https://www.quora.com/How-complex-is-a-dolphin-s-language-Do-they-have-individual-whistle-sounds-for-as-many-things-as-we-have-words-for-in-human-languages

Lukas Uhrig
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Wildlife biologistUpdated June 24
How complex is a dolphin’s language? Do they have individual whistle sounds for as many things as we have words for in human languages?
Several studies have now looked at the sounds dolphins make to see if they have a language, and how complex that language might be.

Even though we don’t know exactly what they’re saying, we can analyze the sounds they make to determine if they are communicating information to each other. A research team at SETI decided to tackle the idea, since if we can’t determine if dolphins are actually conveying information, how will we ever decode an alien language if we find one?

Any time the sounds are random and meaningless, you get a flat graph. A meaningful, highly developed language like ours will produce a graph with a 45 degree slope (Zipf’s Law).[1] The graph showed they likely have a highly developed language like ours. Baby bottlenose dolphins babble just like human babies.

Study after study shows that they are communicating a lot of information to each other. And they wait until the other dolphin finishes speaking before they respond. They have social norms. They have names. They recognize themselves in the mirror.

Dolphins can communicate holographically. They can send images to each other using sound. Their auditory system is just as well developed as our vision.

We’ve developed images of their echolocation beams. A dolphin saw a man with a weight belt (which you can see below), and even that information was transmitted using sound.
- There is little criticism of the various dolphin speech claims, more may be warranted.

On Tuesday, June 29, 2021 at 7:23:31 PM UTC-4, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:
> https://www.quora.com/How-complex-is-a-dolphin-s-language-Do-they-have-individual-whistle-sounds-for-as-many-things-as-we-have-words-for-in-human-languages
>
> Lukas Uhrig
>
> How complex is a dolphin’s language? Do they have individual whistle sounds for as many things as we have words for in human languages?
> Several studies have now looked at the sounds dolphins make to see if they have a language, and how complex that language might be.
>
> Even though we don’t know exactly what they’re saying, we can analyze the sounds they make to determine if they are communicating information to each other. A research team at SETI decided to tackle the idea, since if we can’t determine if dolphins are actually conveying information, how will we ever decode an alien language if we find one?
>
> Any time the sounds are random and meaningless, you get a flat graph. A meaningful, highly developed language like ours will produce a graph with a 45 degree slope (Zipf’s Law).[1] The graph showed they likely have a highly developed language like ours. Baby bottlenose dolphins babble just like human babies.
>
> Study after study shows that they are communicating a lot of information to each other. And they wait until the other dolphin finishes speaking before they respond. They have social norms. They have names. They recognize themselves in the mirror.
>
> Dolphins can communicate holographically. They can send images to each other using sound. Their auditory system is just as well developed as our vision.
>
> We’ve developed images of their echolocation beams. A dolphin saw a man with a weight belt (which you can see below), and even that information was transmitted using sound.
> -
> There is little criticism of the various dolphin speech claims, more may be warranted.
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The Evolution of Complementary Cognition: Humans Cooperatively Adapt and Evolve through a System of Collective Cognitive Search
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 June 2021

Helen Taylor
Brice Fernandes
Sarah Wraight

Abstract
We propose a new theory of human cognitive evolution, which we term Complementary Cognition. We build on evidence for individual neurocognitive specialization regarding search abilities in the modern population, and propose that our species cooperatively searches and adapts through a system of group-level cognition. This paper sets out a coherent theory to explain why Complementary Cognition evolved and the conditions responsible for its emergence. Using the framework of search, we show that Complementary Cognition can be contextualized as part of a hierarchy of systems including genetic search and cognitive search. We propose that, just as genetic search drives phenotypic adaptation and evolution, complementary cognitive search is central to understanding how our species adapts and evolves through culture. Complementary Cognition has far-reaching implications since it may help to explain the emergence of behavioural modernity and provides a new explanatory framework for why language and many aspects of cooperation evolved. We believe that Complementary Cognition underpins our species’ success and has important implications for how modern-day systems are designed.
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No mention of shelter in the evolution of human language, so unrealistic. Cognition, behaviour, success are irrelevant without infant sheltering.