embiny's response

 I think animals can learn language to a certain degree, but not in the same way as humans. Language requires a particular comprehension that animal brains aren't built for. Our brains and development are more complex and as it mentioned in the textbook, we are the only species to have a "version of a gene" that allows our mouths and vocal cords to move in a way that produces human speech.  Some crucial differences are the gene mentioned above, animals only being able to learn a couple hundred words, a very limited understanding of those words, an inability to string together full sentences or fully comprehend that words in different order mean different things. Do they understand the meaning of the words they were taught, or simply that a sound goes with a certain object. Even the more intelligent animals, like chimpanzees, were unable to develop a vocabulary past that of a two year old. Still impressive, but not at the same level.  If a chimpanzee was taught the word ...

  I think our vision is so easily tricked because all of the many complex and interacting systems we use to see and perceive have been so specifically refined and trained to do what they do. Once figured out, an optical illusion can be tailored to trick any one of those particular systems. An optical illusion is immediately taken in by the eye and processed by the brain. I think it’s only then that as the brain thinks about it, what we were tricked into initially seeing would be realized by our brain as it works through the information and fills in the blanks or corrects what we are seeing. Like those dark spinning tubes with dotted light and a bridge going across. Even though I know what they do, I still find myself falling over every time before my perception has time to adjust. Then I can walk fine. But one time I glanced over my shoulder after I had stepped off the bridge, and even though I was standing fairly still, I immediately started falling over again. It goes to show how...