Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Aha! Elephants Can Use Insight to Solve Problems
In NOT A CHIMP I challenge the use of tool-making and tool-using by chimps as evidence of their proximity to humans. I detail some of the extraordinary evidence of tool use and problem-solving in corvid birds. Here are details of the first problem-solving experiments with an elephant to suggest they, to, are capable of the eureka moment.
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