Yes, but the question is if they model their meows to sound like human infants. We know they changed their behavior to meow when wanting attention from us. But I’d be willing to bet they didn’t model their meows to sound like that. They just happen to sound like that because they’re small animals with high pitch voices.
“They modelled their meows to sound like human infants” implies active intent, but (I’m sure you know) that’s not how evolution actually works. If the theory is correct, their meows would naturally evolve to sound more like babies because those are the cats that we would be more likely to take care of, whereas cats with meows that sounded less like our babies would be less likely to be taken care of, and thus less likely to reproduce.
My only issue with this statement is that it implies there were cats that sounded different from how domesticated cats sound now. I’m not really conviced of that. To my understanding they have a high pitch voice because they’re small. For instance you can find videos online where they record a tiger “meowing” then they pitch it up to the register of a house cat. The resulting meow sounds nearly indistinguishable (other than the digital artifacts Inherent to doing such a thing) from a regular house cat’s meow. Now tigers obviously didn’t adapt to meowing like infants so my conclusion is that cats just sound like that and natural (human?) Selection had very little if anything to do with it.
Or: people who didn’t respond to these meows didn’t keep their cats and rats ate all their grain so people more responsive to the meows reproduced more…
There’s a good chance that it’s just a mammalian trait that predates modern humans or house cats. Pretty much all mammals require some extra protection and care when they are young and vulnerable, so it being common among other mammals isn’t exactly surprising.
Yes, but the question is if they model their meows to sound like human infants. We know they changed their behavior to meow when wanting attention from us. But I’d be willing to bet they didn’t model their meows to sound like that. They just happen to sound like that because they’re small animals with high pitch voices.
“They modelled their meows to sound like human infants” implies active intent, but (I’m sure you know) that’s not how evolution actually works. If the theory is correct, their meows would naturally evolve to sound more like babies because those are the cats that we would be more likely to take care of, whereas cats with meows that sounded less like our babies would be less likely to be taken care of, and thus less likely to reproduce.
My only issue with this statement is that it implies there were cats that sounded different from how domesticated cats sound now. I’m not really conviced of that. To my understanding they have a high pitch voice because they’re small. For instance you can find videos online where they record a tiger “meowing” then they pitch it up to the register of a house cat. The resulting meow sounds nearly indistinguishable (other than the digital artifacts Inherent to doing such a thing) from a regular house cat’s meow. Now tigers obviously didn’t adapt to meowing like infants so my conclusion is that cats just sound like that and natural (human?) Selection had very little if anything to do with it.
Or: people who didn’t respond to these meows didn’t keep their cats and rats ate all their grain so people more responsive to the meows reproduced more…
There’s a good chance that it’s just a mammalian trait that predates modern humans or house cats. Pretty much all mammals require some extra protection and care when they are young and vulnerable, so it being common among other mammals isn’t exactly surprising.