Wednesday, February 28, 2007





Peter Watts reports on an ominous simian development:

Another spot of corrosion on the rusty armor of those who still exhalt our species as unique: chimpanzees make spears, and sharpen them, and use them to stab other primates. A big step closer to true humanity than those inoffensive little termite sticks we've known about since the sixties, or even the stone tools they've been fashioning for thousands of years.

2 comments:

Paul Kimball said...

Damn filthy apes!

Ken said...

Yeah but can chimpanzees understand the theory of general relativity, or quantum mechanics? Can they build rockets and shuttles and satellites that take photos of distant worlds?

Crows can fashion and use tools too, so the fact that chimps can make "spears" isn't saying much.