[lbo-talk] Mirror neurons

[Chris Doss]

Y'know, something that strikes me just doing a brief
perusal of material on the web (I know, I know) on
teaching sign language to higher primates is how
obtuse some of the criticisms of it seem to be. "Aha!
Perhaps the orangutang is expressing its desires by
using ASL, but it doesn't use syntax consistently! And
it has a vocabulary of only 200 words! It's nothing I
say, it's nothing!"

HELLO? A fucking orangutang is talking to you, and you
get caught up on its use of syntax? Jesus Christ. Yes
I can see why this is relevant linguistically, but
come on. Even if it's not "language" in the strict
human sense, it's pretty amazing shit. Actually I
suspect that the animals, lacking language areas of
the brain, are using some other area of the brain
somehow, much like humans, lacking any "understand
higher mathematics" section of the brain, seem to
tackle it by routing it through their linguistic
ability. But I am unduly speculating.

It was pretty cool to find out that Washoe is still
around -- I didn't know chimps lived that long -- and
her caretakers have a blog:
http://www.friendsofwashoe.org/blog/

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