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Bonobos Can Tell When a Human Doesn’t Know Something (www.scientificamerican.com)

submitted 1 month ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/upliftingnews@lemmy.world

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[–] YamahaRevstar@lemmy.world 45 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Oh, shit. Good thing my boss is a chimpanzee.

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 5 points 1 month ago

He'll never know!

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Chimpanzees and bonobos are separate species. Your boss cannot help you. You're on your own.

[–] YamahaRevstar@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I know. That's what makes my joke good.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago

Thank you for recognizing I couldn't tell something and pointing me in the right direction. You would make a good bonobo.

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 3 points 1 month ago

That may be the case, regardless of species.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I mean… a lot of Bonobo behavior would be inappropriate in the workplace.

[–] YamahaRevstar@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Probably less racist than my Gen X conservative boss though. Probably smarter and more efficient too.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

I dunno, I think an increase in mutual oral activity would help most jobs

[–] Aggravationstation@feddit.uk 23 points 1 month ago

Bonobo: This motherfucker doesn't know algebra, I can tell.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

So Bonobos have more capacity to judge the topical authority of people than most people do. Very interesting.

[–] Terminal_ERROR@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

We should put one and a human handler in the white house to see how knowledgeable the new admistration is.

[–] NotLemming@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago

Bonobo needs to judge us puny humans, and he can start with trump

[+] 7uWqKj@lemmy.world -43 points 1 month ago (4 children)

"They can tell" implies "they can speak“. No they can’t. #Clickbait

[–] cygnus@lemmy.ca 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

“They can tell” implies "they can speak“

That... isn't what that phrase means in English. I assume you're new to the language?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

If I'm choking, I can sure tell people about it despite being unable to speak.

[–] Carrolade@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

Colloquially, in English, "I can tell that..." directly translates to "I can discern/detect that...". An example would be in a game of poker, "I can tell that you're bluffing".

The ability or desire to communicate what you have become aware of is irrelevant.

[–] ieatpwns@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Let me guess humans are the only intelligence on the planet too huh

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not the ones who use sign language, apparently.

Or at least they can't tell you anything.

[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 1 points 1 month ago

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This isn't intended as a correction, more of a relevant FYI:

Primate's ability to sign has been wildly overstated. Koko the Gorilla was a lot closer to a chicken playing tick-tack-toe than Cesar from Planet of the Apes.

Like the chicken, Koko's ability seemed dependent on the presence of her trainer. For example, her trainer would often explain that a nonsense word or sentence that the animal signed "rhymed" with what that she intended. Of course "rhyming" in sign language is a thing, but it works completely different than it does in speech.

Chomsky was right, language is human firmware and cannot be taught to our cousins. The history of our effort to do are mostly stories of animal abuse peppered with some human tragedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7wFotDKEF4

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I wasn't talking about non-human primates in the first place, but I do not disagree with you.

[–] ToyDork@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

Oh, come on! Yes, that's true, but this isn't about language. It's about communication, but not language. Bonobos pick up on our subtle tells, if we are unaware of something, it's entirely possible that's because they can smell our emotional state. That's how dogs know. Animals aren't stupid, just extremely limited and surprisingly alien.