
The Person in the Ape - kawera
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/states-mind/person-ape?page=all
======
bambax
> _We know that apes remember past events in detail and plan for the future;
> they are masters of mimicry, learning to use human tools simply by
> observing; they can understand spoken language and communicate with gestures
> and abstract symbols; they methodically cooperate to hunt and defend their
> territory; they maintain unique cultures, passing down particular toolmaking
> techniques, dialects, and habitat-specific survival skills from one
> generation to the next; they form lifelong kinships, mourn their dead, and
> are just as dependent on social intimacy as we are; they can recognize their
> reflections and have a sense of self. They are, in sum, highly intelligent,
> self-aware, autonomous individuals._

All of that can be said about many other species -- certainly about dolphins
or elephants, for example.

Just because an animal shows intelligence doesn't mean we're cousins, or, more
to the point, animals don't have to be closely related to humans to be
intelligent.

In just a few years, Youtube has done more to help understand animals than all
of Western philosophy, from Aristotle to Descartes.

Some cows can open barn doors with their tongue. Birds play. House cats
prepare and implement pranks against fellow cats, or dogs.

Although it's a sign of progress, it's bothering that we are only looking for
signs of intelligence into creatures that most ressemble us morphologically.

~~~
cantrip
It doesn't seem to me at all like we're only looking for signs of intelligence
in apes. We're looking for it in everything. The article even references
advocates for the legal personhood of great apes, dolphins, elephants, and
whales.

You give Youtube way too much credit. Science has done more to help understand
animals than all of historical philosophy. Youtube has done more to spread
that understanding to laypeople.

~~~
bitoneill
I disagree. Watching animals doing amazing things on YouTube has completely
changed how I see animals. I'm sure I'm not alone. Scientists can't be
everywhere to capture amazing behavior, but YouTube can

~~~
pheldagryph
YouTube is just distribution. It's like crediting heavy trucks for winning
WW2, or crediting YCombinator News's CDN for writing this witty and insightful
message.

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hashberry
This debate is called Great Ape Personhood[0]

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ape_personhood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ape_personhood)

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yammajr
discussion from a couple weeks back:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15916978](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15916978)

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JHH_18
I feel it. It's good and perceptual, you might say it breathes, but how is it
significant in any way. Off topic?

newb enjoyed only.

~~~
dang
There's only one criterion for a good HN post: does it gratify intellectual
curiosity? All topics are welcome as long as they do that.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

