Random Rants LXXVII: I'm sitting here, completely surrounded by no cookies!

[rah]

I don't believe they're as stupid as we'd like to believe.
One of ours know how to open a door by turning the knob but is unable to get the traction when she jumps up and tries to grip the knob to turn it.

 

[Lexicus]

Trust me, I would like to believe they are really smart and can understand me! I can't believe that though as I have accumulated too much evidence to the contrary over the years.

 

[rah]

While I have been able to train cats a few time, I'm with you on the accumulated contrary evidence thing.
But....their ability to train us, sometimes alludes to maybe they're smarter than we think.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Sounds about right. A cat could put all its paws on the pedal (it was a pedal right?) but it's most unlikely to just happen, and cats are pretty stupid so they're unlikely to figure it out even if it does happen.

On further consideration, I actually could see a cat standing on their hind legs to sniff at the top of the trash can thinking "hey, if I step up on that I can reach a little higher" and then getting the pleasant surprise of the lid popping open.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Sounds about right. A cat could put all its paws on the pedal (it was a pedal right?) but it's most unlikely to just happen, and cats are pretty stupid so they're unlikely to figure it out even if it does happen.

One of my cats was smart enough to figure out what door handles are for. One night my dad was over and both of us were in the living room. Suddenly the back door knob started rattling, and my dad freaked out - because both of us were nowhere near it.

So I explained that Gussy had realized that turning the door knob is what made the door open so he could go outside, and while he couldn't turn the knob (he tried), he could slap it and make it rattle to tell me when he wanted out.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

My black cat managed to figure out how to open a doorknob. Not a lever-action handle, but a round doorknob. I have no idea how she did it. I would just see it start moving and then the door pushes open and my cat comes through.

 

[AdamCrock]

My black cat managed to figure out how to open a doorknob. Not a lever-action handle, but a round doorknob. I have no idea how she did it. I would just see it start moving and then the door pushes open and my cat comes through.

haha That's cat ingenuity for You Maybe she grabs the dorknob with her paws and swings from left to right untill it's open ?

 

[Broken_Erika]

On further consideration, I actually could see a cat standing on their hind legs to sniff at the top of the trash can thinking "hey, if I step up on that I can reach a little higher" and then getting the pleasant surprise of the lid popping open.

The lid pops open and the cat bolts, knocking over the can and spilling its contents everywhere.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The lid pops open and the cat bolts, knocking over the can and spilling its contents everywhere.

Not in my house. The dogs have known for a long time that if they knock the can over there's a fifty fifty chance the lid will open, depending on whether it lands hinge side down or up. So nowadays it is wedged into a corner pretty well...well enough that a couple hundred pounds of dogs can't knock it over. If a cat knocked it over...get the kryptonite.

 

[Lexicus]

But....their ability to train us, sometimes alludes to maybe they're smarter than we think.

Well, I'm a firm believer that cats actually domesticated us, so I'm right there with you.

Also here is Michel de Montaigne on the subject:
How does he know, by the strength of his understanding, the secret and internal motions of animals?—from what comparison betwixt them and us does he conclude the stupidity he attributes to them? When I play with my cat who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me? We mutually divert one another with our play. If I have my hour to begin or to refus, she also has hers. Plato, in his picture of the golden age under Saturn, reckons, among the chief advantages that a man then had, his communication with beasts, of whom, inquiring and informing himself, he knew the true qualities and differences of them all, by which he acquired a very perfect intelligence and prudence, and led his life more happily than we could do. Need we a better proof to condemn human impudence in the concern of beasts? This great author was of opinion that nature, for the most part in the corporal form she gave them, had only regard to the use of prognostics that were derived thence in his time. The defect that hinders communication betwixt them and us, why may it not be in our part as well as theirs? ‘Tis yet to determine where the fault lies that we understand not one another,—for we understand them no more than they do us; and by the same reason they may think us to be beasts as we think them. ‘Tis no great wonder if we understand not them, when we do not understand a Basque or a Troglodyte. And yet some have boasted that they understood them, as Apollonius Tyanaus, Melampus, Tiresias, Thales, and others. And seeing, as cusmographers report, that there are nations that have a dog for their king, they must of necessity be able to interpret his voice and motions. We must observe the parity betwixt us, have some tolerable apprehension of their meaning, and so have beasts of ours,—much about the same. They caress us, threaten us, and beg of us, and we do the same to them.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

‘Tis no great wonder if we understand not them, when we do not understand a Basque or a Troglodyte.

Casual oldschool racism always cracks me up.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Technically, cats don't meet all the criteria of being domesticated. Sure, there are cats who are kept alive after becoming disablingly obese that could not survive without assistance, but by and large if a cat owner died undiscovered their cat would eat them, and then break out of the house and make their own way in the world. Dogs abandoned in the wild have pretty close to zero odds of survival, which is a criteria of domestication.

 

[Lexicus]

Technically, cats don't meet all the criteria of being domesticated. Sure, there are cats who are kept alive after becoming disablingly obese that could not survive without assistance, but by and large if a cat owner died undiscovered their cat would eat them, and then break out of the house and make their own way in the world. Dogs abandoned in the wild have pretty close to zero odds of survival, which is a criteria of domestication.

In particular dogs have adapted to eating a lot of different human foods like grains while cats are still pretty much entirely meat-eaters. I think there was a recent study that put a rough timeline on the domestication of the cat and it started several thousand years after dogs were already domesticated. I think it also said domestic cats actually became larger which is the reverse of what happens with most animals.

 

[Commodore]

What is wrong with gaming nowadays? It just seems like every major video game that gets released now is unfinished, buggy, uninspired, and just generally lacking in creativity and content. I mean, Anthem was supposedly in development for six years, yet the amount of content we have right now is about the same amount of content I'd expect from a game that was only in development for a year or less.

And Anthem is just the latest disappointment. Anthem's failures are mirrored by just about every game released by major developers now and that points to something being seriously wrong in the industry. Most will point to simple greed being the reasons for this, but I'm not so sure that's it. I'm starting to think there is a serious lack of talent among the staff of these major studios as more and more truly talented game developers choose to go the indie route and make their own games.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

What is wrong with gaming nowadays? It just seems like every major video game that gets released now is unfinished, buggy, uninspired, and just generally lacking in creativity and content. I mean, Anthem was supposedly in development for six years, yet the amount of content we have right now is about the same amount of content I'd expect from a game that was only in development for a year or less.

And Anthem is just the latest disappointment. Anthem's failures are mirrored by just about every game released by major developers now and that points to something being seriously wrong in the industry. Most will point to simple greed being the reasons for this, but I'm not so sure that's it. I'm starting to think there is a serious lack of talent among the staff of these major studios as more and more truly talented game developers choose to go the indie route and make their own games.

Not to mention the microtransactions. Zero-day DLC makes me sad.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Technically, cats don't meet all the criteria of being domesticated. Sure, there are cats who are kept alive after becoming disablingly obese that could not survive without assistance, but by and large if a cat owner died undiscovered their cat would eat them, and then break out of the house and make their own way in the world. Dogs abandoned in the wild have pretty close to zero odds of survival, which is a criteria of domestication.

One sign of domestication among mammals is floppy ears. lots of dogs have them. Cats don't.

 

[Lexicus]

Most will point to simple greed being the reasons for this, but I'm not so sure that's it. I'm starting to think there is a serious lack of talent among the staff of these major studios as more and more truly talented game developers choose to go the indie route and make their own games.

Simple greed =/= capitalism relentlessly squeezing everything worthwhile out of existence for profits

 

[Cutlass]

My black cat managed to figure out how to open a doorknob. Not a lever-action handle, but a round doorknob. I have no idea how she did it. I would just see it start moving and then the door pushes open and my cat comes through.

I used to have a cat that seemed to know what a doorknob was, and how to use it. He just couldn't quite manage to get a hold of it well enough to actually turn it.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I used to have a cat that seemed to know what a doorknob was, and how to use it. He just couldn't quite manage to get a hold of it well enough to actually turn it.

This is a vote for smooth finish doorknobs. There used to be these 'tulip' knobs that had grooves from base to rim that were cool because they were easier to grip. They were really common not that long ago, but I couldn't find one to link to, so apparently they are out of fashion.

 

[Ajidica]

What is wrong with gaming nowadays? It just seems like every major video game that gets released now is unfinished, buggy, uninspired, and just generally lacking in creativity and content. I mean, Anthem was supposedly in development for six years, yet the amount of content we have right now is about the same amount of content I'd expect from a game that was only in development for a year or less.

And Anthem is just the latest disappointment. Anthem's failures are mirrored by just about every game released by major developers now and that points to something being seriously wrong in the industry. Most will point to simple greed being the reasons for this, but I'm not so sure that's it. I'm starting to think there is a serious lack of talent among the staff of these major studios as more and more truly talented game developers choose to go the indie route and make their own games.

Don't forget about all the "indie" games that are uninspired, lazy, and released in a terrible state. Jon Schaefer's At the Gates, in all the reviews I've read, have said that at best it "shows promise". Pillars of Eternity was released largely broken, badly written, and ran about as well as a three legged wildebeest with gout and arthritis.

In part games today tend to be released in poorer states because of corporate greed, but also in large part due to how much more complicated games today are. A decade ago, if a character was climbing a ladder, it wasn't a particularly big deal to get the limbs to match up to the rungs. Nowadays, it is expected they match up, which puts a lot of work onto the animators to get all the animation keys and transitions to line up just right.