Rolling Obituary Thread: 2018

Aww. I was recently pleasantly surprised to learn that Koko was still alive.

So many articles with headlines saying that Koko "learned sign language" or "mastered sign language" - really reflects how generally poor reporting on science is. Koko did not learn or master sign language, Koko learned a limited set of signs, Koko never demonstrated any understanding of grammar, without which there is no language.

can't believe you're maggie thatcher-ing koko

Whatever criticisms you may have about the quality of the reportage, the one thing you have to admit is that Koko sure knew her sign language.

This tweet is amazing. (And BTW, if you can lie, you understand a language.)

Koko the gorilla once ripped a sink out of the wall and, when her keepers confronted her about it, she blamed her kitten, signing "cat did it." That HAD been my favorite Koko story, until I saw this:

RIP to an absolute legend pic.twitter.com/sH6mGQVVZ3

— Red Durkin (@RedIsDead) June 21, 2018

Nothing against this perfectly nice gorilla, who absolutely did not "master" any kind of language.

The tweet is bullshit

She may have signed 'cat' but there is no evidence she ever stitched together a sentence in ASL.

Yeah, yeah, intelligence on the wrong end of the telescope and all that, but to the lay readers of press about Koko, “language” means “being able to communicate in a human like medium” and she certainly did that. Two year olds have little grammar at first but their parents don’t stand back and say “well it’s not actually language.” The value of Koko is to publicise the notion that other species may have cognition and understanding. Which is demonstrably true.

I am beginning to suspect a gorilla used sign language to lure mfktz into an alley for unsavory purposes. Thus, pity not scorn is the correct response here.

lol

A forty year experiment to see if gorillas can acquire language had the same overwhelming result that every other experiment of its sort has had, that animals cannot acquire language, but nobody wants to accept this, it's too appealing to imagine they can. Nobody is talking about whether gorillas have "cognition" - not sure there is even a good working definition of what that means. How about we don't judge animals by our own standards, they aren't any worse than humans for not having language. "Language" does have a very specific meaning, and it's ridiculous how people who respect science in other areas seem to think they intuitively understand linguistics when they apparently know nothing about it.

would you be mine, could you be mine? wuhhhhf wuhhhhf

There is a huge body of evidence on language acquisition and most two year olds already know word order, something gorillas never pick up simply because their brains are not wired that way.

stop shit talking Koko

Just do a mental replace of “sign language” with “a limited number of signs for common nouns and verbs” and calm down. Nobody’s suggesting we redefine the term “language”, that’s just what most people understand by the term, it’s not the springboard for an academic discourse. Imagine how it feels to be a neuroscientist and read daily about “your amazing brain - and you only use 10%!” (Albert Einstein / Bob Marley)

She learned signs and took care of All Ball and communicated in some way which is amazing regardless of whether or not she mastered anything.

x-post - lol! Seriously though, exactly what MatthewK said.

koko har dan arts degree tbf but

my langwage also real godd

Just do a mental replace of “sign language” with “a limited number of signs for common nouns and verbs” and calm down. Nobody’s suggesting we redefine the term “language”, that’s just what most people understand by the term, it’s not the springboard for an academic discourse. Imagine how it feels to be a neuroscientist and read daily about “your amazing brain - and you only use 10%!” (Albert Einstein / Bob Marley)

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Thursday, June 21, 2018 9:39 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

How about you imagine you're a neuroscientist and not only is “your amazing brain - and you only use 10%!” the only coverage you ever get about your discipline in any media, but when you complain about this to apparently intelligent, educated people you get told to "calm down" and "that's just what most people understand by the term 'brain'"

let's just agree Koko could've been in the current Cabinet

she wasn’t mean enough

and possibly too smart

rather, been the shining star of same xxp

If I were a neuroscientist I would never expect the general public to have the level of knowledge that I did about my chosen area of expertise and I certainly wouldn't get bent out of shape over it in the wake of a beloved animal's death.

also maura otm x2

hmm after weighing all the perspectives here i'm going to say that koko definitely understood languages and could talk in complete sentences that communicated complex thoughts

Nothing against this perfectly nice gorilla, who absolutely did not "master" any kind of language.

Obituary thread took a weird turn.

was gonna say

this should be a new tradition, we should assess each dead celebrity's capacity for language

hahaha

feel like trump's RIP thread is going to be a tough one to sort out on that front

t/s: koko vs harambe

no

It's kind of a blessing that Koko went to her grave unable to understand the prescriptivists smugly signing at her about how shitty her grasp of ASL was.

CaAL otm tho

its winehouse all over again you vold hearted bastards

fuck this phone tho

Some Vold-hearted Snapes up itt.

Does that mean meanies who are dead inside because if so then otm.

Idk I think great apes are cool regardless.

https://media.signbsl.com/videos/bsl/corpusngt/mp4/vlc-record-2015-04-08-14h24m56s-BSL_CN_lex_b.mpg-.mp4

They are very cool!

I'm going to make sure to buy a little extra column space for my obit on the offchance that anyone feels the need to 'well, actually' any of the claims made about me.

Some sad news: Charles Krauthammer has died. Our obit is coming soon.

— Paul Farhi (@farhip) June 21, 2018

Sad for whom?

couldn't even sign in gorilla the cunt

RIP Charles Krauthammer. You looked like you gave missions in GTA IV and died just now

— Dan O'Sullivan (@Bro_Pair) June 21, 2018