Thursday 12 March 2009

Late, but a point worth making.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe (can't remember which volume), Adams makes the point that humanity thinks it's the most advanced race on earth because it possesses nuclear weapons, amongst a bunch of other stupid developments. The dolphins think they're the most advanced species precisely because humans have nuclear weapons etc. etc.

The dolphins are right. Santino the Swedish Chimpanzee has demonstrated that humans aren't the only animals with the ability to plan for the future - an ability which proves an amazing level of abstract reasoning function. While the zoo was closed, Santino was making and storing rocks ready to bombard visitors. When the zoo closed for the winter, he didn't bother making them because he knew they wouldn't be needed.

Clearly, Santino didn't like being entertainment, and found a way to make his point consistently and clearly. What have humans done for Santino? Set him free? Provided secluded accommodation? Urgently re-written our animal experimentation laws to take into account the fact that lab chimps must spend their evenings in mortal dread of the next morning's torture?

No. Humans cut Santino's nuts off. That'll show him. Bet he didn't foresee that, despite his future-planning capability.

1 comment:

Benjamin Judge said...

In fairness though, as a species we have worked out that if you want to be the boss then cutting off someone's nuts says 'bow down and obey' so much more succinctly than lobbing a few half bricks.

Humans 1 - The rest of the planet 0