RE: The powers of cats
Could it bet that your cat is trying to tell you something? :-) Just asking... Jeroen van Baardwijk -Oorspronkelijk bericht- Van: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] Namens David Hobby Verzonden: donderdag 11 november 2010 13:30 Aan: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion Onderwerp: The powers of cats On a completely different note, but I felt like sharing it: One of my cats performed a successful internet search. I'd left the browser open, with iGoogle up. The cat's contribution was apparently typing 0222, a bit of mouse movement, and a click or an enter. What I woke up to was GoogleMaps, showing a local hair salon with a phone number ending in 0222. It could be that cats are not getting smarter, but Google is. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
The powers of cats
On a completely different note, but I felt like sharing it: One of my cats performed a successful internet search. I'd left the browser open, with iGoogle up. The cat's contribution was apparently typing 0222, a bit of mouse movement, and a click or an enter. What I woke up to was GoogleMaps, showing a local hair salon with a phone number ending in 0222. It could be that cats are not getting smarter, but Google is. ---David ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The powers of cats
David Hobby wrote: On a completely different note, but I felt like sharing it: One of my cats performed a successful internet search. I'd left the browser open, with iGoogle up. The cat's contribution was apparently typing 0222, a bit of mouse movement, and a click or an enter. What I woke up to was GoogleMaps, showing a local hair salon with a phone number ending in 0222. It could be that cats are not getting smarter, but Google is. Is is beyond the intelligence level of cats to understand that it's possible to use the mouse and see interesting things in the screen? On a different note, do cats see computer screens the same way we do? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The powers of cats
Alberto Monteiro wrote: ... Is is beyond the intelligence level of cats to understand that it's possible to use the mouse and see interesting things in the screen? On a different note, do cats see computer screens the same way we do? I've seen videos of cats treating TVs as boxes with stuff inside, trying to catch things that were on screen. But my cats don't do that. Their attitude seems to be that this is just one more silly thing that two-legs do, spending their time looking at pictures. I have the mouse at the side of the monitor, so they may well have never noticed the connection. ---David It's not about intelligence, it's about motivation. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The powers of cats
On Nov 11, 2010, at 7:05 AM, Alberto Monteiro wrote: Is is beyond the intelligence level of cats to understand that it's possible to use the mouse and see interesting things in the screen? Given the things I've seen cats learn to do, and in some cases, figure out on their own, especially from imitating human behavior, it wouldn't surprise me. I think just moving the mouse cursor wouldn't be enough of a reward to set up the feedback loop, for a cat, but if there were some noticeable and visually interesting reaction to mouse movement or clicking the mouse button, yes, the cat would probably start exploring it and trying to figure it out, and at some point, might just start randomly experimenting with the mouse and/or keyboard. On a different note, do cats see computer screens the same way we do? I've seen both cats and dogs react to images on TV and computer screens as real objects. I've seen a cat try to pounce on a mouse cursor on a computer screen, and i know of one dog who reacts very strongly to images of unfamiliar dogs on a TV screen (which for various reasons would be less likely to look real to either a cat or dog than a computer screen, particularly older CRT types). So this, at least, I can vouch for. (There are also quite a few videos now of cats playing with iPad touchscreens, particuarly if there's a game running that responds in visually interesting ways to the touchscreen input, on YouTube. As well as one of a cat investigating how a toilet works by repeatedly flushing it and watching the water in the bowl..) I don't believe there's a power in the 'verse can stop Kaylee from bein' cheerful. Sometimes you just wanna duct-tape her mouth and dump her in the hold for a month. -- Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
