Conquer Club

What distiguishes the human race from the rest of the animal kingdom?
According to researcher Anir Patel, only people have the capacity to imitate, enjoy and hold a beat.

There is not a single report of an animal being trained to tap, peck or move in synchrony with an auditory beat. There's spontaneous synchronisation with human beings, even in childhood. You tap with it, nod with it and even if you don't, the motor parts of your brain move with it. There's an auditory/motor correlation in human beings not found in any other animal.

So rhythm is a vital part of us....but is it purely an enjoyment thing or is there more to it?

Well actually that's not particularly true. I've seen pets for example, if only on the net

Iliad wrote:Well actually that's not particularly true. I've seen pets for example, if only on the net

Link?

Very quickly
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1403237/horse_dancing_on_the_beat_of_dhol/
http://pethealthfocusnetwork.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=917805%3ABlogPost%3A6190
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080625/full/news.2008.914.html

Also I recently saw a video of three cats shaking their heads to a beat. Animals can respond to beats

Yes yes, but do they have soul?

Iliad wrote:Very quickly
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1403237/horse_dancing_on_the_beat_of_dhol/
http://pethealthfocusnetwork.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=917805%3ABlogPost%3A6190
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080625/full/news.2008.914.html

Also I recently saw a video of three cats shaking their heads to a beat. Animals can respond to beats

I can't actually hear anything (no head phones) so I can't tell if they are in fact moving in time to anything - if they are, then I intend to get in touch with professor Patel asap!
However, even if they have been trained to keep time, is that the same as doing it spontaneously, as humans do? Are they actually enjoying moving to the beat or just doing what they've been conditioned to do?

Dancing Mustard wrote:Yes yes, but do they have soul?

Wot's that?

mandyb wrote:What distiguishes the human race from the rest of the animal kingdom?
According to researcher Anir Patel, only people have the capacity to imitate, enjoy and hold a beat.

There is not a single report of an animal being trained to tap, peck or move in synchrony with an auditory beat. There's spontaneous synchronisation with human beings, even in childhood. You tap with it, nod with it and even if you don't, the motor parts of your brain move with it. There's an auditory/motor correlation in human beings not found in any other animal.

So rhythm is a vital part of us....but is it purely an enjoyment thing or is there more to it?

This was a pub chat recently. i read somewhere that appreciation for rhythm is to do with the mother's heartbeat that we all feel in the womb. if I like speedmetal, what does that say about my mother? My friend said 'music' was energy vibrations resonating in the space between atoms. Damn hippy.

Not sure if the animals are responding to rhythm really or are just responding to noises in a way that gets them treats off their owners. Like a dog will sit, but it doesn't really understand the word. They ahev been conditioned. Remember the counting horse? The owner would tell the horse a sum, like 2 plus 2, and the horse would tap four times with its hoof. But they realised that the horse was responding to the quickening pulses and change in mood in the humans watching when it reached 4. Which is actually just as amazing, in a way, and also a bit offtopic...
although plants do love beethoven, accordong to prince Charles.

heavycola wrote:

mandyb wrote:What distiguishes the human race from the rest of the animal kingdom?
According to researcher Anir Patel, only people have the capacity to imitate, enjoy and hold a beat.

There is not a single report of an animal being trained to tap, peck or move in synchrony with an auditory beat. There's spontaneous synchronisation with human beings, even in childhood. You tap with it, nod with it and even if you don't, the motor parts of your brain move with it. There's an auditory/motor correlation in human beings not found in any other animal.

So rhythm is a vital part of us....but is it purely an enjoyment thing or is there more to it?

This was a pub chat recently. i read somewhere that appreciation for rhythm is to do with the mother's heartbeat that we all feel in the womb. if I like speedmetal, what does that say about my mother? My friend said 'music' was energy vibrations resonating in the space between atoms. Damn hippy.

Not sure if the animals are responding to rhythm really or are just responding to noises in a way that gets them treats off their owners. Like a dog will sit, but it doesn't really understand the word. They ahev been conditioned. Remember the counting horse? The owner would tell the horse a sum, like 2 plus 2, and the horse would tap four times with its hoof. But they realised that the horse was responding to the quickening pulses and change in mood in the humans watching when it reached 4. Which is actually just as amazing, in a way, and also a bit offtopic...
although plants do love beethoven, accordong to prince Charles.

Prince Charles is a plonker.
Well, wherever this rhythm comes from, is there some reason we have it other than the pure enjoyment factor?
You can also apply the rhythm or beat appreciation to other art forms - poetry, obviously and other written works. Even peoples speech - some are just so much easier on the ear..is that due to an inert rhythm in their choice of words and speech patterns?

Well, I think some animals can move to a beat, though not perhaps one we understand as a beat.

But anyway, I think that comes close, but not quite, to what distinguishes humans from other creatures. Humans are different in that we can and do innovate regularly. Everything from a scientific advancement to creating music to speaking a sentence is a certain kind of innovation that is unique to our species.

mandyb wrote:

Dancing Mustard wrote:Yes yes, but do they have soul?

Wot's that?

It's like jive but with added religious undertones.

Look at chimpanzees and bonobos they're pretty capable of learning stuff there is a chimp that can do karate and if that's possible, anything with apes are possible, there are chimps that can drive and ride motorbikes and cars.

Whump can operate a computer.


Honibaz