@@We_Are_All_Vultures I appreciate you trying to make people adopt old cats. But please don't talk about that when it as nothing to do with the comment.
@@MadCapMag Im just saying there somebetter place to talk about that then a random comment section. If they have the right to talk about whatever they want, i can say whatever i want about it. Also maybe i dont handle this like an adult, but so are you.
@@gontathegentleman9833 I do agree that it's important to encourage people to adopt older cats since they're the ones who need homes the most. It makes sense in the case of these videos because Billi hasn't been using the buttons super long but is picking them up great despite being 12. Most people would assume that you can't train a cat that age at all (even though that's definitely not true, and my cat is even older than Billi and has still been learning things lately.)
I thought cats were just aloof, stuck-up creatures until God sent several strays my way. Wow, was I ever wrong! They are brilliant, loving beings for whose friendship I am eternally grateful!
Imagine dating a girl, and she finally takes you to her home. You see a big button pad on the floor, and she shows you her cat having conversations with it. I would legit fall in love that moment.
Where are all the men who'd appreciate a girl like this?? Most of the guys I meet only like dogs, let alone would appreciate all of the puzzle boxes and toys I have for my cat, lol.
@@deprofundis3293 I don't think there are very many of us left. I was going to say something about how good women are just as hard to find, but my buddy was with his girl, and his rm knocked on the car window for a lighter, then started joking with my boy's girl... Like they haven't even zipped up yet... And then I realized why women think men are monsters. Dating in America is toxic AF, but I still hold on to hope that someone is out there for all of us.
I have a cat. Its a love hate relationship. The other day I caught her attempting to bite my leg but I caught her mid act and she tried to play it off like it was nothing.
The chemistry between you and Billi is very wholesome. Please continue to make more videos. My wife and I have become invested in the adventurous life of Billi and we cant stop watching.
It's absolutely amazing to see Billi's response time improve over time, in addition to her vocabulary. This is doctrate thesis work you're doing, and to think it's with a 12-year old cat is incredible.
Yep! That's exactly how these buttons got introduced, when the owner of dog Stella, a speech pathologist, wondered if they could teach their dog to 'talk'
Well, research like this has been done over and over again using all sorts of animals, chimps, orangutans, sometimes other mammals. The conclusion is almost always that the animals are not learning language or meaning. They are nott able to string words together, whats happening is they are associating a word with a command, much like a dog learning to sit or stay. Whats most likely happened is the cat is learning the types of attention that it gets by hitting the i love you button, pets and love and attention. Adorable, yes, ground breaking, no.
@@elisha7231 these animals have also been learning abstract concepts and descriptions, especially when they cant remember the word for a certain feeling or item. its not just word association. hell, we've lived alongside them for thousands of years, they've obviously gotten some form of communication down. knocking down the intelligence of other animals is not the way to go, especially when its been proven that they can learn and grow from the basics of communication. it would be great to see what this develops into.
@@radioseal37 im sorry but no. Im not "knocking down their intelligence". Its been proven over and over again that it IS just word association. If you want to hope for more thats fine. But fido does not understand the words your saying to him.
@@Michellok786 Yes, but we already knew they could do this, they take comands all the time. They arnt able to understand a language though. Its word association, they are very diffrent things.
To be fair she probably still uses “Mad” because she understands it as a way to say she is unhappy/dissatisfied with something but her guardian isn’t recording that lately or at least isnt posting it. And they seem to still be incorporating new words to the mats so that’s probably more interesting than just rehashing Billie pointing out what she doesnt like about a current situation. Still its very cool and very sweet to see “I Love You” getting use regularly and Billie expressing affection in a very communicative way!
Billi is so smart and she is really getting quick with the buttons. I feel like it used to take her a few minutes to chose a button but now she knows exactly which buttons she wants to use. I love this channel.
You can tell when she's thinking really hard, because her tail swishes slowly but aggressively. Her tail goes really fast and low when she's mad, so you see the difference in body language.
Im so happy this channel is growing. You and Billi deserve it. She is just the sweetest. I know people like to anthropomorphize these kinds of videos, but the fact that Billi really chooses with intention, and seems to know what she wants and where the button is to tell you really is amazing. These videos brighten up my day. I look forward to them every day. Thank you for sharing Billi with us.
Knowing you'd just come home makes it all the sweeter that she's using "Love You". Obv there's no way to check that she understands the concept of love, but my anthropomorphism thinks it can be assumed at the very least that this is a positive show of affection.
i would argue it's anthropomorphic to assume she *doesn't* understand the concept of love. humans are animals, after all, and emotions aren't limited to homo sapiens! especially given cats are colony animals, where some form of emotional connection to each other would be (i assume) evolutionarily advantageous ^_^
@@elfinvale Sure, the question is how much does Billi understand that that button means affection, and how much is our confirmation bias. Still, cute videos and there's plenty of cases where Billi does seem to be chaining thoughts and ideas
@@marsf6080 watched a lot of videos of pets with buttons and my inner skeptic is really agitated. Is it staged, as in did they try it over and over until the pet manages a response that 'makes sense' It's the kind of thing that I will probably doubt until I witness it live or find some actual studies. Especially considering that scientists and trainers spend years to teach apes the kind of vocabulary that those cats and dogs seemingly grasp in months or a year, including abstract concepts.
@@boooster101 Apes can literally communicate in sign language, why is it so hard to believe dogs and cats are able to associate meaning with sounds? They're probably remembering the sound of the buttons. I've been training my 2 year old cat since she was a kitten. She sits and waits for her turn to eat when I say Wait. If she wants me to open the door she puts a paw on my arm, I'll ask her, Door? and she'll walk to the door to confirm. If she doesn't walk off I'll change and ask her, Pets? and she'll rub her head against my hand to confirm. When I spot a lizard/gecko on the wall (she loves them) I say Lizard, Come! she knows exactly what I'm talking about, jumps out of bed and follows me to look for the lizard. Ofc she understands the usual Hungry?, No!, Come Play! commands. I don't have doubts that my cat would probably be able to learn the buttons if I bothered to put in the effort, so this vid it's totally believable to me.
@@KryaDiere I have a cat and had a dog. Yes, they absolutely can associate meaning with sounds, geez. But there is a huge difference between your pet associating the word "food" with getting food and the kind of sentences these videos often portray, sometimes with apparently changed meaning of the words and basic grammar. Again, I'm not saying it's impossible, I'd just really love to see studies under controlled conditions to rule out any tampering or just good old plain coincidence. And I don't consider it bad to think critically. It's not like I'm straight up accusing them of fraud. It's amazing and that's why I want it to be true. But also with some third party evidence. PS: Don't conflate apes with cats and dogs. It's just a different level of sentience as far as we know.
This is so cute! Just out of curiosity, how do you model the “hmm?” button? “This turns a statement into a question” seems like a really complex concept to try and get across
It kinda seems like shes waiting for an answer when she does that. And if billie knows he’ll get whatever he wants right after the hmm maybe he just goes off that.
possibly just making an incomplete sentence makes billi want to correct it? 'where go [hmmm]' and if Billi ever responds with 'outside' that gets a reward? it seems easier to train than 'love you'. Tbf. The people who do this with dogs have tutorials on how to do it, hungerforwords, i think is the first of these expirements.
I feel like she wasn't responding because she didn't want pets, she wanted to mark. She answered with play as a second thing she wanted because there's no word for marking you.
Maybe that's why she said "Love you, hmm?" Maybe it was like asking if she could love on her. Like "can I love you?" for "can I mark you?" Who knows. There's a lot of theories behind the "hmm?" in the comments, including theories that she just did it on accident.
Or maybe she just presses random buttons, and sometimes she gets pets, sometimes she gets to play, sometimes she gets food, sometimes she gets to go out... and she just goes with whatever happens. The idea that she's formulating a specific desire and then articulating that desire via this buttons is absolute nonsense. Or at least, there's no evidence of that in the videos
@@domcoke You can justify saying that there's not sufficient evidence to justify belief, perhaps, but saying there's "no evidence" isn't justifiable if you're using the word "evidence" honestly. In this video we just watched, Billi pressed "love you" to her human companion twice, and then aggressively marked that human companion. These two things are congruent enough to constitute some degree of evidence--Doesn't mean you should necessarily regard it as conclusive enough to make you confident, but you're simply wrong to declare the idea absurd.
Wow that is so cool that Billi presses the buttons even without looking at them. When she pressed "play" she was looking at her Mom so she obviously knows the play button well! :)
What I like most about this channel is that now I know for sure that my educated guesses about my elderly cats needs throughout the many, many years were accurate and true and that even if she could speak people we would have the same relationship. Good to know I have done right by my cat. That's all I ever really wanted and I can sleep well tonight.
No sorry that's not allowed YET because the only thing thats allowed to be smart on planet earth - (until singularity happens) are full blooded humans unfortunately , and idk when that will happen? Elon said 5-10 yrs if he's right? ......but we will have to wait for that day to come, but if? or when it does, I guess your right lol.
This is so fucking cool. What's really awesome was how fast the cat button responded right after the human button asked. I hope when Billie passes, this owner will train a new kitten. If this works for like every cat with the right training, we could finally figure out how to communicate with them.
I have that exact same worm toy. Great value, it's durable enough to last practically forever. And even if/when the worm teasers break, you can replace them with any other teaser no problem. Not an ad or anything, I just think it's a top tier toy.
"Love you -- HMM?" means "Do you love me, Mommy?" Billi just wants you to love her. Not necessarily to play or pet, just say "I love you, Billy" really really sincerely and maybe hold her.
Another comment chain speculated that it might not be a question in the classic sense, as a query for information, possibly instead being a cue for Mom to respond. Not a massive difference in end usage, but a huge change mechanically. Either one is interesting to observe though.
personification is so strong that you people think this cat actually can talk. she keeps pressing pets but obviously doesn't actually want to be petted. she's still looking for the food button that gets her food
I got so scared when the buttons said "What Billi Want Hmm" that Billi pushed the buttons herself and was communicating at conversation speed already. She's so smart, I was willing to believe it for a second!
I am so glad I found this channel. Billi's progress is incredible and I can't wait to get a set to help communicate with my cat 😭 How do you reinforce that something is a question?
