Our closest relative the chimpanzee is capable of sophisticated cooperative behaviour and even rudimentary altruism, two new studies reveal. The discovery suggests that some of the underpinnings of human sociality may have been present millions of years ago.
"At least some of [those behaviours] are already present in rudimentary forms in chimps ? and maybe in the common ancestor of chimps and humans," says Alicia Melis of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. "Humans are biologically prepared to develop these kinds of skills."
For more:
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn8797.html And I would argue that most of what human's define as "higher human traits" likely can be explained by an overabundance of ego.
Nice find, Dan. Thanks for posting it.
I am not sure about this experiment. I would need convincing that the chimps would expect absolutely no gain from helping their 'Caretaker'. Has there ever been a reward for pleasing a human?
Experiments have consistently shown that chimps do not show altruism (or spite) to each other, for example:
http://www.theallineed.com/biology/06020413.htm Blacknad.
To understand we must first know ourselves. It's meaningless to do anything without a reason. All help we offer each other can be explained as self help, even if it's to go to heaven or avoid hell. We see a wider/deeper world than the chimps, therefore we do everything wider/deeper. It has no moral and extra meaning. I think the best I can say is I'd help a chimp more than a tree, a tree more than a blade of grass. But being in competition with other humans things get a bit more complicated.
Nothing to say Blacknad? ;-)
Dogrock wrote:
"We see a wider/deeper world than the chimps, therefore we do everything wider/deeper."
You flatter us and seemingly assume that most humans are, in fact, conscious. I've seen little evidence to support the proposition that the average human is any more aware than the average chimp. Don't believe me? Visit a NASCAR track.
And yes I'm serious. Speaking from a US perspective the economy is a disaster, foreign relations at an all-time ebb, glacial ice melting, and these people who couldn't tell you the first three digits of Pi are wholly oblivious.
Like chimps.
Vote "Chimp" for president!
Originally posted by DA Morgan:
And yes I'm serious. Speaking from a US perspective the economy is a disaster, foreign relations at an all-time ebb, glacial ice melting, and these people who couldn't tell you the first three digits of Pi are wholly oblivious.
Like chimps. [/QB]
Because knowing the first three digits of pi makes one a smart and capable human being. The world is getting hotter by the second, the rest of the dumb people in this world hate us Americans... it's a disaster! Surely the chimps could run it better than us. I mean, perhaps we should try slinging poo at each other when we have disputes instead of debating. Yup, same level as chimps... riiiight.
If we took the baboon out of the WhiteHouse, and sent the morons that put him there back into primary school (K-12) no doubt we wouldn't need to burden the poor chimps with cleaning up our mess.
DA pontificates:
"And yes I'm serious. Speaking from a US perspective the economy is a disaster, foreign relations at an all-time ebb, glacial ice melting, and these people who couldn't tell you the first three digits of Pi are wholly oblivious." We can add to that our President as a Baboon of some sort.
How about more than the first 3 digits of Pi? Will that make you less ape like? DA, you are so predictable there is almost no subject that some of us could not write your view before you do.
What kind of platform do you advocate politics from when you condemn others for listing a web site- do you see a distinction of soem kind. You turn a conversation into an opportunity to call our president names. Do you propose to be a better man for the job then Bush? Why? I think because you know in advance who to anniliate.
jjw
jjw004 asks:
"Do you propose to be a better man for the job then Bush? Why?"
I could propose hundreds better. Some Republicans, Some Democrats. Some men. Some women. Even my cat could do a better job.
For those who have yet to meet our moron President here some quotes from his wiser moments:
"I like my buddies from west Texas. I liked them when I was young, I liked them then I was middle-age, I liked them before I was president, and I like them during president, and I like them after president." ?George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 1, 2006
"I'll be glad to talk about ranching, but I haven't seen the movie. I've heard about it. I hope you go ? you know ? I hope you go back to the ranch and the farm is what I'm about to say." ?George W. Bush, after being asked whether he's seen Brokeback Mountain, Manhattan, Kan., Jan. 23, 2006
"I think we are welcomed. But it was not a peaceful welcome." ?George W. Bush, defending Vice President Dick Cheney's pre-war assertion that the United States would be welcomed in Iraq as liberators, NBC Nightly News interview, Dec. 12, 2005
"We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better do our job. That's what I'm telling you." ?George W. Bush, Gulfport, Miss., Sept. 20, 2005
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." ?George W. Bush, to FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned 10 days later amid criticism over his job performance, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005
"I was going to say he's a piece of work, but that might not translate too well. Is that all right, if I call you a 'piece of work'?" ?George W. Bush to Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, Washington, D.C., June 20, 2005
"The relations with, uhh ? Europe are important relations, and they've, uhh ? because, we do share values. And, they're universal values, they're not American values or, you know ? European values, they're universal values. And those values ? uhh ? being universal, ought to be applied everywhere." ?George W. Bush, at a press conference with European Union dignitaries, Washington, D.C., June 20, 2005
"You see, not only did the attacks help accelerate a recession, the attacks reminded us that we are at war." ?George W. Bush, on the Sept. 11 attacks, Washington, D.C., June 8, 2005
Mission accomplished George! Well done!
~two term limit~