From: Nick Bostrom (bostrom@ndirect.co.uk)
Date: Tue Oct 27 1998 - 17:35:33 MST
That dolphins don't have abstract language was recently
established in a very elegant experiment. A pool is divided into two
halves by a net. Dolphin A is released into one end of the pool where
there is a mechanism. After a while, the dolphin figures out how to
operate the mechanism which causes dead fish to be released into both
ends of the pool. Then A is transferred to the other end of the pool
and a dolphin B is released into the end of the pool that has the
mechanism. The idea is that if the dolphins had a language, then A
would tell B to operate the mechanism. However, it was found that the
average time for B to operate the mechanism was the same as for A.
I've just updated my paper on "How long before superintelligence?"
(http://www.hedweb.com/nickb/superintelligence.htm) and among other
things I added the above footnote, for I can't find a reference.
Does anybody know the source?
Nick Bostrom
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk
Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
London School of Economics
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