Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Heronumber0 on 05/08/2007 15:34:08
-
I just wonder if the unique-ness of humanity makes us able to laugh at jokes, or to cry when we feel sad. For those emotionless people I will include one example of each.
Jokes:
'Kids in the back seat cause accidents; accidents in the back seat cause kids.' or
'The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard '
Sad moments:
1. In 'Cool Runnings' when the bobsleigh overturns in the Olympic finals and they show the Olympian spirit by dragging their bobsleigh to the finish line (Gets me crying every time)
2. The scene in 'Bladerunner' where Harrison Ford is saved by an android who makes a speech about all his memories fading like drops in rain (Gets the old Adam's apple bobbing and weaving)
Are we unique in these respects?
-
Well This is only my opinion.. but I lost my dog and old boston terrier about 1 and 1/2 years ago.. We had to have him put down as he developed a rather aggressive cancer which over the period of two weeks went from quarter size to a tumor the size of his body..He was going to suffer pain we would not be able to control anylonger so we took him in . He was a happy dog and even with this huge tumor was very spunky and fun. the morning we took him in my husband and ZI sat in the office with him well before his injections, he hung his head and I don't know what you want to call it but his got very sad and he leaned over on m y husband and put his nose against my belly... his eyes began kinda of oozing like mucus or something slightly thinner. He was the saddest I had ever seen and I know even though he had not had the shot he was saying goodbye... he knew why we were there he knew...I think dogs sense death and know.. When my mom passed her dog would not leave her side and after she died she remained in the room where my mom passed It was all we could do to get her out. Then she would cry all night long by the door. So I took My moms pillow and I took the dogs old bedding and removed it and replaced it with moms pillow.. and sure enough Heidi , the dog, went straight to it... she whimpered a few times a night but she stayed on the pillow.. she was very depressed for a longtime.. but eventually adjusted.. It was very sad!
-
All animals have their own body language, and crying and laughing is just part of the language we humans use - other animals will have different ways of expressing the same emotions to each other.
One thing to bear in mind is that humans have relatively good sight, but our hearing is mediocre, and our sense of smell is hopeless; so whereas we would likely signal our emotions to each other by visual and audio cues, other animals might signal their emotions by audio and smell. Some squids will display emotion by changing the colour of their skin (we do it to a limited extent when we blush, but these squid can be far more versatile in the range of emotion they can display by this means).