One small world, folks.
One small world, one life each.
Why fuck it all up.
This is a direct copy of an article by Paul Raffaele for Smithsonian magazine, written in 2006.
To better understand bonobo intelligence, I traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, to meet Kanzi, a 26-year-old male bonobo reputedly able to converse with humans. When Kanzi was an infant, American psychologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh tried to teach his mother, Matata, to communicate using a keyboard labeled with geometric symbols. Matata never really got the hang of it, but Kanzi—who usually played in the background, seemingly oblivious, during his mother’s teaching sessions—picked up the language.
Savage-Rumbaugh and her colleagues kept adding symbols to Kanzi’s keyboard and laminated sheets of paper. First Kanzi used 6 symbols, then 18, finally 348. The symbols refer to familiar objects (yogurt, key, tummy, bowl), favored activities (chase, tickle), and even some concepts considered fairly abstract (now, bad).
Kanzi learned to combine these symbols in regular ways, or in what linguists call"proto-grammar."Once, Savage-Rumbaugh says, on an outing in a forest by the Georgia State University laboratory where he was raised, Kanzi touched the symbols for"marshmallow"and"fire."Given matches and marshmallows, Kanzi snapped twigs for a fire, lit them with the matches and toasted the marshmallows on a stick.
Savage-Rumbaugh claims that in addition to the symbols Kanzi uses, he knows the meaning of up to 3,000 spoken English words. She tests his comprehension in part by having someone in another room pronounce words that Kanzi hears through a set of headphones. Kanzi then points to the appropriate symbol on his keyboard. But Savage-Rumbaugh says Kanzi also understands words that aren’t a part of his keyboard vocabulary; she says he can respond appropriately to commands such as"put the soap in the water"or"carry the TV outdoors."
About a year ago, Kanzi and his sister, mother, nephew and four other bonobos moved into a $10 million, 18-room house and laboratory complex at the Great Ape Trust, North America’s largest great ape sanctuary, five miles from downtown Des Moines. The bonobo compound boasts a 13,000-square-foot lab, drinking fountains, outdoor playgrounds, rooms linked by hydraulic doors that the animals operate themselves by pushing buttons, and a kitchen where they can use a microwave oven and get snacks from a vending machine (pressing the symbols for desired foods).
Kanzi and the other bonobos spend evenings sprawled on the floor, snacking on M & M’s, blueberries, onions and celery, as they watch DVDs they select by pressing buttons on a computer screen. Their favorites star apes and other creatures friendly with humans such as Quest for Fire, Every Which Way But Loose, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan and Babe.
Through a glass panel, Savage-Rumbaugh asks Kanzi if it’s OK for me to enter his enclosure."The bonobos control who comes into their quarters,"she explains. Kanzi, still the alpha male of this group in his middle age, has the mien of an aging patriarch—he’s balding and paunchy with serious, deep-set eyes. Squealing apparent agreement, he pushes a button, and I walk inside. A wire barrier still separates us."Kanzi can cause you serious damage if he wants,"Savage-Rumbaugh adds.
Kanzi shows me his electronic lexigram touch pad, which is connected to a computer that displays—while a male voice speaks—the words he selects. But Kanzi’s finger slips off the keys."We're trying to solve this problem,"says Savage-Rumbaugh.
She and her colleagues have been testing the bonobos’ ability to express their thoughts vocally, rather than by pushing buttons. In one experiment she described to me, she placed Kanzi and Panbanisha, his sister, in separate rooms where they could hear but not see each other. Through lexigrams, Savage-Rumbaugh explained to Kanzi that he would be given yogurt. He was then asked to communicate this information to Panbanisha."Kanzi vocalized, then Panbanisha vocalized in return and selected ‘yogurt’ on the keyboard in front of her,"Savage-Rumbaugh tells me.
With these and other ape-language experiments, says Savage-Rumbaugh,"the mythology of human uniqueness is coming under challenge. If apes can learn language, which we once thought unique to humans, then it suggests that ability is not innate in just us."
But many linguists argue that these bonobos are simply very skilled at getting what they want, and that their abilities do not constitute language."I do not believe that there has ever been an example anywhere of a nonhuman expressing an opinion, or asking a question. Not ever,"says Geoffrey Pullum, a linguist at the University of California at Santa Cruz."It would be wonderful if animals could say things about the world, as opposed to just signaling a direct emotional state or need. But they just don’t.”
Whatever the dimension of Kanzi’s abilities, he and I did manage to communicate. I’d told Savage-Rumbaugh about some of my adventures, and she invited me to perform a Maori war dance. I beat my chest, slapped my thighs and hollered. The bonobos sat quiet and motionless for a few seconds, then all but Kanzi snapped into a frenzy, the noise deafening as they screamed, bared their teeth and pounded on the walls and floor of their enclosure. Still calm, Kanzi waved an arm at Savage-Rumbaugh, as if asking her to come closer, then let loose with a stream of squeaks and squeals."Kanzi says he knows you're not threatening them," Savage-Rumbaugh said to me," and he'd like you to do it again just for him, in a room out back, so the others won't get upset.”
I’m skeptical, but I follow the researcher through the complex, out of Kanzi's sight. I find him, all alone, standing behind protective bars. Seeing me, he slapped his chest and thighs, mimicking my war dance, as if inviting me to perform an encore. I obliged, of course, and Kanzi joined in with gusto.
Here's a video of Kanzi at the Great Ape Trust, in Iowa, where he lives.
Tomorrow, critics of Kanzi's "learning".
I just had a wrong number. For Elric.
What is the first thought that goes through your head?
Cos mine was Elric? Fuck! Will he have Stormbringer and call on the Dukes of Hell?
Not good on a Friday evening.
blooming outside my garage. Can you say unseasonably warm?
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Google themselves don't seem to have posted them yet, but for those of you who haven't noticed, this week has had various Sesame Street characters incorporated into the Google logo to celebrate the Street's 40th anniversary. You can see them here.
Don't worry, this doesn't replace another fascinating NaBloPoMoBoNoBos post. Stay tuned.
- Bonobos are humankind's closest relatives, along with chimpanzees, yet most people don't even know that bonobos exist.
- They live in only one country: Democratic Republic of Congo
- Bonobos were the last great ape species to be discovered and could be the first to go extinct.
- Bonobos walk bipedally, on two feet, more easily and for longer periods of time than the other apes.
- They are highly intelligent. Some bonobos in captivity have even learned to use human language.
- Bonobos live to 50 to 55 years of age.
How about a bullet list? Cos I am seriously not up to much, but it has been soo long since I posted anything of note.
- When Husband said to Daughter OK, what is it you want to talk about, then? I think the properties of light and its structure were the last things he expected to hear. Open University course on physics has now been paid for (by Daughter), so we might get more of those sort of questions in the future.
- This has has been struck by plague. Eldest Son had three weeks off work, so of course he got flu halfway through his holiday, passing it on first to Daughter and then to Me. Husband was in Rome, networking in the computer world, and seems to have missed it. Middle Son and Youngest both got it very lightly indeed.
- Daughter has had her first Celebrity Sighting since starting a new job in Hampstead = Russell Brand and Katy Perry. Though when she rushed out the door to look, he was staring at it, so she was red faced and embarrassed. Apparently Hampstead has a LOT of celebrities.
- And French men selling onions and garlic from bicycles, though not with a beret or a striped jumper. darn.
- Fireworks make Heidi WOOF!
I'm still doing my photos but I always forget to post them. So to the week that was whenever it was.
This is a little bottlebrush that grows in our front yard. Its a pretty little thing. The flowers just curl out of the buds over a day or two.
Lol. This is something that I think Kimba made for me about 12 years ago. I sent them to pottery classes over one lot of school holidays and now I have all these strange pottery creations about the house. This one sits in the kitchen. Always gives me a smile.
One day I woke up, turned my calender and found this. It really wasn't enough information to know what I was meant to be doing. I can't remember what it turned out to be.
Bacon is always good.
Betty having a nanna nap
The cook at the old peoples home I volunteer at makes the most beautiful cakes. She has two lucky sons. I think Lloyd would have liked to have grown up in that kitchen.
And this was yummo. It was a strawberry/kiwi fruit salsa that we had with salmon fillets.
I promised my sister a post on the bonobos, so here you go, Sissy.
The bonobo is a great ape (not to be confused with a great grape ape), found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo (wave to my foster child), with many interesting habits and features. They have pink lips, parted hair, and have lots and lots of sex. Oh, and they can be cannibalistic.
After this short lesson on one of man's closest relatives, why do you think there is also a brand of men's pants named Bonobos? Apparently they're all about making a better-fitting men's pant. If you're showing a bulge or sag, chances are you are wearing inferior pants. You probably don't part your hair or have the urge to eat human flesh, either, but that's a story for another day.
In the interest of not badmouthing a company I know nothing about, I should point out that the founders have an interest in the animal bonobo and therefore named their company the same. They raise funds to help out this endangered ape.
I still think there's some weird Freudian connection...
Tuesday afternoon I dropped my new best friend at the airport. She's moving back East. This morning I dropped Him off as he and 39 other guys will be bicycling from SF to Redondo over the next 5 days. I'm so proud of Him, but I really miss Him.
In His absence I am determined to do the following - work out, clean my apartment, clean His apartment (boys are dirty), do laundry. I have plans mostly all day Saturday. I'd really like to rest since I've been out doing "farewell new best friend" activities for the past 2 weeks. I'm pooped!
Today I just wanted to stay home and sleep. But I came into work, I'm getting stuff done and I'm eating pizza (a counter measure for my big workout at home tonight).
I hope everyone's doing well. Sorry my dating updates are boring.
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