While it's easy to be skeptical, it could be useful to ask whether animals of different species find ways to communitcate with each other, and if so, could the same kind of ability be distributed unevenly among humans?
As people, how much of what we interpret as physical body language from each other gets translated into language in our inner monologue for a kind of narrative reasoning, which we then act on? To say that's projecting intent on others because we can't truly know someones intentions without language is ridiculous if you've ever managed to get by somewhere without knowing a language. Extending that way of relating to animals to me is absolutely viable. Especially sophisticated intelligent animals like crows.
It's a skill you can practice and develop to where strange animals will accept your presence and respond to cues. It takes practice to walk into a herd of horses in a field without them stampeding, to get panicking dogs to relax, or even to shoo off a bear. It's like shifting them out of their instinctual reactions and activating or stimulating their capacity to reason. It's also a huge element of human charisma, where if you have ever met someone who can command a room with very minor gestures, or quiet a kid in a tantrum, it's the same ability.
I think there is something universal that people can develop (or have terrible deficits in), and this crow whispering person seems to have really mastered it. What a pleasure to read.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVng8JTCV8s this is a fascinating video from an expert on this, about how to build trusting relationships with reptiles, including highly aggressive and territorial ones. I really reccomend it if you're interested in this
In his book Mutual Aid a Factor in Evolution, the 19th century naturalist Peter Kropotkin remarks on the flocks of mixed species of birds he encountered in Siberia. He documented clear cases of inter-species coöperation, like warning of and mobbing predators.
It was one of the experiences that led him to his hypothesis that coöperation was a survival trait that would be preserved and spread by natural selection.
As people, how much of what we interpret as physical body language from each other gets translated into language in our inner monologue for a kind of narrative reasoning, which we then act on? To say that's projecting intent on others because we can't truly know someones intentions without language is ridiculous if you've ever managed to get by somewhere without knowing a language. Extending that way of relating to animals to me is absolutely viable. Especially sophisticated intelligent animals like crows.
It's a skill you can practice and develop to where strange animals will accept your presence and respond to cues. It takes practice to walk into a herd of horses in a field without them stampeding, to get panicking dogs to relax, or even to shoo off a bear. It's like shifting them out of their instinctual reactions and activating or stimulating their capacity to reason. It's also a huge element of human charisma, where if you have ever met someone who can command a room with very minor gestures, or quiet a kid in a tantrum, it's the same ability.
I think there is something universal that people can develop (or have terrible deficits in), and this crow whispering person seems to have really mastered it. What a pleasure to read.
reply