More news on this fascinating topic. BBC News : Wild gorillas seen to use tools
It takes some ingenuity to find the use of stones or branches as tools, that some feeble-minded humans may not even have.
Amazing that over 6 million years of evolution, men have only surpassed the stone age to create civilizations and use metal tools only about 6000 years ago.
Both gorillas and chimpanzees can learn the sign language and communicate with humans this way. In this thread, I already mentioned that some gorillas could recognise about 2000 words in English - more than most junior highschool students in Japan (or other countries where the national language isn't related to English). The brighest gorillas have had their IQ (i.e. intelligence for reasoning) assessed between 75 and 95 (see article) on a human scale. About 25% of human beings have an IQ below 90, and yet another 25% between 90 and 100 (see Wikipedia on IQ). If a gorilla can reach that level, their reasoning skills may be better or equal to half of the humans.
So even apes have the capacity to learn language and recognised human words while associating a meaning to each of them. What distinguish humans from apes is probably more the greater reasoning skills, greater language abilities, greater imagination and better memory, rather than having or not having any of these skills. And obviously, their physical appearance, but humans also vary a lot in this regard.
My hypothesis is that a well-fed ape born in an human environment can have reasoning skills surpassing those of less well-fed humans born in a harsh (war-torn and very poor) environment. Yet, humans' bigger brains give them a better memory. But humans are not the animals with the bigger brains, as I have heard many people mistakenly say. Whales, doplhins, elephants, camels, cows, horses, etc. all have bigger brains than humans. An elephant has a brain 4 times bigger than a human, hence the idiom "having a memory like an elephant" or "an elephant never forgets". Camels are also known for not forgetting a person who has done their harm, even 20 years later.
So what makes humans so intelligent, despite a smaller brain than many big mammals, and an IQ not so different from apes ? It may be due to a greater intellectual sensitivity (more wondering), or just the development of language combined to the rise of civilisations. The great mobility of humans and a slightly better IQ than apes may have made a lot of difference when it came to develop agriculture, cities an organised societies. Primitive stone-age people are not in fact so much more remarkable than apes in their use of tools (technology) or social organisation. The ability to speak, then the discovery of agriculture and writing, and subsequent specialisation of society probably played a major role in the present dominance of human beings. With the increased food supplies, better nutrition permitted to increase the memory and brain functions. Intelligence is more the connections made between neurons in the brain through learning than the size of the brain itself. The accumulation of ancestral knowledge through writing and education gave new generations of humans an intellectual kick-start by creating millions of neural connections in children that primitive humans didn't have, and here we are.
We could say that primitive humans with no writing system, no organised and specialised society, and no rich and varied nutrition, are closer to apes than to "modern", civilised and well-educated humans. Some may not like my saying this, but children and uneducated adults are also closer to apes than adults who have made a lot of neural connections. That's partly why children are so "wild".
BBC said:Gorillas have been seen for the first time using simple tools to perform tasks in the wild, researchers say.
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Wild chimps and orangutans also use tools, suggesting that the origins of tool use may predate the evolutionary split between apes and humans.
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"The most astonishing thing is that we have observed them using tools not for obtaining food, but for postural support."
It takes some ingenuity to find the use of stones or branches as tools, that some feeble-minded humans may not even have.
BBC said:Current scientific orthodoxy holds that the separation between the chimpanzee and human lines came about six million years ago.
Amazing that over 6 million years of evolution, men have only surpassed the stone age to create civilizations and use metal tools only about 6000 years ago.
BBC said:Research has shown that in captivity, apes can learn a range of skills including number and character recognition.
They can also learn tool use and transmit their acquired skills to other members of their social group.
Both gorillas and chimpanzees can learn the sign language and communicate with humans this way. In this thread, I already mentioned that some gorillas could recognise about 2000 words in English - more than most junior highschool students in Japan (or other countries where the national language isn't related to English). The brighest gorillas have had their IQ (i.e. intelligence for reasoning) assessed between 75 and 95 (see article) on a human scale. About 25% of human beings have an IQ below 90, and yet another 25% between 90 and 100 (see Wikipedia on IQ). If a gorilla can reach that level, their reasoning skills may be better or equal to half of the humans.
So even apes have the capacity to learn language and recognised human words while associating a meaning to each of them. What distinguish humans from apes is probably more the greater reasoning skills, greater language abilities, greater imagination and better memory, rather than having or not having any of these skills. And obviously, their physical appearance, but humans also vary a lot in this regard.
My hypothesis is that a well-fed ape born in an human environment can have reasoning skills surpassing those of less well-fed humans born in a harsh (war-torn and very poor) environment. Yet, humans' bigger brains give them a better memory. But humans are not the animals with the bigger brains, as I have heard many people mistakenly say. Whales, doplhins, elephants, camels, cows, horses, etc. all have bigger brains than humans. An elephant has a brain 4 times bigger than a human, hence the idiom "having a memory like an elephant" or "an elephant never forgets". Camels are also known for not forgetting a person who has done their harm, even 20 years later.
So what makes humans so intelligent, despite a smaller brain than many big mammals, and an IQ not so different from apes ? It may be due to a greater intellectual sensitivity (more wondering), or just the development of language combined to the rise of civilisations. The great mobility of humans and a slightly better IQ than apes may have made a lot of difference when it came to develop agriculture, cities an organised societies. Primitive stone-age people are not in fact so much more remarkable than apes in their use of tools (technology) or social organisation. The ability to speak, then the discovery of agriculture and writing, and subsequent specialisation of society probably played a major role in the present dominance of human beings. With the increased food supplies, better nutrition permitted to increase the memory and brain functions. Intelligence is more the connections made between neurons in the brain through learning than the size of the brain itself. The accumulation of ancestral knowledge through writing and education gave new generations of humans an intellectual kick-start by creating millions of neural connections in children that primitive humans didn't have, and here we are.
We could say that primitive humans with no writing system, no organised and specialised society, and no rich and varied nutrition, are closer to apes than to "modern", civilised and well-educated humans. Some may not like my saying this, but children and uneducated adults are also closer to apes than adults who have made a lot of neural connections. That's partly why children are so "wild".
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