Re: Fwd: Thinking Like a Chimp

From: Mark Mills (mmills@htcomp.net)
Date: Thu Nov 16 2000 - 15:42:10 GMT

  • Next message: Gatherer, D. (Derek): "RE: Fwd: Thinking Like a Chimp" 

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Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 09:42:10 -0600
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Mark Mills <mmills@htcomp.net>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Thinking Like a Chimp
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    Wade,

    Interesting stuff.

    At 09:26 AM 11/16/00 -0500, you wrote:

    >After
    >all, he concludes, "In every critical juncture, after the chimp has
    >learned something and we gave him the option to tell us, 'are you really
    >reasoning about seeing or are you using some surface behavior cue?', at
    >every case, they have consistently said, 'What are you talking about? We
    >are using what is there. We're using what is in the world.'"

    I wonder what would happen if you asked a 3 year old human the same
    question. Considering conversations with my 3 year old grandson, I think
    he would tell me the same thing. I doubt I could distinguish 'reasoning
    about seeing' for him.

    Perhaps human and chimp neurology is the same, but the longer human
    development period extends abilities. Cast in memetic terms, perhaps the
    genetic difference (between chimp and human neural systems) is only a
    change in the length of development. The additional cognitive abilities
    are additional neural memes stuffed into the brain.

    Mark

    http://www.htcomp.net/markmills

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