Summary
International Symposium on Nonlinear Theory and its Applications
2009
Session Number:B4L-B
Session:
Number:B4L-B4
The Origin of Intelligence: A Higher Language Class?
Ruedi Stoop, Tom Jasa,
pp.-
Publication Date:2009/10/18
Online ISSN:2188-5079
Summary:
The question where the computational intelligence associated with humans comes from is an interesting one. General belief states that our supremacy in these matters is the result of our highly-developed language, that is able to define and work with things like concepts and ideas. In the context of formal languages, this question has been formulated in a precise manner by Noam Chomsky. Within that context, a suggestive answer to this problem is that humans possess the most elaborate language structure, which allows the speaker to use constructs like loops and the like. We have tested whether this hypothesis stands the test of the body language of Drosophila’s precopulatory courtship behavior and have found it to fail: Seen from several sides, the data appears to share the language classes thought to be exclusively reserved to humans.