Why can’t we make apes behave like people?

_{Denyse O'Leary

July 17, 2019

Animal minds, Human evolution, Intelligent Design, language, Mind}

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Pan troglodytes & Pan paniscus.jpg — common chimpanzee and bonobo/Chandres William H. Calvin, CC

If we are 99% chimpanzee, as claimed? Many researchers think that apes are just like us and that
we’re not doing the right things to make them start behaving that way…

According to comparative developmental psychologist Kim Bard, “Environment, not evolution, might underlie some human-ape differences,” charging that “underlying bias and poor experimental designs” account for the poor intellectual showing of apes as opposed to humans:
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“These studies suffer from the same type of prejudice that once existed in studies of human intelligence, which started from a biased position of assuming northern Europeans were innately more intelligent than southern Europeans. We argue the same type of bias is apparent in cross-species studies.”
Professor Bard said: “Historically, many researchers have claimed humans are superior to apes in social intelligence, but the research is based on studies of captive adult apes isolated from European-style social interaction and human (usually children) from rich western cities. These experiment designs are simply not valid for the comparative study of species differences.
University of Portsmouth, “Environment, Not Evolution, Might Underlie Some Human-ape Differences” At Sciencedaily, 15 July 2019″
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Apes are just like us but for some reason, they do not behave that way?
Actually, we have been here before and will doubtless be here again. In 2011, Erin Wayman told us at Smithsonian Magazine, “‘Talking’ apes are not just the stuff of science fiction; scientists have taught many apes to use some semblance of language.”
Have they? If so, why has it all subsided? What happened?
Denyse O’Leary, “Researchers: Apes are just like us!” at Mind Matters News

Further reading: Apes can be generous Are they just like humans then? (Michael Egnor)

Can animals reason? My challenge to Jeffrey Shallit (Michael Egnor)

Does social ability distinguish human intelligence from that of apes? Not altogether, of course, but it plays a bigger role than we sometimes assume. (Denyse O’Leary)

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Comments

EDTA!! A beautiful responseAaronS1978_{July 17, 2019
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Obviously we have been giving them the wrong tests. From now on, we needs tests that are customized to them, their environment, their culture: "If Eva is covered in 100 lice, and Ben is covered in 200 lice, how many lice are on them both?" "If Carson has 6 bananas, and a neighboring tribe invades and steals 1 banana, how many bananas does Carson have left?" See? We've been doing it wrong all these years!EDTA_{July 17, 2019
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I want to rage after I read this article because of the heads I win tails you lose argument that they have in listed here First off the whole reasoning behind testing whether or not chips are like us is to derail human exceptionalism. But since tests did not prove the point that chimps are exactly the same as us or they’re only different by degrees, Now they are blaming human exceptionalism, that is our belief in this myth, for the reason we have not been able to prove that chimps and humans are only different by degrees or the same. I honestly don’t even know where to begin but this shit angered me so much it’s unbelievable I have read for years the trite that humans and chimps are pretty much the same “look at they’re about to go into the Stone Age out in the wild” “Look they can kind of do math” “look they can kind of do sign language” Now there is this movement that says that our tests aren’t fair and that we will realize that they’re exactly the same as we are once we stop testing them with test meant for humans This is the part where I start slapping the hell out of people Maybe just maybe chimps aren’t passing these tests because (wait for it) they aren’t human in the first damn place. Just a thought. Maybe a dog isn’t a pig maybe a bear isn’t a dog maybe a pig isn’t a chimp And maybe a chimp isn’t human This type of logic is only motivated by trying to prove an agenda which in this case “let’s just prove human exceptionalism because we are smart and hate religion” And this type of logic only comes from “Guess what?!” humans!!! (Mind blown) Let’s get a few things straight If a chimp can’t pass human test it’s because it’s a chimp If it can’t be conditioned into being or acting like a human it’s because it’s a chimp If it can’t build the tools like we do and can’t think the way we do well guess what it’s a chimp It was the motivation to derail human exceptionalism By proving they can be like us. Guess what they’re not like us and they never will be! This the same reason why I cannot toss a bunch of people off of a cliff it’s all people start freaking growing wings because they evolved wings because those were the ones that survived It doesn’t work that way The bottom line is this humans are exceptional for many reasons, one is that were even having this discussion and that makes this painfully hypocritical Let’s put this on a biological standpoint, one that everybody can understand Humans are the kings of this planet they are the species that is the most dominant Why are they the most dominant? It’s not because we rely on physical features to allow us to adapt to our environment We are the most adaptable because we do the exact opposite, we rely on changing our behaviors instead of our physical features And the reason why we are capable of doing that is because we do think abstractly we do have a mental process that is above normal animals You could say it’s due to more complex neurons tied together you can say it’s because the fact that we were created in the image of God it doesn’t matter the source it is the fact that we still have this It is this ability that enables us to invent machines that enable us to fly into the sky, it is this ability that enables us to live in every single environment except for extremely deadly environment. EI liquid hot magma. We haven’t figured out how to live in liquid hot magma. Never mind the fact that we have figured out how to enter space get onto the moon and possibly start colonizing other planets. That shits Is not exceptional! Especially since no complex species on the planet has mastered any form Of travel between Celestial bodies. But what drives me up the fence more is the fact that the only group that is said that chimps are different from human beings are the ones that believe in human exceptionalism because they realize humans are different from chimps. Humans are the most dangerous most adaptable Organism on the planet we are exceptional by default even by our rules that we created for the guidelines of evolution, we are the top dog, Fitness comes from adaptability, we are the most adaptable, We are the most adaptable because we do not rely on physical features to adept, We do not need to wait for change or mutation to adapt. And this is all due to our ability to think outside the box We are the most adaptable most capable most intelligent species on the planet We are not the same as other species and you know what let’s get this straight to most of the other species may sport similarities but they are not the same either According to Darwinian evolution is the most adaptable organism that wins and is the most successful therefore by definition is the most exceptional Which we are that There is no chimpanzees living in the Antarctic they have a very specific location on this planet as do many other species that I found their niche We create our own environment we can live in any environment and we are capable of out thinking almost every single problem, we created science...... Without invoking God we are exceptional. And sometimes we are exceptionally stupid >:(AaronS1978_{July 17, 2019
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In one respect, they have a point. When we study other species from the bias of human exceptionalism, we are bound to arrive at the wrong conclusion. It is this bias that leads us to believe that ET is more intelligent that Tarzan’s Cheetah, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.Brother Brian_{July 17, 2019
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