Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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Monkeys given infinite time would probably get carpal tunnel or form a labor union before typing out Shakespeare. (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ape_language

Definitely appears that there's some kind of soft-cap on what Great Apes outside the human genus are capable of mastering. 10,000 monkeys given an infinite amount of time will be unable to produce a work of Shakespeare primarily because they cannot grasp the ideas of grammar and or symbolic speech.

Even setting aside whether some number of macaques can learn to master the use of a typewriter, there's a real reason to believe they aren't equipped to derive complex and multi-layered vocabulary. Shakespeare is replete with puns and monkeys just don't grasp that kind of language.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Research into great ape language has involved teaching chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans to communicate with humans and each other using sign language, physical tokens, lexigrams, and imitative human speech. Some primatologists argue that the use of these communication methods indicate primate "language" ability, though this depends on one's definition of language.

Lol on that last sentence (emphasis mine)