Slashdot Mirror
Can Communications Be Learned From Chimps?
Pine UK writes "The Zoological Society of London are looking for volunteers who are willing to 'talk chimp' in everyday life. The ZSL will be studying the volunteers to see how talking chimp affects situations like workplace conflicts. According to BBC News, the volunteers are expected to show their emotions in a chimp like fashion. This can be done by baring their teeth and by using submissive body language such as lowering their heads and crouching. The ZSL will publish their findings later this year."
Animal behaviour experts at ZSL are asking volunteers to 'talk chimp' in everyday life and see how primate patter can resolve workplace conflicts
I can just imagine the natural progression of such an experiment:
2004: "Oooo oooo ooohhh AAHH AAHH ooo oo AAHHH AHHHH ooo ooooo..."
2005: "We own Linux."
Trolling is a art,
I really hope this is not a government sponsored study. I mean, even if researches conclude that chimp-like movements, facial expressions, and noises help solve workplace and home conflicts, how many people are really going to start walking around going "abuga luuga luuga" and whatnot?
Really, I'm curious.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
That humans have finally been trained to communicate after years of work!
No.
If by "commnuication" you mean throwing your own poo to show disgust, then I would say "yes!".
When the chimp warns about WMD, there is a strong chance of war
Of COURSE we can learn communications from chimps. Didn't you see Planet of the Apes? Wait a minute... Statue of Liberty... That was OUR planet! And you blew it up! DAMN YOU!!! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!!
Using feces throwing as conflict resolution is quite effective at leading to self-employment.
oo OO OOOO oo!
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different. -- Earl of Chesterfield
Dung throwing is chimp for "I respect your leadership"
This gives a whole new meaning to "Going Ape-Shit" in the work place.
Legitimizing Ape-Shit behavior between team managers definately does not provide a positive answer to the question: "Is this good for the Company?".
If acting like a monkey can take away a person's first ammendment right's in the name of terrorism, It must have something right.
"see how talking chimp affects situations like workplace conflicts"
I'm no expert in Zoology, but I'm assuming you'll have the shit beat out of you by the end of the day. It would be about as bad as saying "someone has the case of the Mondays" on a construciton site.
Burn Hollywood Burn
The Zoological Society of London are looking for volunteers who are willing to 'talk chimp' in everyday life.
...?
This is too rich: parody that writes itself.
Are we sure that April 7 isn't All Fool's Day
-kgj
-kgj
Animal behaviour experts at ZSL are asking volunteers to 'talk chimp' in everyday life...
You can't be on the Internet for more than five minutes without seeing this.
OMG! Lik can u beleev teh chimps r talkin now? ROFLOLOKOL!!1!1!
The chimps is here, and they is us.
This is a special excite
This
Would you groom your colleagues to diffuse tensions at work?
Well if your job has been outsourced to india, probably not.
News, the volunteers are expected to show their emotions in a chimp like fashion. This can be done by baring their teeth and by using submissive body language such as lowering their heads and crouching
And this is different from how human body language is used how?
-Colin
Why don't they just put a camera in SCO's offices?
The trolls here have been communicating on the level of lower primates for years.
That's fine, as long as I don't have to communicate in bonobo!
Ha! Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week.
Bonobos are the only primate known to use casual sex as a greeting
Is this Bonobos we're talking about? (The chimps that use sex for pretty much every social interaction)
meh
Bagee == Good; Bagger == Bad
No. You see, we are human beings. We have developed written and spoken language, art, music, drama and culture which allows us to communicate. Rather well, in fact.
I really don't think there is a need for "throw shit at each other" as a way to communicate.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
Of course... give an infinite number of chimps an infinite amount of time and they will produce all the knowledge in the known universe.
Give a finite number of chimps a finite amount of time and they will produce slashdot comments.
Give a single chimp a broken typewriter and a banana and he will post dupes as CowboyNeal.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
Ask #linux on efnet. The people there are master teabaggers.
Humans already have a range of expected emotional responses that are ingrained into us by culture.
Honestly, if a co-worker of mine bared his teeth and cringed or tried to wave his arms about, draw himself up tall, and shriek, I'd be convinced that he was stark, raving insane. While the researchers are trying to make a point about showing off your emotions better, I think they miss the need in human society to NOT show your emotions at times.
Heck, even confrontational chimps will hide their nervousness until after a stand-off.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
You may become a big leader.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
... if I can retain the copyright on the Shakespeare plays I produce whilst participating.
"Old man yells at systemd"
I just can't wait to be walking down the street and seeing someone swinging from a lamp post. Then I'll know the world is crazy.
A thousand chimps typing on a thousand typewriters for a thousand years can write some pretty fine Perl scripts.
I wonder how they would respond to this, "Have you gone bananas?"
Does anyone else see an influx of people locked up in the nice white rooms following this study? :)
http://www.webdesignlab.co.uk/niksthings/masking.h tml
$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
Our president and most of the republicans in political offices across this land are proof of that. So the REAL question is... is learning communication from chimps a good thing? ;P
Un-news
talk like this chimp? I don't think so.
Suck a boot, nutsack.
...how this would be any different from my current communications with my co-workers and family members...?
The morphed orangutan librarian of Unseen University on Discworld is pretty expressive with variations of "ook". Many people in the novels understand him.
chiefly British past and past participle of LEARN
As a recomendation - Don't use this tense in American Schools! You will loose points!
I am in a program with lots of people who speak English as a second langauge. They learned English from British teachers. Well, to make a long story short, my classmate wrote a paper using this tense and lost a shit load of points. I recomended that she take it up with the professor - she didn't think it was wise. She was right not to. I challenged the prof about something and she, let's say, didn't like it. FYI, I was sweet as honey too!
Developers!!! /damn lameness filter!
Developers!!!
Developers!!!
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
This is already being done in the marketplace today, even at the highest levels
I asked for a refund - and got my monkey back.
Orangutans.
Ooooooook!
(it's Pratchett people)
...to have everyone talk like dolphins ended in abject failure. And the raw Mackerel was disgusting.
volunteers who are willing to 'talk chimp' in everyday life.
I do, but they are called "co-workers" where I do.
Linux O Muerte!
poo flinging behavior to show disgust (literal or figurative)... check
:-)
parasite grooming (a.k.a. the search for salty snacks)... check
flying off the handle for no readily apparent reason and causing others around you to follow same panicky behavior... check
Just like looking into the mirror!
get YOUR stinking HANDS off ME you damn DIRTY APES!!!
After downloading the survey and laughing a bit more, I noticed they only mention how to send it back to them by snail mail - no online file upload or even email address to collect them. Which implies to me that this is either a joke or something they expect at most a few hundred people to reply to [otherwise they'd have found a simpler and more effective response system].
Stuff.
Grooming:
My mother is a manicurist. When seeing her clients, she doesn't just do nails. She plays soothing music, fixes a cup of tea, and engages in witty banter with them. Her clients don't just come for the nail job, they come for the atmosphere and the bonding experience.
Distress:
I'm reminded of Sir Gawain from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Brother Maynard thought he was mispronouncing the name of Castle AAaaargghhh... but in all reality, he was crying in shock at sight of the Great Black Beast.
Greeting:
Regarding the open fist, I have three words: "What up, nigga?"
"Would you rather be right, or happy?"
Ook! is a programming language for orangutans. It workers can be building skills in conversation!
I think some of my coworkers have already agreed to participate.
Tech News, Reviews and Tutorials
is middle managment?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
really ...
As proposed in the article, this seems extremely lame. However, I've long thought there would be a better way to do it. Humans age 0 to about 4 show a remarkable ability to pick up any languauge. I suggest we should take some yound children (it's not like there isn't a large surplus of them) and raise them with chimps and even dolphins, as well as give them enough human contact that they also pick up our language. Then in a short time we would have people (small people, but still people) who do understand communication of these other species, rather than have people who just act like apes (we have enough of those already).
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Accordint to the structuralist theory of language and society, you cannot copy the former without copying the latter. This means that if this experiment is supposed to have any value, all the participants should also create a martriarchal polyamorous sexual commune. Which reminds me: do they still need volunteers?
You mean like picking bugs out of each other's hair to show support?
Or having sex with all the females in the office in front of the men to show your power?
Or flinging sh*t at people who say stupid things in meetings?
The funny thing is, it'd still be better than the way things work at my office.
Watch the monkey! (1.7 MB QuickTime movie)
Mod parent up +1 sad but true!
My company has been experimenting with chimps in the HR department for years. Whenever there is a conflict at work, the parties can go complain and have their dispute resolved through the bonding experience of ducking dollops of hurled dung together.
There was quite an extensive study on a high profile figure in US Politics, and the results can be viewed here
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
dragon poker. You just hit a punch of keys, and sit back while your collegue's figure out how great it is, and explain it for you.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I'd have to say yes.
very little at my office.
In meetings with the top bosses, we alread follow the "..using submissive body language such as lowering their heads..." in meetings so we won't get fired..
Its possible that chimp langauges might include phonetic variations that will be impossible for adult humans to hear. For example, some human languages (Navaho is one IIRC) involve phonemes that must be learned in infancy - if one doesn't hear these sounds while the brain is plastic, one never can learn these sounds. Once a baby is older than 18 months, they lose the ability to hear the differences in phonemes. The same could be true with chimps.
We adults may not even be hearing the differences in all the sounds that chimps can make (and mean). And I doubt anyone is going to let a human infant be raised by chimps to properly learn their language.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
They should just study the behaviour of frat boys. Drunken ones to be specific. ;)
Sig? No thanks, I don't smoke.
Pay close attention to chimp talk Pepperdine students and staff!
Learn it.
Live it.
You won't survive at Pepperdine U without knowing how to talk with a chimp!
Coming Soon to Pepperdine Univ: Kenneth Starr and the De-evolution.
Stock up on your bananas, you sorry shits!
Cue the poo-flinging jokes in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... splat!
-Colin
(/me) urinates into own mouth. Just because.
The Democratic Party: We've been pussies since 1968!
Lesson #1
Banana
banana
and now
Lesson #1
Banana
banana
and now
Banana
banana
Any questions?
Now, there is base primate behaviour for ya, babe!
And nuthin' but.
Let's save a few thousand lives, and just
Impeach the Mother Fucker, ASAP.
A monkey's uncle.
I for one welcome our damn, dirty, feces throwing overlords!
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
Do you want to be the one to tell a toddler that they have to try to talk to animals instead of being with his/her father, mother, or family? It may seem like a good idea and might even be effective, but it strikes me that there is something very wrong with attempting to use children as protocol droids. This wouldn't be very safe for toddlers on either a physical or psychological level. Apes aren't Disney characters.
"I would give my right hand to be ambidextrous."
"So for four hours a day for one year, Mr. Smith, we need you to fling feces at things that annoy you. Oh, and if any of the monkeys try to get at your food, bite them or pee on them."
May we never see th
Can communication be learned from chinks?
Every time I sit in on management team meeting it's quite an education.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
s.ballmer
Just think if we did this for the selection of President of the United States. We could have Arnold the bodybuilder fighting John Kerry the ex-SEAL.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Didn't we prove someone could learn communication from chimps and then promptly elect them president? The surprising thing is that it seems like Bush got some of the looks in addition to the mannerisms.
{ducks tomatoes}
First Falcon-1 to orbit, then Falcon-9. Then I can die a happy man.
This experiment is hardly groundbreaking. My whole family already communicates like chimpanzees!
On vit, on code et puis on meurt.
Let's see, we have two leading theories of how we got here, both of which assume we are better developed in most areas of mental activity than animals such as chimps.
So, either way, it seems rather silly.
If we really think this is a good idea, I vote we cut to the chase, and learn to communicate like, say, ticks. You don't mind if I bite you and squeeze ny head in under your epidermis, do you? That's how I communicate, "Hey! I'm surviving! And you have Lyme's disease now!"
Shouldn't be that hard... We have one serving as president.
It's been a few years since I've read it, but I'd recommend the book Great Apes by Will Self. It's a world-turned-on-end story, in which the protagonist wakes up one morning to discover that apes are now (and have always been) the dominant species in the world. And indeed, he is himself an ape, although he continues to think of himself as human, which makes for some interesting twists on perception of social norms (the main forms of communication involve gestures, social hierarchy rules of play and sexuality have more of a basis in ape behavior, etc.)
While I had a few problems with some of the elements in the book, it was quite an interesting read, and ties in nicely with this discussion.
The military has formal customs and courtesies that must be followed, and many of them take ritual form. Saluting, formal reporting, seating and other positional preferences, all are physical measures of the military structure. Within the formal structure are undercurrents of respect and deference. It is interesting to see an older enlisted troop call a new officer "sir", yet receive nearly complete deference from the officer because it is clear who has greater experience and knowledge.
Not to imply that military members act like chimps (heh), but that they follow and are measured by a set of social rules much like the chimp societies the zoologists are so interested in. There is usually less baring of teeth though.
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But recently researchers started listening to those high pitched "simple squeaks" that Bonobos have. They discovered two things:
- Bonobos do quite a bit of modulation of those "squeaks"- most of which we can't hear. and
- Bonobos process sound much more quickly than humans can.
It doesn't mean humans can't speak Bonobish at all- some researchers studying wild bonobos have learned enough to ask for simple things like "could you bring me some fruit?" [10 minutes later, a wild Bonobo brings back a fruit- not always the original Bonobo either. Not sure how many humans would do that for a stranger in town.] And other researchers with captive Bonobos are seeing how much wild Bonobish the Bonobos remember from their childhood. But most captives were captured fairly young and would have forgotten most of it after a couple of decades.So while raising human children with Bonobos could be interesting, you'd want to make sure the Bonobos actually knew Bonobish. And if the Bonobos did know Bonobish, the human child would be extremely slow at processing it or speaking it. It might be better to teach both of them ASL or other language both could use.
On the flip side some Bonobos understand spoken English: 2000 words are enough to watch our movies, for example. By watch I don't just mean "be entertained by flashing colors": they can follow the plot lines and identify with the movie characters. (Their understood English vocabulary can be larger than that lexigram / symbol language chimps and Bonobos use to talk back.) Researchers have already been able to ask them about their mythologies *and* get an answer (standard "Giant Mother Bonobo created everything in the great forest years ago" answer. I was hoping they'd have something a bit more creative, not just a variation of what most other humans say.)
This is nothing new, George Bush has been doing it for years... and the effects of such behaviour are evident.
That's really amazing. I don't suppose anyone has a video copy of the "Living Proof" documentary online anywhere we could get at it?
May we never see th
>This can be done by baring their teeth and by using
> submissive body language such as lowering their
> heads and crouching.
I've done this exact same thing over a fresh box of sweet rolls on Doughnut Day. I wonder if chimps would do the same...hmmm
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
So what you're trying to say is that God doesn't love chimps, huh?
A God who knows if a single sparrow falls, but somehow he's got it in for the big apes, eh?
Is that what you're saying? Cause that's what it sounds like you're saying.
Just wait. Some day we're gonna baptize one of those hairy suckers. And you'll hear a howl from the religious community loud enough to drown out the words 'same sex marriage.' And we'll teach 'em the Nicean creed in sign language and all that fancy religious stuff.
This sounds fascinating. Do you have any links to good Bonobo research/articles?
If a chimp can run the States, why can't Americans learn from chimps?
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Well, we already have a framework for such communication in the form of the Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite.
Perhaps we need to revise it to allow poo flinging, though.
It's not funny, no, not at all.
TK
People already DO "talk chimp" - and the other primate languages.
It's just that in some cases we're not that blatant about it and in others our dialect has diverged.
For instance: "Pout Face" (squeeze the lips together and extend them toward the reciever) is a nearly universal primate "I'm friendly toward you" getsture. In humans it has apparently evolved into the kiss (at least in western societies). So you're likely to be misunderstood if you address this gesture to another human other than your lover. Most other primates will accept it from a human and react as if it had been issued by a member of their own species - by notching their behavior away from fear toward relaxation and cooperation.
Back in the '60s my "psych of language acquisition" course teacher told a story of another researcher in the field who was a rotten driver but never got a ticket. When the cop pulled him over he'd go into the "submissive posture of the hamadryas baboon". He demonstrated it - round shoulders, neck forward looking up, facial expression I can't really describe. TOTALLY pittiful. This said to the cop what it does to baboons: "I'm totally beaten. You're the winner. Please stop beating me." The cops would react just as a baboon would - and let the guy go.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
omg that would be horrible
What? Don't tell me none of you run up and down the rows of cubicles screaming and slamming tree branches on the carpet!
Seeing the article on /., I had the uneasy feeling that this was a late April Fools prank. Unfortunately, reading the article didn't dispell that feeling.
Would someone really do this?
The ZSL will be studying the volunteers to see how talking chimp affects situations like workplace conflicts. According to BBC News, the volunteers are expected to show their emotions in a chimp like fashion.
Let me get this straight... they're designing the experiment to suit they conclusions they wish to draw?
In science, we call this experimenter bias.
...but the more ethical Slashdotters just won't stoop to making a monkey of themselves.
They should've come to /., I'm sure they would've found hundreds if not thousands of ready volunteers.
New resume entries:
Languages: +whitespace +chimp
Must-not-watch TV!
So the post 2 levels up should be "weakly-matriarchal, bisexual polyamorous sexual commune" for Bonobos. Although their sex isn't quite what humans might like- most of it is short 15 second engagements that substitute for apologies or arguments. If two humans grabbed the last eggo waffle, we'd talk back and forth, perhaps apologize or argue for a while and one would eventually take it. If two Bonobos grabbed the last eggo waffle, one would give sex to the other for a few seconds and then take it.
(As for regular chimps: they'd be more "strongly-patriarchal, mostly heterosexual, lots of angry young chimps not getting any, fight clubs.")
[S]ome human languages (Navaho is one IIRC) involve phonemes that must be learned in infancy - if one doesn't hear these sounds while the brain is plastic, one never can learn these sounds.
Actually, all human languages use some phonemes that don't have precise correspondents in other languages. basically, if your language doesn't use a particular phoneme, you cease (after about the age of three or four months) to "gear" it -- instead you categorize it as the phoneme in your language it is "closest" too. Indeed, studies show that the brain does less work when heard sounds are closest to the learned stereotype, and more work for ambiguous sounds that "straddle" two or more known phonemes. So bigger "gaps" between "adjacent" phonemes are preferred.
This makes all kinds of sense by the way: diff'rint pee-pulp sow-nd diff-or-int, and their voices differ based on mood, emotion, wakefulness. By having broad categories for phonemes (and by using contextual clues, which is outside the scope of this discussion), you're able to understand a tired, gum-chewing tourist who doesn't share your dialect. Having to understand indistinct and potentially ambiguous utterances in your language happens much more often than attempting to learn a wholly foreign language. The human brain is adapted to "latch onto" the language it hears in infancy, and specialize in that -- and most times -- in the six million years of human evolution --, that's been the best utilization of resources.
But while adults might not be able to distinguish non-native phonemes sounds by ear, they can by oscilloscope.
The more parsimonious conclusion is that chimps don't have language -- at least not like humans do.
Do they have vocalizations? Sure. Can those vocalizations mean things? Sure -- it's not news that various species of monkeys use different vocalizations to warn of different predators. And it's known that, like human babies differentiating phonemes, juvenile monkeys must learn the meanings of those vocalizations. We even have recent evidence that some birds can understand those monkey vocalizations -- and ignore those warning of predators that don't threaten the birds.
But language is not just the vocalization of unconnected nouns: "eagle!" or "leopard!"; language, as we understand it in humans, allows far more nuanced and precise explanation than anything we se in animals. At the most mundane level, as Steven Pinker and Paul Bloom point out "It makes a big difference whether a far-off region is reached by taking the trail that is in front of the large tree or the trail that the large tree is in front of." At a more sublime level, a series of unconnected nouns hasn't the power that Dante Alighieri's verse has, to make alive again in our minds his love Beatrice.
Don't misunderstand me: I agree that chimps have a social life -- a complex social life, and I accept the more controversial opinion that they have a culture, and that they transmit that culture.
But language is something else, a special "trick", and it goes beyond, and indeed doesn't require vocalization at all -- as a deaf person or for that matter, any post written on Slashdot will demonstrate.
If we aren't "hearing" language from chimps -- and we've been hoping and listening for years -- it's most likely because chimps don't have language -- at least in the sense we mean language when we describe what any normal human three-year old can do.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Do you have any references you can give for these claims? Some people are pre-disposed to make wild claims about the intelligence of animals, and others are pre-disposed to believe them, but they often get inflated in the telling. I would expect that if there was a scientifically confirmed mythology being transmitted by other primates, I would have heard about it; that would be amazing news, and the fact that I hear about it from a Slashdot comment makes it highly suspect.
For instance, see this on Koko the Gorilla, among others. I find this article fairly compelling and don't see much response to it, nor do I think there can be much response to it. Is your post able to be backed up with science, or is it third-generation hear-say and wishful thinking?
Mind you, I'm open to the idea, just being properly skeptical about what are really very strong claims from a dubious source.
mitch
The Chimpanzees are in a dither over one of the latest /. post concerning wether or not humans can communicate with even the least of their kind. It seems that NONE of the Chimpanzee Hierarchy were approached and asked to approve the submission to the higher eschelon of geekdom. Nor were they even given a heads up about the aformentioned intentions of the author.
Master Chimp chimes in with this quote. "I am astonished with the Human Intellect who attributes Human like behavior to us. We are "Animals for Gods Sake". Stop trying to make us Preschool graduates. We just can't handle the pressure." Master Chimp also noted that if the Humans had a preschool level of intellect they would just look around and realize that the planet they live on and the environment they live in could not possibly be the result of Chance. Master Chimp does require that this disclaimer be included with his quote. Disclaimer: "But then I am just a Chimp."
stupid dropdown menu <I>?</I>
Take a baby, Give it to some apes, and let them raise it, then teach it english later, and have it tell us wtf they are saying
Finally, they can 'legally' go female butt sniffing, or WORSE!!!
Physical work was offshored to China, Mental work to India, and now social skilled-work is outsourced to Chimps! We're Fscked!
Table-ized A.I.
Then in a short time we would have people (small people, but still people) who do understand communication of these other species
There's this chap in australia who talks gator...
Apparently they are always saying things like "Oh, I'm grumpy now!", or "Cricky!" (whatever that means).
You can't take the sky from me...
I don't think I would volunteer to do this for free. But, if I could get paid to fling feces at people I would be all over this!
Do you have to throw your own poop?
--- We need more Ron Paul!
Finally a (legal) use for niggers.
surely it can only benefit anyone else who uses it.
I can believe it helps solve problems. Ask anyone; if you act crazy enough, you'll freak out whoever was trying to take you on enough to make them leave you alone.
Act nuts or stand your ground. Both are viable options.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
... to get 25 volunteers to act like rational, intelligent human beings for a month. ... but perhaps that would be too difficult ... possibly oxymoronic.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Bagger the one who puts his nuts in someone's mouth? And isn't the Bagee the one who takes someone's nuts in his mouth? I think the Bagger is the one you want to be!
Yea, about those TPS reports.... We're putting the coversheet on all the out-going reports now...
Yea, about the poo you just threw at me...
From the original post:
...how?
"...volunteers are expected to show their emotions in a chimp like fashion. This can be done by baring their teeth and by using submissive body language such as lowering their heads and crouching. The ZSL will publish their findings later this year."
And this would differ from the average Slashdotter's daily experience
Maybe they could throw in "get paid in peanuts."
My
Limekiller
Come to where I work. We're doing that all the time!
They're really looking for "wierdos".
Chimp and Ape communication methods are pretty much all that is used there. We have hairless Chimps, and hairy Chimps. Since the telephone is used, chest-beating is out as a method of intimidation, so all kinds of cussing and f-words are in abundance. The boss knows this goes on, but he has way more fur all over than the rest of us, so he _knows_ our Chimp heritage rules!
The study will conclude that there is a strong, even universal, correlation between "talking chimp" in the workplace and unemployment. In day-to-day personal interactions, there is an equally universal correlation between "talking chimp" and severe beatings.
Ignorance is the root of all evil.
How is this different from the current human environment?
When I look at people, I see chimps in clothes.
Anybody remember the "Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp" Saturday morning kids' show back in the '70's? They had these chimps dressed up in suits and fedoras and dresses sitting at tables, drinking coffee, driving little cars and motorboats, and lip-synching dialog. Totally hilarious. The chimps ALWAYS looked like they knew exactly what they were doing.
That's what you all look like to me.
Have a nice day, primates.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
this is totally retarded
No, no, no!
Everytime I cross the pond I have to get fingerprinted? Guess I'd better stop wearing women's clothing. Bloody 'ell, those damn Yanks - they're almost as bad as the Frogs. Well, I best be catching me a lorry so I can have tea with me mum, the old bag. Hope I don't break me arm cause I'd hate to have to wait 18 hours in searing pain in the emergency loo. 4 quid for a gallon of petrol? Well, at least it isn't 4 pound 50 like last year. Better fill up the boot before it costs me an extra squid. God, her Maj is a right old mingen - and less said about that tosser Charles the better. Bob's your uncle and all that. Cheerio.
'course, I don't know what metrics they used. Look through old copies of National Geographic at your local thrift shop for details.
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
What, there's more to them than that?
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
There has got to be some way to work in a link to Talk Like A Pirate Day web site. Hmmmm.... Ooh ooh! Ahh ahh! Arrrgh!
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
Those who forget the past are doomed
I'll ask my boss and see if is interested in this, he already talk chimp on a daily basis as it is
One was about bonobos and movies: a few days after they'd watched "Field of Dreams", one of the bonobos started collecting bricks from around the yard. When asked why, he replied (paraphrased from Lexigraphs) "Let's build another housing building, because more chimps will come."
Given the audience, the lecturer didn't have any motive to exaggerate- it was BOF casual. The collection of anecdotes isn't itself publishable except for fun: they need to do more studies. (all of what was spoken about was from very recent years-long after the 1995 article you mentioned- and was about Bonobos not regular chimps)
An obvious one they hope to do is take a captive who still speaks wild /bonobish and have it attempt to talk to wild bonobos. If we can ask it to translate, and the wild bonobos react, now that would be useful and groundbreaking. As to the mythology, the captive bonobos might have been tainted somehow by hearing it from humans.
For me, I buy into the open secret of Zoology and cladistics: by most standards and naming rights it should be homo troglodytes, homo paniscus, and good ol' homo sap. And I see no reason to think that the other homoninis don't have at least a little language ability.
omg that would be horrible
I think you misspelled "cool".
i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
...Steve Ballmer has been doing this for ages...
That most people already talked chimp? *note to self get ears checked*
Actually, "American English" is closer to the pre-1776 english than what they speak in the UK
Ooh, an informed poster?
rampant empire building in the 15th and 16th centuries,
Oh. Darn.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
When will they begin with the same communication-experiments based on bonobo's? ;-)
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
"The ZSL will be studying the volunteers to see how talking chimp affects situations like workplace conflicts"
Bonobos in the workplace. Gives a new meaning to getting shafted by the boss.
I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
No, language is no special "trick", unless you're trying to isolate humans as "devine". Language is a progression from simple to complex, *just like everything else* animals do.
By way, this "trick" of sign language has been learned by every species of great ape. Not so unique to us, eh?
Let us all keep in mind that the final argument a chimp has is to *beat the living hell* out of its opponent. Take that, PHB.
but being an English major I feel inclined (an obsessive compulsion, actuallt) to point out that it is more correct to say that "learned" is the American version of the British "learnt", rather than treating the British version as a variation (ENGLish comes from ENGLand, after all...).
And no, I'm not English...