http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/chimpanzee-jack-to-stand-trial-on-human-crimes-at-edinburgh-fringe-1.511295
In NOT A CHIMP I go into a great deal of detail about people who keep chimps as human surrogate pets and rights campaigners who argue that accrediting chimpanzees with "human" rights will better preserve them and serve their interests wherever they are threatened or abused. I argue strongly that it is wholly inappropriate to grant chimps human rights because they are palpably not humans and are not capable of the understanding of two-way moral obligations that rights suppose. Fascinating and hilarious, therefore, to see that Lewis Dean of the Scottish Primate Research Group has written an audience-interactive play (essentially the trial of a fictional chimpanzee criminal) to explore these issues for the Edinburgh Fringe.
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?
Friday, 8 August 2014
Tuesday, 5 August 2014
Flores bones show features of Down syndrome, not a new 'hobbit' human
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-flores-bones-features-syndrome-hobbit.html
Arguments over whether or not the skeletal remains found on the island of Flores - the so-called "hobbit" - represent a new species of human ancestor, or an abnormal Homo sapiens, have ricocheted too and fro over the last few years - demonstrating, if nothing else, the perils and pitfalls of archaeological interpretation. This fascinating report argues that the specimen is a human with Down syndrome! The brain size was over 400 cc, not less, as was originally calculated. No doubt this will not be the end of the affair. Look out for a riposte!
Arguments over whether or not the skeletal remains found on the island of Flores - the so-called "hobbit" - represent a new species of human ancestor, or an abnormal Homo sapiens, have ricocheted too and fro over the last few years - demonstrating, if nothing else, the perils and pitfalls of archaeological interpretation. This fascinating report argues that the specimen is a human with Down syndrome! The brain size was over 400 cc, not less, as was originally calculated. No doubt this will not be the end of the affair. Look out for a riposte!