As I'm typing, there is one of those discussions on TV that really pushes my buttons. They are discussing the proposition "Should great apes have human rights". It is anthropomorphism of the most extreme and alarming degree. So far the supporters of the proposition have stated the folllowing:
Chimpanzee have a recognized vocabulary of 2000 words.
Gorillas are capable of making detailed plans for the future and communicating those plans to each other.
Chimpanzees tell jokes.
A gorilla has been shown to be able to express and understand the idea "Please give me an ice cream. It is my birthday."
Great apes have self-awareness to the extent that they can look in a mirror and say (internally) "That's me, I'm Coco, I'm a Gorilla".
Apes show advanced empathy with each other and grief when other apes die.
Coco the Gorilla has an IQ of between 75-80.*
Gorillas have the same IQ and the same abilities as children.*
A normal great ape has a higher IQ than many disabled human beings.*
One woman on the program is actually attempting to become the legal guardian (as opposed to owner) of a Chimpanzee because he is traumatized by having seen his mother shot by hunters for a pharmaceuticals company. In her talk she consistently refers to it with human terms - "person", "him" etc.
I won't even bother to refute this self-evident claptrap. The bits that annoy me most are, as always, the assertions with regard to language. You can train a budgie to press buttons in sequence to get food. The bloody begonia on my window ledge bends towards the light. It doesn't mean that they are communicating or understanding language.
Now, I'm quite convinced that the begonia is smarter than some of the people making these ludicrous assertions, but, as with the assertions themselves, that says rather a lot more about the people than it does about the begonia.
(*The methodologies that underlie these IQ estimates were left rather vague.)
Gorillas are capable of making detailed plans for the future and communicating those plans to each other.
Chimpanzees tell jokes.
A gorilla has been shown to be able to express and understand the idea "Please give me an ice cream. It is my birthday."
Great apes have self-awareness to the extent that they can look in a mirror and say (internally) "That's me, I'm Coco, I'm a Gorilla".
Apes show advanced empathy with each other and grief when other apes die.
Coco the Gorilla has an IQ of between 75-80.*
Gorillas have the same IQ and the same abilities as children.*
A normal great ape has a higher IQ than many disabled human beings.*
One woman on the program is actually attempting to become the legal guardian (as opposed to owner) of a Chimpanzee because he is traumatized by having seen his mother shot by hunters for a pharmaceuticals company. In her talk she consistently refers to it with human terms - "person", "him" etc.
I won't even bother to refute this self-evident claptrap. The bits that annoy me most are, as always, the assertions with regard to language. You can train a budgie to press buttons in sequence to get food. The bloody begonia on my window ledge bends towards the light. It doesn't mean that they are communicating or understanding language.
Now, I'm quite convinced that the begonia is smarter than some of the people making these ludicrous assertions, but, as with the assertions themselves, that says rather a lot more about the people than it does about the begonia.
(*The methodologies that underlie these IQ estimates were left rather vague.)
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