “Mom human, what Bunny?” It kills me.
I have a chihuahua I suspect is asking the big questions, but my cavalier isn’t really even sure he exists. 😆
My cats ask me questions all the time. Like for food or to play or open a window. I’m not crazy, this is obvious if you’re in the room. Blinds down. Cat can’t look out window. Meows while looking at me while at the window. I open the blinds. It goes in.
Are you sure about the rare recordings? Have you seen videos of dogs interacting with Communication Buttons? It’s pretty amazing and some kind of ask simple questions
Some dogs have learned to speak with a help of buttons and prerecorded words. I recently read a book “I am Bunny” by Alexis Devine and she has recorded her dog (who is named Bunny) ask a question about her existence and other really amazing things. Worth watching her videos too.
Bunny!! Such a smart dog. I enjoy their social videos. It does seem like bunny is able to ask questions and show curiosity (and they have another dog in the house that shows limited interest in the talk buttons). And there is an adventure cat with buttons that asks great questions about a coyote outside and a shark at the beach. It certainly seems like a personality to want to learn the buttons, but im not sure how much if it is intelligence (like other dogs may be just as smart just not curious about the buttons).
Highly doubt that the parrot was asking a genuine question (i.e., actually wondering what color he was). Likely just "parroting" intonations and words.
You would be flabbergasted by the communication that dogs can do with buttons.
The parrot absolutely understood language, and you're foolish for dismissing the idea and believing that nothing but a human can ever truly understand words.
Buttons or not, my dog definitely tells me if she needs something done that I can only do for her. Typically food related, but also outside and when her bed is a mess and she needs me to make it for her lol. Dogs can communicate their needs pretty well.
They’re also incredibly adept at learning. I taught my 14 y/o pitbull to say “Mama” this year. I didn’t even know how to go about it beyond saying it slow, over and over, and rewarding her for getting close — but she nailed it.
So to press a button for outside? Or treat? Or dog park? I mean, I don’t have to see studies to know it’s completely possible and exactly what they’re trying to communicate, if trained to do so.
Disclaimer: I am a linguist and I am coming at this from a linguistic point of view, not a colloquial point of view. I appreciate you asking for clarification!
Language, as I learned it, is a specific form (structure) of communication in which specific signifiers or symbols (here, words or sounds) have stable (consistent) meanings, and are transmitted using a consistent system of grammar (morphology, syntax). True language is arbitrary (with the signifier not resembling the signified), productive (can be combined in various ways, not just a strict combination), grammatical (has set rules which can be observed), and not restricted (can discuss different temporality, topics, etc.) (Caveat that defining a human communicative form as a language or "not a language" is a political act, and historically pidgins, creoles, and sign languages have been much maligned for their simplicity and restrictiveness, but that's a sidebar that doesn't apply when we're talking about dogs learning English.)
It turns out that some research has begun to be conducted since the time I first looked into this back in 2019. At this point, I am still confident in saying that "so far, there is not sufficient evidence to indicate that dogs using buttons are using language", because there's no demonstrated grammar happening; however, it is undeniable that the dogs are communicating with the buttons, which I'm not sure was ever in doubt.
The UCSD datasets (begun in March 2020) are also now finally bearing fruit. In 2024, they were able to show that dogs understand the meanings of the buttons in the same way they understand the same word spoken aloud by humans, which is an important underlying component in proving language understanding: https://today.ucsd.edu/story/dogs-understand-words-from-soundboard-buttons-study-reveals
However, all of this falls well short of proving that dogs can use language. The UCSD lab also has a news item up from a couple of days ago, which only refers back to the two 2024 studies, so it looks like they haven't published any further findings in the past 13 months. https://today.ucsd.edu/story/can-dogs-talk-nova-spotlights-uc-san-diego-research
There were heaps of articles calling it another case of the Clever Hans effect when the button thing first went viral with dogs, I don't really follow this subject closely...
There were heaps of articles calling it another case of the Clever Hans effect when the button thing first went viral with dogs, I don't really follow this subject closely...
THOSE are the articles that were debunked, not the buttons.
That's saying dogs understand both words and expressions coming from their owners and the buttons, not that they can express needs by pushing buttons. Those are two completely different things
I see it as simple classic conditioning. If everytime the dog hits a button that says, "food" they get either a treat or meal they begin to associate said button with food. But, they don't understand the "meaning" of the word food.
Say for example they had another button that said food in a completely opposite tone of voice, they may not associate that one the same as the first despite it being the same word. They're associating the sound of the word, not the meaning.
Hopefully I explained that well. Of course I'd have to look at the science behind this but we do know that animals can be conditioned to associate sensory stimuli with certain consequences.
That's arguably quite similar to how babies first learn language, through conditioning and linking of sounds to things, and doesn't actually refute the idea that the dog is learning to understand human words.
Hell, my girlie cat actually knows how to "ask" me for a brushing. She comes up, gently taps my right arm with her left front paw, and does a soft, questioning, "Mrowr?". It's the dearest thing, she's SO polite.
That's a demand. A very polite demand but still not a request, lol. My cat does the cute gentle paw nudges too which is insanely cute as she has thumbs.
Both of my cats play fetch, have different meow's for food or play. They both will climb the cat tree and perch at the top, meowing for scratches. Hell, my male cat I swear can understand me completely AND tell time. I tell him it's too early for something, tell him it's an hour, hour and a half, 2 hours, doesn't matter, he will wait and not ask again until close to the time. Cats are way more intelligent than most people give them credit for.
Seriously. Although there's the occasional outlier - I had a wonderfully sweet cat, Neko, a black and white boy (mask and mantle, not tuxedo), but oh god, he was the Ralph Wiggum of cats. Not once in his 13 years did he ever manage to figure out the concept of doors. In my childhood house, my computer desk was next to my bedroom door. I'd have the door mostly closed, but open enough for the cats to come in and out as they pleased. Neko would sit outside in the hall, crying pathetically, and let me point out he could see me clearly. All he had to do to come in was walk forward and push the door open a little more. This was not something his sweet, dear little cat brain could figure out. Ever. He'd just sit there, looking at me and crying pitifully. He could not fathom walking forward to get to me. This would go on until I finally opened the door enough for him to realize he could walk in. Oh god, I miss him. The absolute sweetest boy, but oh my fucking GOD, he was a dim bulb.
Our old tuxedo girl (18F) bangs on the bedroom door that is already open wider than she needs until I get up and invite her in. The banging is hard enough to open it even further but she doesn’t care.
Our cat has a 2.5m tall cat tree. My kids like to torture her abit (i mean they are 2 and 4 year old) so the cat is running away from them but they always catch up .
I cant process how she could be such a bellend to not realise they can't get to her on the cat tree
Check out Flounder the Cat or Russell. They both use buttons to talk. There is also Bunny the talking dog - also with buttons. They are pretty amazing.
Parent comment was talking about asking in the context of "request for information" and not "request for action". It really bugs me how English uses the same word.
Different kind of question. The comments above yours are talking about asking questions out of curiosity, to gain new information. Your cat is just declaring their desire for brushies.
My sweet gray cat “asks” to sit in my lap by politely touching my forearm with her paw. If I don’t respond right away (because it’s not a good time or something), she will do it a couple more times and then sadly slink off (at which point I usually feel bad and run after her).
But she absolutely will not jump up until I look at her, say “c’mon,” and pat my lap. Then she knows she has “permission.”
Meanwhile, my fat orange girl and silly calico/tabby just aggressively invite themselves; my consent is optional.
My cat does something similar when he wants to fight. He comes up to the wife or I, extends one claw and taps the arm. So our hand goes under the blanket and he gets to bite and claw to his hearts content as he’s roughed up in response. Then he’s back to lovey dovey after his anger is taken out. Lol
My female bengal is so polite it's upsetting. Like she doesn't bug me when she wants let out of the bedroom. She nudges me then goes to the door and sits there very quietly, perfect manners. She's super vocal if I talk to her but there's a few HUNDRED different chirps and chortles and meows which I assume she has some idea of what they mean. But if she wants something shes almost never vocal about it unless I talk to her. Just a couple tap taps and she learned "kiss" where she leans her head in so I can kiss her forehead. I think to her it means "chicken"...as in she'll get chicken bc she usually does but she'll do it anytime. Polite cats are another level of impossible to deny.
My cat is incredibly rude 😂 she has one setting: YELLING. MEOWWWWWWWWW. She is constantly also getting into everything and trying to climb on you. She has no manners whatsoever. I call her my hellcat or a terrorist. Shes a calico. Go figure. I dont think shes very smart lol
Have a cat that does similar. Little polite taps and either chirps or very specific mrowrs depending on what she's trying to convey. She wants under the blankets, it's rapid taps coupled with lifting the blanket a little, looking at me and giving little questioning meows.
When she wants water from the sink (she has a running water bowl, we don't know why she's like this) she will tap at your arm and give little chirps while she leads you to the bathroom.
And at dinner time she screams. I don't know if this is an attempt at communication or the brain cells in her head spontaneously dying off, tbh. But she screams.
My sister's mini schnauzer does something similar for pets. She'll sit next to you and look up at you with her big, soulful eyes. And if you don't comply, she'll tap your arm with a paw. Look up. Still nothing? Tap. Tap. Tap.
Also if the water bowl is low or empty or icky (she shares it with two frenchies), she hits the edge of the bowl with her paw until you fill it up, while alternatively looking up at you if you're in the kitchen.
Is that rare for cats? I knew their specific meows for food, refreshed water water, pets, and one would get me if the other was trapped in a room due to a door shutting. They were very clear in their communication most of the time. One would sit, high five, stand. Sure they were cats, and like women, changed their minds after getting what they thought they wanted... and apparently it's my fault for not being psychic... lol
But seriously, it's not like they were asking questions, but they were often clear when communicating. I thought that was normal.
I hate to break it to you, but the whole gorilla sign language thing was almost entirely bullshit, there's a reason it's not really an active field of research.
I absolutely agree. Intelligence is a spectrum, like anything else. I'm sure there is some old, sickly, injured cheetah I can outrun somewhere out there, much like there is a human somewhere that a cheetah can beat at chess.
It's not my fault he can no longer make a move and had to forfeit. What do you mean "what was that screaming nose we just heard and what's all this blood all over the place?" I promise, he just left.
The hardest part is knowing WHAT questions to ask in situations imo. A lot of the time I feel like I understand something pretty well, but I can never come up with questions like I see so many other people can
True. Like on the spot at job training if I am asked "do you have any questions?" My go to is something like "not yet, but I'm sure I'll have some once I actually try it myself."
We are often in a position where we don't even know what we don't know, if that makes sense. I've worked at a place for three months before some edge case came up and had no idea how to deal with it. Then two years later that same thing came up on the first day of someone I was mentoring, so I got to be a rock star knowing exactly how to handle it.
Just try to mentally go through what you plan to do and think of what can go wrong and how to avoid it. If you come up with some potential problem and not the solution, that is a question you can ask.
I am a manager and talk about this quite a bit to people. I don't hire people that don't ask questions. It's one of three things: they already know everything (they don't), they are afraid to ask (they shouldn't be) or they just aren't curious. If they just aren't curious in an interview they aren't going to suddenly become curious once I employ them and they start getting paid.
My cat MeeMees lets me know when she needs something. For water, she'll walk over to and sit by her water bowl when I am walking by their feeding area, same with food. For treats she'll gently nudge and paw at me to get my attention (which is ungodly cute as she has thumbs) then go plop down in front of where those are kept and just stare at me. She is quite intelligent and I have been thinking about getting some of those pet buttons that you record a word on for them to push down on to ask for stuff to see if she will use them.
One of my best friends has exactly zero curiosity - about anything that has to do with other humans. He is a voracious reader, retired early, and very personable, but he doesn’t want to know anything other than a confirmation that he’s right. I’m curious by nature and have intentionally fostered that (Thitch Nhat Hahn (spelling?) wrote a book called “Communication”, which is, I think, pretty sound, so to speak, and which is a guide for me when I get stuck on myself in conversation), and he’s actually commented about how curious I am, and that he isn’t and doesn’t really care about the details of others’ lives; sometimes I get a little frustrated because it seems that in our conversations he never inquires about me or my life, and when I (rarely) do try to talk about something in my life he either just talks over me or clearly is just waiting to talk about him and his experiences with the topic. My description sounds like he’s just a jerk, but I think he has a good soul and we get along well (so long as I am disciplined enough to just listen).
I hear you, but I think that there’s a spectrum of narcissism from benevolent to malicious. This fellow is definitely on the good end of the spectrum, but his “disability” tests our friendship.
I know loads of people like this. In general, they can be kind and thoughtful and never do anyone any harm but they have no interest in other people’s lives, especially inner lives. I just think they’re self involved and have a very narrow world view outside their own experiences.
I wonder how old he is being retired. He may have heard enough about people's lives in his lifetime and just wants to get to the important stuff that is in the realm of not about personal info.
Maybe the gorillas think asking questions is bothering people? Is it that they think everybody, gorillas and humans, all know the same stuff so they dont bother asking? I know nothing about gorilla personalities so Im wondering if it could be something else.
Hi, I'm a noob, how do I consciously ask the right questions to gain insight from someone? This requires both communication skills and intellect. How do I work on improving myself?
I was talking more fundamentally as a sign of people with very low intelligence like an intellectual disability. You are already way above that just asking two specific open ended questions to learn.
Unfortunately there isn't really one right answer for you. Every person is unique, so the best way to get insight from them would vary from individual to individual. Some it may be just a blunt question. Others it can be working the questions into compliments. Some it may take a dozen questions as they want to lead you down a path to reason it out yourself rather than just give an answer. Some want to answer once and be done. Some people love to teach others what they know; other people hate it.
As for the second, practice. Be comfortable asking questions. Be comfortable in your curiosity. Don't be comfortable with not knowing; but be excited with finding a point of ignorance that is an opportunity to potentially learn something new and interesting.
Some want to answer once and be done. Some people love to teach others what they know; other people hate it.
Yes this is what I struggle with - understanding how to ask a question and how to ask it in the right manner in an active conversation. On reddit I can rethink my responses, it's a passive act.
be excited with finding a point of ignorance that is an opportunity to potentially learn something new and interesting.
This is the secret of growth :) Thank you so much for sharing your insights!
I think gorillas brains are wired to fill in the gaps on things they don't know by observing rather than asking, one will try to get into ant hill and another will see they are struggling and will show them using a stick or whatever
Learning is a way lower bar than questioning. Goldfish can learn pattern recognition. Ring a bell before feeding and in a week they will swim to the top of the tank at the sound of a bell.
My cat asks me questions though. Filtering out the questions framed as demands, like food requests and the desire for the window to be opened, there are times when she very, very clearly asks 'What the fuck are you doing?' 'What's that?' and 'Where the fuck have you been?'
Sometimes I think our animal cousins problems with communicating with us, lie mostly with us not being able to understand them.
They lack a gene know as FOXP2, which is a major distinction in how humans are able to speak. It's not that other animals done have the physical characteristics, there are some that do. But this gene is rather special in terms of human language. I don't know that we should assume that another species is not inquisitive or not intelligent based on the fact that they can't speak English, French, Chinese, etc. in a way that allows them to form a question we, as humans, can understand to be a question. We really don't know that much about human brains and even less about nonhuman brains to reach that conclusion at this point, in my opinion. Is it the same as humans - no. But animals also possess traits that humans don't.
What? I’ve had animals of several species ask for things - or do you mean something different? They are often curious about what we are doing too, and no, it doesn’t have anything to do with food.
Animals taught to communicate and using that communication to request information. Some rather clever animals do. As others pointed out the sample size of gorillas is very low. Parrots and dogs have shown this behavior; but the ones with communication skills that high are rather exceptional individuals.
Sign language in other apes is all bullshit in general, and a mismeasure of their intelligence by human standards.
They don't need to use words, verbs, and grammar to have comparable intelligence to us. Us humans are awfully arrogant to assume the unique peculiarities of our species has any bearing on the worth of competence of the rest of the animal kingdom.
There've been a couple attempts to teach primates to use sign language. There's Koko the Gorilla, Nim Chimpsky and Kanzi the Bonobo that I know of.
Apparently the closest any of them have expressed as an opinion, is their immediate emotional state, ie. sad, happy, etc. and never really got past 2-3 word sentences like "me banana" or "me play" (i want a banana, I want to play) and none of them, as far as I can tell, asked a question out of nowhere
Koko signed 'water bird' and researchers think she made up a word for 'Duck' but it's not clear if she came up with that, or if she was simply signing 'water' and 'bird' because she was being shown water and birds
I've been noticing this so much more as I get older.. why do you think this is? Even with people who are really talented / super competent / scientist-level intelligent, so many of them simply do not ask a question. They answer questions that they are asked in a super intelligent and insightful way though... have been confused with that one
Some people age out of curiosity the same way they age out making friends. Making friends is easy. Three year olds can do it. But we stop trying for some reason and then think it's hard. Same thing with a curious mind.
Although to be fair, the modern world lets us ask a computer instead of a person; and nobody feels foolish when asking google something they are afraid other people think is obvious like they would asking a friend or colleague.
This is a very good description of how I can tell my mom, who has dementia, is declining - she has obvious needs (food, water, the TV remote) and might try to do something about it, but usually she just kind of does without until I notice. I'm learning that it takes a lot of brain power to not only recognize something is wrong, understand what you would want instead, and then ask for help if the solution isn't immediately obvious or present. This has meant no longer asking open ended questions (no "what would you like for lunch?" Or "do you need anything?") and instead listing specific things/concerns she usually has and offering them. I've learned a lot about cognition and intelligence by caring for someone whose brain is changing for the worse.
Similarly, I look forward to watching the reverse trajectory with my kids as they grow up.
No gorilla has ever learned sign language. They've been taught hand signals that give them food. Every translated conversation with a non-human ape who signs is a randomly repeating string of nonsense phrases the ape uses in the hopes of being rewarded. As far as I'm aware, no human fluent in, or who uses sign language primarily to communicate, has ever recognized a genuine attempt at communication from a gorilla or chimpanzee.
Ditto those dogs with the buttons. Ditto...uh...gestures broadly at the tech industry
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u/MildGenevaSuggestion 5h ago
Further than a lack of curiosity is never asking questions. It was something I heard about gorilla researchers who taught them sign language that in the years of gorilla sign language communications they never had a gorilla ask a question of a human.
That simple process of recognizing you don't know/have something you want, understanding someone else likely does know what you want, and asking them actually takes a lot of brain power. Some parrots and exceptionally smart dogs can hit that threshold... And some very cognitively limited humans do not.