The truth is: a chimp has already created the works of Shakespeare. Didn't even need a typewriter. Apparently its name was Shakespeare. Probably isn't the first time either...

Infinity stares indifferently from far beyond the limits of our perception.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

"fuck you" is a ritulistic dominance copulation that is a hold over from when we were more like chimps. As Carl Sagan said - "the 'I' is implied" .

Well in my scenario we had been observing them for five million years. At that point we'd probably know all we need or want to know.

Humanity wants to talk to chimps and dolphins right now because they're new to us the sense of not being understood. And because of what it can teach us about ourselves. In five million years, we'll sort that shit out.

>> ^ChaosEngine:

Why would we be disinterested in talking to them? We're interested in talking to them now and they have no ability for complex reasoning.

"advanced" doesn't refer to the DNA complexity.. it refers to our cognition.

>> ^ChaosEngine:

>> ^budzos:

That's a temporary uniquness. We're ahead in time. The most "advanced" species currently on the planet. Not the end-all of uniqueness.
....
And by the time the chimps reached the point we are at now, we'd probably be utterly disinterested in talking to them (or wise enough to just sit back and watch the show).

Actually we're not "ahead in time", or the "most advanced" species, simply the most successful. There are plenty of species with a more complex dna structure.
Why would we be disinterested in talking to them? We're interested in talking to them now and they have no ability for complex reasoning.

>> ^budzos:


That's a temporary uniquness. We're ahead in time. The most "advanced" species currently on the planet. Not the end-all of uniqueness.
....
And by the time the chimps reached the point we are at now, we'd probably be utterly disinterested in talking to them (or wise enough to just sit back and watch the show).


Actually we're not "ahead in time", or the "most advanced" species, simply the most successful. There are plenty of species with a more complex dna structure.

Why would we be disinterested in talking to them? We're interested in talking to them now and they have no ability for complex reasoning.

While you claim to disagree with Tyson here, I think he would actually agree with you! We are very different from chimps, but where does this ability to understand abstract concepts like math come from? I doubt a human isolated from our culture and learning tools would be discussing the finer points of differential equations, I wouldn't be surprised if they were more similar to a chimp than our vision of a human. If we disregard all the knowledge that we've accumulated over the centuries then I think the only difference that remains is that 1% difference in DNA. And all that we've accomplished, discovered and written down has been a result of that 1% difference applied over those centuries. Thus, we arrive at the current year, where we are certainly significantly different from chimps.

Then it becomes exciting to contemplate how much more complex and intelligent a being 1% different from us would be! Can we even begin to imagine what they know about the universe?
>> ^ChaosEngine:

Much as I love Neil DeGrasse Tyson, I feel he's wrong on this. I've said it before, but I think our ability to understand abstract concepts such as math should mark us as sufficiently different from the other species on our planet.

>> ^ChaosEngine:

Much as I love Neil DeGrasse Tyson, I feel he's wrong on this. I've said it before, but I think our ability to understand abstract concepts such as math should mark us as sufficiently different from the other species on our planet.


That's a temporary uniquness. We're ahead in time. The most "advanced" species currently on the planet. Not the end-all of uniqueness. If we were to vacate the planet for five million years, there might very well be a Planet of the Apes where the chimps evolve rapidly in our absence to the point of full technological civilization. But humanity would have continued to evolve over those five million years. And we'd probably have kept tabs on the chimps somehow (this is the story behind 2001). And by the time the chimps reached the point we are at now, we'd probably be utterly disinterested in talking to them (or wise enough to just sit back and watch the show).

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Exactly, right now there's an alien out there thinking: man, if they would just put down the glowing rectangular-box-toys and start projecting their thoughts with the accompanying emotion-signifying-odors, we could be having a great conversation!

Chimps speak, we just don't care enough about termite mounds or poo-throwing techniques to pay much attention.

>> ^A-Pex:

To the guy who says he doesn't buy into the whole thing, deathcow or whatever... That if apes had a better communication system we'd have been communicating with them blah blah... You missed the whole point of the video; its this lack of skill that we have in anything that would be so amazing to a more developed race. The superiority complex that hes talking about is perfectly explained by your comment.

>> ^deathcow:

I dont buy into the 1% more superior aliens having a hard time communicating with us. If chimps had a written language we'd have been talking for a long time now.


We are very similar to the genetic history of everything on this planet. Imagine you are born on a planet that was thrown from any an all nearby galaxies. Your planet didn't even a sun, you had no solar system, only your planet. Every form of life derived for the thermal activity of your planet. As a result, your complete narrative of communication would be different. Perhaps, even, being the very lack of competing life forms, you are the only one of your species. And thus, there is no need for language, or even, the thought of communication.

Even so, I think the point here wasn't that we COULD communicate, but would they want to. It's like talking to children, they are so dumb!

I dont buy into the 1% more superior aliens having a hard time communicating with us. If chimps had a written language we'd have been talking for a long time now.

For the first 15 sec. I was ready to call bullshit. But, it's a real chimp!

Easy Cooper, Easy, Don't Bite---AArhghhBlublobbbb...gasp...blub...