----- Original Message -----
Editorial from New Scientist----------------------------------------------------------We're not unique, just at one end of the spectrum
03 March 2007From New Scientist Print Edition.From issue 2593 of New Scientist magazine, 03 March 2007, page 5
THERE is an iconic scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey when a caveman takes upa bone and uses it as a weapon. It portrays a pivotal moment in humanevolution, and while the film is fiction, it has long been believed thatwe are the only animals that use weapons.
Not any more: chimpanzees have been found using spears to hunt bushbabies(see "Savannah chimps get armed and dangerous"). It is the latest in along list of supposedly unique human behaviours and abilities that havebeen discovered in other animals. Whales apparently have empathy, baboonsand chimps can demonstrate abstract thought, chimps and elephants canrecognise themselves, scrub jays have foresight and chimps a basic senseof morality, or justice.
What about language? Chimps and monkeys have an extensive "vocabulary" ofcalls, and whale song has a grammar with a hierarchical syntax. Theability to understand what another individual is thinking is welldeveloped in humans. We do it better than chimps, and chimps are betterthan monkeys. In these cases, our abilities are more sophisticated, butthey are not qualitatively different; we are at one end of a continuum.
Should we grieve for the loss of our uniqueness? Not at all. We should notexpect to be radically different from other animals, after all, we evolvedfrom a common ancestor and adapted to our environments. In the case ofhumans and chimps, that ancestor did not live all that long ago,evolutionarily speaking.
Removing our sense of uniqueness is to be welcomed. It might give us astronger sense of connectedness to the rest of life, boost conservationefforts and might even remove some of our "unique" intellectual arrogance.
_________________________________________________________________
Discover the new Windows Vista
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=windows+vista&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE
