Can we Communicate with Other Species on this Planet

Preliminary discussions of the possibility of communication with extraterrestrials requires a careful examination of (1) our own species specific or anthropocentric biases regarding the subject, (2) what we actually know about our own forms of human communication, (3) what we know about the communicative and cognitive abilities of other species, and (4) the possibilities and evidence for communication with other species on this planet. Comparative psychologists and cognitive ethologists are discovering surprizing complexity and plasticity in the communication, orientation, and navigation systems of many species. Ethological and interspecies communication research has provided evidence that diverse species either use or can learn to use, to different degrees, symbolic or referential communication for intraspecific or interspecific exchanges. This suggests that there may be a convergence or continuity in the communication and cognitive abilities in animals from different evolutionary paths.

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