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Weeping whales: Stillborn humpback whale grieving documented

243 points · 192 comments · wglb

  1. georgemcbay · · focus · HN ↗
    Blows my mind that so many people just have this hardened internalized idea that we're somehow significantly different than any other animal.

    Sure, we've got them beat on language and planning, but we're currently in the process of being passed up on both those fronts by multi-dimensional arrays of floating point numbers sitting inside of sand. So, like, how special is that then, really?

    1. jbotz · · focus · HN ↗
      Almost certainly our linguistic abilities (and through them, planning skills) are vastly greater than those of all other animals, but that is a matter of degree, not of category. The one thing in which we are categorically different from all other animals is that we learned to control and make fire... and quite possibly the linguistic abilities followed from that rather than the other way around[0]. Until the 20th century basically all of the advantages that technology bestowed upon our species directly flowed from our use of fire. Maybe our species should have been called "homo ignis"; the fire ape.

      Obviously the cetaceans will never have that benefit, even if by some other objective measures they turned out to be as intelligent as humans.

      [0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Catching_Fire:_How_Cooking_Made_Us_Human" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Catching_Fire:_How_Cooking_Mad...

      1. dotancohen · · focus · HN ↗
        Humans had completely mastered fire by about 200,000 years ago - after 800,000 years of experimentation.

        Speech is dated to around 60,000 years ago, though some say we started down that path 200,000 years ago: right when we mastered fire.

        1. sscaryterry · · focus · HN ↗
          Probably due to the need for profanity after getting burnt.
          1. bell-cot · · focus · HN ↗
            The need for profanity came much earlier - due to smashed thumbs, gouged fingers, etc. while learning to make primitive stone tools.
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