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178 points wglb | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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countWSS ◴[] No.43748585[source]
Does the idea that "only humans can recognize shapes" sounds ridicolously outdated? Its like "Science confirms animals feel pain".
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1. NoTeslaThrow ◴[] No.43758700[source]
I've been on the internet for twenty-some-odd years and at some point this attitude has come to feel like willful ignorance (generally; i do agree that it is unsurprising that crows recognize patterns. Or much less obviously intelligent animals for that matter, consensus-driven evidence hopefully inbound.)

Most people in active testable science have worldviews where they suspect many relationships about the world that have not been strongly validated. Einstein was not the first person to discuss how space and time seem inextricably related in a special way; pythagoras was not the first to figure out how to derive the third side of a right triangle; galileo was not the first to suggest a heliocentric worldview; etc etc. Demonstrating things that seem obvious or intuitive or that are already assumed and used practice is still immensely valuable. Communication is hard, and demonstrating things about the world without getting tangled up in the inherent unsuitability of language to precisely describe the world is incredibly, incredibly difficult. We are still validating knowledge that the ancients practiced on a daily basis. Galen certainly never bothered to persuade; only to inform.

It nearly makes me want to ban articles if the paper is available. The discussion inevitably sags.