you can train a deer to beg for crackers, but you can’t train it to talk. Deer aren’t physically capable of talking. But, deer don’t even try to get around that limitation when it comes to interacting with humans (if they did, they could probably convince us to feed them more crackers and they could evolve into our pets).
chimpanzees are a little better at expressing their feelings and desires non-verbally (and indeed, they are tragically kept as pets for this reason). Here is one smoking a cigarette.
they play Minecraft too.
but chimpanzees don’t write. What’s isn’t clear is whether chimps don’t grasp the concept, or they have no desire to do it.
the question of voluntary vs. involuntary ability leaves us humans in an interesting place.
there are many things we can do that most of us choose not to:
- grow our own food
- keep our word
- be honest about how we feel at work
- being able to recite every number in to 100 digits but what concepts exist that no human can understand? Perhaps we should first address the possibly even more interesting question of which concepts that some of us understand that others don’t.
PSI is one such concept, the ability to detect extrasensory stimuli or to communicate or interact with the physical world in a way not understood scientifically. If the theory holds (and I have my reasons to believe it does), it is clear that not everyone is capable of consciously tapping into it noticeably.
discipline is a more tangible example. Some people are simply more motivated than others. I wouldn’t consider myself lazy, but I don’t know if there is a realistic scenario where I’d be desparate enough to to muster the motivation of a world class engineer despite my love and talent for the subject. Free will only lasts so long against free hesitation
but past the edge of human excellence there is possibly an infinite measure of quality we cannot attempt or comprehend. That’s why I think religion is silly. We can continue breaking records and raising the bar. But for humans, trying to understand god is like ants trying to understand calculus.