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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Non-language-using animals must think humans are the worst songbirds ever. (self.showerthoughts)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by AbouBenAdhem to c/showerthoughts

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

To clarify: I’m not suggesting animals think all sounds are songs—just that songbirds and humans are the only common animals that combine sounds into arbitrary sequences where each individual sound doesn’t have a single fixed meaning.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Animals are generally good at understanding that not everyone is them.

A great example is the best animal: The House Cat. Cats are pretty famous for catering their sounds to different targets. Mom not paying attention? Squeaky cry. Something needs to be taught who the big err... cat is? Growl. Content and happy? Purr.

Need something from a human? Meow. Because they understand that humans don't understand purrs and body language to the same degree.

[–] AbouBenAdhem 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Animals are good at interpreting other animals’ nonverbal cues, and can often pick up a human’s general intentions without understanding their speech. But the speech itself probably seems like a bad attempt to create an accompanying musical score.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Again, cats aren't singing. They understand it is just a different (much less efficient and much more danger prone) method of communication.

[–] AbouBenAdhem 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

When cats meow, there’s a one-to-one correspondence between the aural qualities of the sound and the communicative intent of the cat—the same meow doesn’t have different meanings depending on the preceding and following meows. That’s how animals normally use sounds to communicate.

There are two common exceptions, where animals string arbitrary sounds together in longer sequences in which the individual components don’t have distinct communicative intents in the way animals usually interpret them: songbirds and humans. (Another possible exception might be cetaceans.)

(For example: If I said “pass the butter”, “don’t eat all the butter”, or “I need to get more butter”, the word “butter” would have different communicative intents even if I said them the exact same way—like a note of a bird’s song, and unlike a cat’s meow.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I miss the old world so much. There was a blackbird couple nesting in our apartment building's courtyard. Every morning it's a cacophony of the most beautiful and randomly iterated melodies. I loved waking up and snoozing in to it at 5am.

[–] redisdead 3 points 3 months ago

I'm pretty sure most humans understand what purring and growling means

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 months ago

A great example is the best animal: THE DOGGO

Fixed

[–] Mango 13 points 3 months ago

Have you heard dogs?

[–] DarkCloud 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh, birds are mostly screaming at each other in their equivalent of Italian. They'd do rude gestures - but no hands.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Sometimes they flap their wings!

[–] I_Has_A_Hat 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Why songbirds and not other vocal mammals like squirrels? Do you think they know that some bird calls sound annoying as shit? Do you think animals cannot differentiate other animals apart and just assume anything that makes noise is a "songbird"?

Go back in the shower, this one needs more time to cook.

[–] AbouBenAdhem 1 points 3 months ago

See my comment here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They probably think we’re all speaking German

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Ich kann hier kein Problem erkennen.