Slashdot Mirror
'Hello!' Says the Human. 'Hello!' Pipes the Orca Right Back. (theguardian.com)
A human greets an orca with a "Hello!" "Hello!" responds the orca. A new research shows, the orcas have been able to imitate human speech, in some cases at the first attempt, saying words such as "hello", "one, two," "Amy", and "bye bye." From a report: The study also shows that the creatures are able to copy unfamiliar sounds produced by other orcas -- including a sound similar to blowing a raspberry. Scientists say the discovery helps to shed light on how different pods of wild killer whales have ended up with distinct dialects, adding weight to the idea that they are the result of imitation between orcas. The creatures are already known for their ability to copy the movements of other orcas, with some reports suggesting they can also mimic the sounds of bottlenose dolphins and sea lions. [...] Wikie is not the first animal to have managed the feat of producing human sounds: dolphins, elephants, parrots, orangutans and even beluga whales have all been captured mimicking our utterances, although they use a range of physical mechanisms to us to do so.
I am good with this just as long as they don't do a "surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the 'Star Spangled Banner'"
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Koko the gorilla learned quite a bit of sign language and is able to communicate quite well. If I recall correctly, she has the mental capacity of a young human (probably around 6 years old). So she'll understand simple, real-world concepts and has a sense of self, but you wouldn't expect her to be able to, say, calculate complex mathematical equations. I have a feeling that a lot of higher intelligence animals (whales, dolphins, octopii, chimps, etc) have this kind of sentience, but we just don't have a decent method of recognizing it since they're not talking a human language to us the way a human child would.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Koko the gorilla understood a spoken vocabulary of about 2000 words, being able to express a little over half of them in sign. While this certainly sounds impressive, and in truth is impressive for any non-human, a normal 6-year old will typically be able to express 2500 words or more, and has a total receptive vocabulary of usually no fewer than 20,000 words.
In terms of vocabulary, Koko was more roughly the equivalent of a 3 or 4 year old human child, not a 6-year old one.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'