this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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While I think it's a nice thought, I still find the idea that humans are the ONLY "storytellers" to be falling into the same trap as tool use. Just because we haven't witnessed or recorded it doesn't mean that other species don't tell "stories".
Heck, even crows learn faces and then tell other crows about those faces. If that's not some form of "storytelling" idk what is.
I was incautious with my phrasing, I should have said something like “humans have a singular capacity” etc. There may well be other storytelling species (in fact, I hope there are!) Whalesong seems like it could have the necessary complexity, for instance. I don't think crows warning each other about particular faces quite constitutes a story, though - that seems more like spreading "we hate that guy!" without any of the context a story would provide. Would be easy to check for storytelling with the species that can imitate speech, though.
I suspect this is a big part of what we're looking for when we're exploring personhood in nonhumans, too - whenever talking to animals, aliens, etc comes up in fiction, people inevitably end up swapping stories with them. Suggests to me that storytelling ability is what people are actually looking for.
my cat will throw her toys in the air to chase them herself. That's make believe in a form.