As reported here, a Chimpanzee carefully orchestrated the heinous crime of gathering stones in the morning before the zoo at which he lived opened, then around lunchtime began throwing them at onlookers. Scientists immediately jumped the gun, proclaiming that chimps have the highly developed ability to imagine a future occurence, figure out what it would take to bring that imagination to fruition, and then execute the plan.
This of course, is a departure from the typical chimp behavior, which is to crap in its own hand and throw poo at zoo visitors.
Moments like this, where scientists go "Eureka" and proclaim a huge, sudden, greater understanding of the universe make me chuckle. Because there are 25,000 human being on this planet who will be dead from starvation in 24 hours time, but these scientists have devoted their lives to the study of chimpanzee imagination.
Don't get me wrong. The study of worthwhile science is a great and noble enterprise, and if humans didn't have the natural inclination to explore and discover, we'd be throwing poo too, but as it stands, not only does the study of chimpanzee imagination and mischief-making seem like a waste of some perfectly sharp human brains that could be studying more significant and pressing problems, but it also seems like a huge waste of grant money. Furthermore, we as a society tend to overlook the small bad when the local bad piles up. We're worried about our economy, and things like that, so something far away, like thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people dying every day from starvation, disease, and violence in third world countries is an easy issue to put on the back burner and ignore.
Research like this, studying chimpanzee nefariousness, strikes me that scientists often ask themselves "what haven't we studied yet that's easy to publish?"
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This of course, is a departure from the typical chimp behavior, which is to crap in its own hand and throw poo at zoo visitors.
Moments like this, where scientists go "Eureka" and proclaim a huge, sudden, greater understanding of the universe make me chuckle. Because there are 25,000 human being on this planet who will be dead from starvation in 24 hours time, but these scientists have devoted their lives to the study of chimpanzee imagination.
Don't get me wrong. The study of worthwhile science is a great and noble enterprise, and if humans didn't have the natural inclination to explore and discover, we'd be throwing poo too, but as it stands, not only does the study of chimpanzee imagination and mischief-making seem like a waste of some perfectly sharp human brains that could be studying more significant and pressing problems, but it also seems like a huge waste of grant money. Furthermore, we as a society tend to overlook the small bad when the local bad piles up. We're worried about our economy, and things like that, so something far away, like thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people dying every day from starvation, disease, and violence in third world countries is an easy issue to put on the back burner and ignore.
Research like this, studying chimpanzee nefariousness, strikes me that scientists often ask themselves "what haven't we studied yet that's easy to publish?"
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