You must pick one very minor talent:

[claralistensprechen3rd@friendica.myportal.social]

@futurebird @oldguycrusty @Rob_T_Firefly That's exactly why I never got rid of the Hayes modems I've acquired when everyone else ditched 'em. Also landline phone equipment. I could set up just such a network on a home-only phone system connecting different room modems thereby, and here's a reminder that TTY devices for the Deaf are similar in operation.

[sigsegv@hachyderm.io]

@futurebird understanding what my cats are saying would not be a minor talent! I can’t how many times one of them has been hollering (middle of the night) and I’ve been answering with “what do you want?!?!?”

[octothorpe@mastodon.online]

@futurebird @Rob_T_Firefly Could you imagine the beatbox innovation?!?

[malin@dice.camp]

@futurebird
To silently judge.
@mansr

[sofiav@mastodon.online]

@futurebird I don't get what #2 could be used for, and doesn't everybody already have 3 and 4? My cats ignore most of what I say to them, but that's not because of lack of understanding--it's an active choice

[sofiav@mastodon.online]

@futurebird @malin @mansr she wants An Attention (because she deserves it )

[extra_special_carbon@mastodon.world]

@futurebird It was a difficult choice. Making realistic modem noises? There’s some hi-jinx to be had there. But telling my cats how to avoid the dog is practical.

I already know what they say: “Where my food?”

And there are no modems making noise anymore, so what would I interpret?

[apophis@yourwalls.today]

@futurebird if i can understand cats i should be able to figure out some basic communication the other way by trial and error, but it would be a lot harder to do the other way around

maybe impossible, given it's not like cats would obey your commands or anything

[apophis@yourwalls.today]

@oldguycrusty @futurebird @Rob_T_Firefly i thought about this

but the cat network sounds like it'd be more robust

[stripey@meow.social]

@futurebird @Rob_T_Firefly I used to be able to whistle 9600 baud - *and* get the modem on the other end to negotiate

[bstow@beige.party]

@futurebird if I already have two of these, can I still pick another one, or would this be considered greedy?

[ethicalprofessor@mstdn.social]

@futurebird

I chose the 4th option. But...

Waddya mean 'minor talent'???

[dalias@hachyderm.io]

@futurebird I can kinda already do 3 so I had to pick 4. Let's make this bidirectional.

[sanpan@mas.to]

@futurebird These choices are legit super-hero stuff, I´m team Green Meowtern.

[dalias@hachyderm.io]

@futurebird Joke's on me tho, I wasted my wish. It turns out all the sounds just mean "FEED ME!!!!""

[shadsterling@mastodon.social]

@futurebird the last two being separate is just cruel. I guess we need to pair up

[neatchee@urusai.social]

@futurebird it was a real struggle picking between 3 & 4 for practical reasons, and 1 for the sheer meme of it

[y6nh@im-in.space]

@futurebird Now obviously the cat communications are winning here, but hear me out. I already understand what my cat says (it's almost always "give me food"), and she wouldn't care about much I had to tell her.
But if I could understand modem noise, that's 56kbit/s. It wouldn't be too hard to play back arbitrary text as modem noise, so I'd be able to speed-read at 7000 characters per second. I'd be able to read Ulysses in under 5 minutes. Clear win.

[webhat@infosec.exchange]

@futurebird I wouldn't call it minor to my cat

[chrisjagged@mastodon.social]

@futurebird

I like the idea of understanding the cats but not being able to respond. I can thwart all their plans and they'll think I'm omniscient