Commenter BethanyAnne sent me this awhile ago. (I am playing catch-up on my email.)
In her own words.
I have something that might make a fun distraction or off-topic post.
You know those buttons that dogs can be trained to press? They play an English word, and that way the dog can “speak” to their human.
Author Mary Robinette Kowal has taught her cat, Elsie, to use those buttons. Elsie is up to a 120 word vocabulary. And she rearranges the words and such in a way that indicates she knows what she’s saying.
The podcast “The Allusionist” did 2 episodes about this:
https://www.theallusionist.org/lexicat1
https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/lexicat2
I also found that Mary Robinette posts videos of Elsie using the buttons on YouTube.
I’ve watched about half of the videos, and this was the absolute bestest of them all:
This whole thing sounded like a topic the Balloon Juice crew would love. If you make a thread, I hope Werebear notices it.
Watch some of the videos. This is wild!
Mostly open thread.
lowtechcyclist
No, I didn’t, so this is the first I’ve heard of either species ‘talking’ by pressing buttons. Interesting!
Now, what happens when the dogs start talking to the cats, and vice versa?
SiubhanDuinne
Just added another $24 to the Wisconsin SC thermometer to bring it to an even $15,000 and meet the goal.
But then I looked again and saw that my headmath was wrong and I actually brought the total to $15,010 and now my OCD is kicking in and I can’t afford to take it to $16 thou. // :-)
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Thank you so much, SD!
Your math was probably fine; sometimes there’s a short delay, so someone else’s donation probably hadn’t shown up yet.
For me on the side it still reads $14,810.
NotMax
FYI.
A big hand for the little Ghost.
WaterGirl
Has anyone watched the videos? Crazy!
bbleh
Surveys indicate opinion among cats is divided as to whether these human-installed remote-control devices are a net benefit.
On the one hand, control requires less effort on the cat’s part.
On the other, it typically yields fewer casual skritches.
SiubhanDuinne
These recordings/podcasts and all sound super interesting!
Wondering whether by any chance Mary Robinette Kowal might be a (perhaps distant) relative of one Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. I dunno how common or rare the name “Robinette” is, but I’m pretty sure I never came across it until Joe came on the scene.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Very cute.
Steve LaBonne
Our two greyhounds and our large mutt cat all know very well how to push our buttons. ;)
Phylllis
My favorite is the kitty on TikTok who’s figured out the override button on the automatic feeder.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@WaterGirl: amazing. I am still watching the videos
the catnip at the window sent me rolling. Thank you for sharing this.
Dan B
I’m here with our two cats, soon to be three (my partner’s sister’s cat since she passed away yesterday). It is spooky that they can understand so much. Mine understand their names and the word “foods”. The word “no” gets their attention. I’ll have to pay attention for others.
French Onion Soup
@Dan B:
Our cat understands a fair amount of specific words. Or at least knows what to expect when she hears them. She also has specific vocalizations that we understand specifically what she’s trying to communicate. It’s spooky at times.
VeniceRiley
Can’t watch now, as I’m in bed and have audio mute on. But the old old button pushy primate studies can be fascinating. Go kitties tho!
I am, as you know, team sign language gorillas.
Reggie dog, bless his doofus, understands quite a bit. I wish he could sign so I could see how much.
NeenerNeener
I read the book about Stella the dog when it came out about 10 years ago. It’s great that you can train cats to talk you too.
Dan B
@French Onion Soup: Our newest cat, a female, is vocal. There are different squeaks, trills, and warbles, all short. I warble a trill back. God knows what she thinks of that.
WaterGirl
@Dan B: Hopefully your trill doesn’t mean something rude. :-)
eclare
Fascinating videos. And the kitty definitely tricked her human to leave the room so the kitty could grab the cheese sandwich.
Dan B
@WaterGirl: Me too. She seems to love me so it’s unlikely something rude. She was abandoned on a homeless encampment by her addict owner and is finally getting used to being adored by her hoomins. It’s great to see her zoom around the house and race around with our little boy cat.
CaseyL
I’ve seen some videos that set about rebutting the “talk button” thing – for dogs, and I assume the same reasoning applies to cats. The rebuttals make sense (having mostly to do with the difficulty of dogs and cats understanding abstract concepts, and the subliminal clues we give them that they are so good at picking up on), and I nod as I listen.
But when you see a dog or cat actually using the buttons, interacting with their humans, it’s impossible to maintain a strictly rationalist belief that they don’t know what they’re doing or saying.
I think the best communication training starts in puppy or kittenhood, when the cognitive pathways are most flexible. Not sure how successful people have been in training older animals.
Gloria DryGarden
Searched YouTube for “What about bunny”. It has some other folks weigh in in the whole concept. I’ve been watching these bunny videos for years,
Bunny compilation 5 minutes “talking dog”
For those of you who haven’t seen them.
btw, wind 30-49 mph in Denver right now. Turning cold after 5 days in the upper 60s
glc
As Mary Robinette Kowal remarks (very much a propos)
Not to mention the cover.
VeniceRiley
Reggie, by the way, has a distinctive speech pattern when trying to “talk human” versus just barking. It’s super cute when I ask him if that particular noise is his mommy coming down the driveway. And he definitely understands some sentences. (But, with gorillas, it was definitely a two way street. Btw and RIP… KOKO has an app if you’re interested.)
WaterGirl
@Dan B: Nice!
Gloria DryGarden
I used to imitate back all my cat’s calls. Sometimes it was sweet, other times he took umbrage. Especially the yowls, the starving cat pleas. Oh well.
I also tried this with goats, during my temporary stint as a goatherd. Some sounds I copied seemed to inspire them to run faster. I was just trying to form some sort of relationship so I could achieve my goal, which I’d been told was to get them to stay up in the pasture, and not come running back to the barn. Those goats all had different voices.
NutmegAgain
@lowtechcyclist: …dogs and cats, talking together… These videos are fantastic. I guess we can look forward to having our lives rearranged by both dogs and cats, in the future. “BEDROOM” “lie down”
I should add, Orion rarely talks to me (bark), but he does his best approximation of a Border Collie stare when he wants his way. Given his size when he walks over and stares at me with intensity, let’s just say he’s right in my face when I’m sitting down.
bbleh
Well, the elves taught the trees to talk, and look where that ended up, so maybe not a bad thing.
Dan B
@WaterGirl: She doesn’t like being picked up. I can put her on the bed. Mike picks her up and cuddles her but she’s looking for the closest place to jump to. Escape!!
SuzieC
My Tuxie watched with great interest.
Spanky
@bbleh: I don’t think roving gangs of Ents marauding through our neighborhoods is something we should aspire to.
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
“I’ve got a chainsaw and I’m not afraid to use it!”
WaterGirl
@Dan B: Did you tell us her name?
Jim Appleton
Interesting, got nothing on Alex the parrot, RIP.
https://youtu.be/VZ2j1jOwAYU?si=fUnIdY4lyZamEdAh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot)
lowtechcyclist
As fans of Nicole Hollander’s Sylvia comic strip know, all cat communication comes down to just two phrases, with varying intonations: “hurry up with that dinner” and “everything here is mine.”
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Spanky: Ents would never be so hasty as to maraude.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
There are a couple of talking cats on Youtube.
There’s Billispeaks. Billi was an older lady who passed away recently. I believe her person, Kendra, works with animals and was inspired by Hungry For Words. She’s now working with a new cat named Alastor at Not Mad Just Moody.
There’s also Russel at catmanjohn. That one always made me think of WereBear’s cat chronicles, where she talks about cats having different roles in a cluster, because he actually seems to make requests for other cats in the apartment sometimes.
Timill
Just don’t add an ‘Alexa’ button to the set…
NotMax
Obligatory.
:)
BethanyAnne
@lowtechcyclist: Hey! My suggestion for a topic :-D Sorry I missed it last night when it went up. One of the little videos Mary posted had the cat and dog talking to each other using the buttons. The dog was all “Outside! Walk!” and the cat countered with “Nap.”
By far my favorite is where Elsie begins to lie, lol. In the podcast, which is wonderful, Elsie has come up with several excuses for Mary to leave the room and coincidentally leave Elsie alone with Mary’s food. At this point, when Elsie suggests that, Mary puts the food in the microwave to keep it secure while she checks out Elsie’s claim.
BethanyAnne
The second episode of the podcast is more philosophical, and goes into some of what Mary has learned from this whole exercise. And there were a couple of times where it was a bit weepy for me. Mary watches the cameras (which are on all the time on a private channel) when she’s away, and sometimes Elsie will talk about her day even when no one is there. Mary’s other cat passed away. Elsie was alone in the house, and said “Sad.” and went to lie down in the sun. Mary said that it would have looked like a calm happy moment if she hadn’t heard Elsie say that. Instead, she knew Elsie was mourning the loss.
I just highly recommend the podcasts. There was lots there.