What's the difference between sign language communication and verbal communication? Other than the medium, I can see none.
Pinkhaired, why would a monkey need to make a decision for free parking? They do reason within a realm applicable to their environment. Chimps can recognize themselves in mirrors, proving that they are sentient beings. I'm not sure of the details, but an experiment was performed with a group of chimpanzees in which a banana was hung from the ceiling in a room of several chimps. Whenever a chimp tried to take the banana, they would be automatically sprayed with water. After several tries, they stopped attempting to take the banana. This in itself displays reasoning. But it doesn't stop there. A new chimp was introduced into the room. Not knowing the consequences of trying to take the banana, it made an attempt. Before the chimp could try, the other chimps jumped up and down screaming, grabbing the new chimp. Clearly, the others were saying "Don't do that." The new chimp gave up and learned that it was wrong to take the banana. Now is the exciting part. Each time they introduced a new chimp, they removed one who knew that taking the banana was wrong. Eventually, a complete rotation had occured and none of the chimps had actually seen the consequences of trying to take the banana, but the reactions of the other animals was a clear "no."
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