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Bonobos use a kind of syntax once thought to be unique to humans

(www.newscientist.com)
189 points docmechanic | 1 comments | 07 Apr 25 15:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.289s | source
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mattdeboard ◴[11 Apr 25 17:26 UTC] No.43656266[source]▶
Reinforcing my strongly held belief that what fundamentally sets humans apart isn't spoken language, or tools, or any of that, but rather the fact we write down what we know, then make those writings available to future generations to build on. We're a species distinguished from all others by our information-archival and -dissemination practices. We're an archivist species, a librarian species. Homo archivum. In my opinion.
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1. moffkalast ◴[11 Apr 25 17:40 UTC] No.43656397[source]▶
> calls that seem to mean "pay attention to me" and "I am excited" to say "pay attention to me because I am in distress"

It's hard to say how accurate those meanings are, but it does interestingly track with the odd thing that does separate humans from other hominids... we ask questions. Apes who learned sign language have supposedly never done so.

To write down knowledge means having a concept that others have information that you don't, and you can access it in their writings or give them information with yours. If you can't conceive of that in the first place, writing doesn't even make sense at all.