Skip to main content
Worldbuilding

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

10
  • 8
    $\begingroup$ Depends on what functions members of this society must perform. Consider a society consisting of shepherd family, their dogs and sheep. Most of them can't use language, and yet they can function very well. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 22:35
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Also consider that, in primitive societies, most members are young, and many are babies. Babies communicate with natural signals & have no linguistic abilities at all. Human society gets along pretty well this way already! $\endgroup$
    – elemtilas
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 22:48
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ "Their minds and natural signals are akin to the species of Canis" -- In real history, dogs, which are indeed a species of Canis, have functioned extremely well as members of our society. And yes there were, and there still are, many of them. They contributed an enormous amount of work and companionship. (Ah, and in a hunter-gatherer society nobody brings anybody to court. Courts of law cannot function in the absence of a state, for the obvious resons.) $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 23:19
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Sure they do. And shepherds have way of dealing with disputes between their dogs, or between themselves and their dogs. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 23:30
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Personally, I'm voting to leave open as to me it seems on-topic and answerable as-is. Humans and dogs/ferrets/horses/elephants/llamas etc have worked together just fine for centuries. I think the main issue I have with it is that it's trivially answerable - or that I'm missing the point of the question. $\endgroup$
    – Escaped dental patient.
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 23:58