Ha, goed kennen is veel gezegd, maar ik heb hem wel enkele keren ontmoet in Wenen toen ik aan het Konrad Lorenz Instituut werkte.

Does AI already have human-level intelligence? The evidence is clear The vision of human-level machine intelligence laid out by Alan Turing in the 1950s is now a reality. Eyes unclouded by dread or hype will help us to prepare for what comes next.

Paper: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

with fellow artistic researchers @marjolijndijkman.bsky.social and Nele Möller, I organise Speaking Afield: interdisciplinary walks & discussions with academic and scientific researchers in the field of ecology & biology. Here a few weeks ago with @janverpooten.bsky.social in the Antwerp harbour.

Harmony in the hive? Think again! 🐝⚔️

Insect societies are famous for cooperation, but beneath the surface lies a brutal conflict over who gets to wear the crown!

Our new review in Biological Reviews explores the evolutionary battleground caused by such caste fate conflict. 🧵

📣 New BBS preprint out now! 📣

"Models casting egalitarian societies as crucibles of equality perpetuate the factually uninformed notion that foragers are somehow more noble. Critiques portray egalitarianism as romantic fantasy. Neither characterization is wholly justified."

doi.org/10.1017/S014...

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1939

Our special issue on Evolutionary Functions of Consciousness, coedited with Tecumseh Fitch and Adina Roskies, now online royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

Contributions by (1) Irina Mikhalevich; (2) Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg; (3) Nicholas Humphrey; (cont'd)

Science is part of the general process we call life turning the environment (universe) into information about the environment (universe)

Supposmurf heeft er al beter uit gezien

Fukano and Soga offered an interesting reply to our piece. We then had the chance to respond in turn. Our conclusion is clear: it's time to lay the biophilia hypothesis to rest once and for all.
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

I think political polarisation is a real issue so I find it difficult not to give this post a like. Extremely difficult.

Loss of dance and infant-directed song among the Northern Aché Singh and Hill report no evidence of dance or infant-directed song among the Northern Aché of Paraguay, based on 122 months of fieldwork. Their findings challenge claims of these behaviors’ universali...

Are dance & infant-directed song human universals? Like many people, I've long thought so.

But in a new paper in Current Biology, Kim Hill & I report that the Northern Aché (Paraguay) lacked both behaviors, likely losing them after cultural collapse.

Open-access link: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Second essay on the question "Do Animals Make Art?"

Two Major Origin Theories That Say “No Way!”
Why the Enlightenment “Invention of Art” and the “Creative Explosion” Seem to Rule Out Animal Art—But Do They Really?

open.substack.com/pub/janverpo...

Second essay on the question "Do Animals Make Art?"

Two Major Origin Theories That Say “No Way!”
Why the Enlightenment “Invention of Art” and the “Creative Explosion” Seem to Rule Out Animal Art—But Do They Really?

open.substack.com/pub/janverpo...

👇 This is ‘Tools (v004)’, a .glb sculpture that is part of @digitalcoleman.art ‘s curation for ‘5x5 EARTH’. More info soon! (For these types of artworks, nfts are actually a good fit! I haven’t minted this much in years, though 😀).

#3dscan #digitalart #tezos @objkt.com #stonetool #historyofthings

New commentary out in BBS!
Archaeological objects like cave paintings, figurines, and musical instruments are often seen as early art forms uniquely tied to human symbolic cognition. But I've long been struck by how this view overlooks remarkable parallels in the animal world.

After a brief hiatus, the next commentaries to highlight are by @janverpooten.bsky.social and @ctennie.bsky.social, who both demonstrate that complex symbols are not a uniquely human hallmark, but are found throughout nature.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Here is a link to our new commentary in BBS
examining how animal artifacts challenge archaeological criteria for human symbolic cognition. A case for broader comparative perspectives in studying cognitive evolution.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This suggests our archaeological criteria for identifying symbolic cognition need revision or symbolic thinking isn't uniquely human. We're highlighting how our methods for identifying symbolic behavior in the archaeological record might need broader comparative perspectives.

Complex vocal learning and three-dimensional mating environments - Biology & Philosophy Complex vocal learning, the capacity to imitate new sounds, underpins the evolution of animal vocal cultures and song dialects and is a key prerequisite for human speech and song. Due to its relevance...

What's particularly interesting is that thousands of species show vocal imitation abilities - a sophisticated cognitive trait crucial for language - while non-human primates generally don't.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Here's a summary of how various animal behaviors match archaeological criteria used to identify human cognitive advancement. From personal ornaments to musical instruments, parallels can be found in nonhuman animals.

Musical instruments? Palm cockatoos modify sticks to drum on hollow trees during courtship, showing rhythm and individual styles - key features we associate with human music. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrBc...

Regarding figurative art: Wild orangutans create and cuddle "dolls" made from leaves, while dolphins can create representational displays (like imitating smoke with milk). These meet criteria for representational behavior.

On decoration: Male bowerbirds create elaborate displays with collected objects and even paint their bowers with processed plant material. This mirrors early human "manuports" and paint manufacture.

Let's look at personal adornment: While ochre use in early humans is seen as symbolic evidence, bearded vultures also use ochre for status signaling. Even more fascinating - vulture evolution predates humans, suggesting we might have learned from them!

We're responding to compelling work by
@dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social who questioned links between material culture and behavioral modernity in humans. We extend this critique to examine parallels in animal behavior.
bsky.app/profile/dsti...

In the paper, Alexis De Tiège and I challenge this assumption by examining how non-human animals create artifacts that meet the same criteria archaeologists and other researchers use to identify human symbolic behavior.

New commentary out in BBS!
Archaeological objects like cave paintings, figurines, and musical instruments are often seen as early art forms uniquely tied to human symbolic cognition. But I've long been struck by how this view overlooks remarkable parallels in the animal world.

a man is riding a lamborghini on a road with the words i got beef with mother nature below him ALT: a man is riding a lamborghini on a road with the words i got beef with mother nature below him

Do we love nature because it’s just in our nature? Probably not. Check out our latest article in TREE, where we make the case! authors.elsevier.com/a/1kZlOcZ3X3...

If you were to follow just one podcast about biology, physics—essentially life itself—this should be it. In Dunglish: I can’t recommend it enough.
Latest episode:

They really are! 😵‍💫😂