O
But much as it pains me I must be fair. The middle chapters do offer some warm fuzzy anthropomorphic stories about the results of scientific investigations into the word-like grunts and coos of animals. For example a ten inch tall grey parrot named Alex was said to have been taugh to say and comprehend the meaning of over fifty words and numbers. Throw out a few red, white, and blue marbles and ask little Alex how many blue marbles did he see and he'd squeek out the answer. And most of the time he would be right. Cool. On the other hand the investigators say that they taugh talking Alex to understand the abstraction "zero"...
"Alex's understanding of "none" is more like a child's than an adult's: if I show him that nothing is hidden under a cup and ask him, 'How many nuts?' he is like some autistic children or like children around three years of age. He simply refuses to answer. For him there is nothing there to comment on."
I don't think you give me enough credit. I've figured zero out by now, not to mention that I've learned to type with my beak like this. In all, I think I do pretty well for a parrot.
/harrumph
