Comment of the Day: Inter-Species Internet --A Prelude to ET Communication?

 

                        

 

"First of all, 'sentient' does not mean 'able to recognize oneself in a mirror.' It means 'able to sense.' Nearly all lifeforms on Earth have at least one sense; certainly all multicellular creatures do. Perhaps the word the researchers are looking for is 'sapient,' which comes from the Latin word for 'wise,' and refers to higher levels of intelligence. If so, I still have a hard time thinking of cetaceans, fellow-primates, and other non-human animals as having that level of ability. Sure, they may be able to learn our ways of communication, but there's more to sapience than that. As just one example -- and the most pertinent to this discussion -- I doubt that any of those creatures could care much about most of the functions the Internet would provide -- information and research, global, social connections, business transactions, and such.

"Computers can be a fantastic tool for helping people to communicate with each other and with animals. That aspect of this research is fantastic. As Daniel and/or Eugene pointed out, it can be a great boon for the severely autistic and other humans with communication barriers, as well as for dealing with the animal kingdom. But a multi-species Internet? I think that would best wait until we meet extraterrestrials."

Bob Greenwade

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Image credit: With thanks to PBS.org

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Comments

[Allan W Janssen]

I think that advances in understanding other species will go a long way toward understanding intelligence and consciousness.
After all, most animals are very similar to us, just not quite as smart!