Slashdot Mirror
Orangutans To Skype Between Zoos With iPads
MrSeb writes "For the last six months, orangutans — those great, hairy, orange apes that go 'ook' a lot — at Milwaukee Zoo have been playing games and watching videos on Apple's iPad, but now their keepers and the charity Orangutan Outreach want to go one step further and enable ape-to-ape video chat via Skype or FaceTime. 'The orangutans loved seeing videos of themselves — so there is a little vanity going on — and they like seeing videos of the orangutans who are in the other end of the enclosure,' Richard Zimmerman of Orangutan Outreach said. 'So if we incorporate cameras, they can watch each other.' And thus the idea of WiFi video chat between orangutans — and eventually between zoos — was born. It might seem like folly, but putting (ruggedized!) iPads into the hands of apes could really revolutionize our understanding of great ape behavior."
Yay :)
Delta-Mike November Bravo Tango
Let's put it in schools!
Sorry, I just had to. Still, the fact that we have software that is simple enough for apes to use probably means that we crossed a usability threshold at some point in the past few years. Apes have similar psychology and brain structures to humans (this should make sense) so we seem to have discovered more "natural" computer interfaces.
Palm trees and 8
Planet of the Apes!
My mother-in-law already uses Skype!
So it's just like human behavior. Spend some time looking at themselves, then doing a video chat with someone they could just go over and talk to. If anything, they're ahead of humans just because they don't take pictures at MySpace angles.
What? No teenage chimps taking self portraits from above as they eat a banana? What do the dirt old orangutans do with all their free time, then?
I must admit that the IPAD has been a boon to the low-functioning autistic community. If human beings without speech can use the IPAD to talk, why not apes?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
That's just the "Occupy Zoo!" crowd!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
"Putting iPads into the hands of apes could really revolutionize our understanding of great ape behavior."
Thought we did that in a lot of legislative bodies already...
Apple products found the ideal user market.
Let the flaming begin.
Banana phone!
I'd like to see what happens. Will one troupe make threat displays against the other troupe, or are they aware that there isn't any real territorial dispute because of the lack of pheromone triggers in the air?
Ooooh, and I wonder if I can get a grant to buy a few pressure-adapted sealed tablets with a floating antennas so I can get some squid-to-squid Skyping going.
Fun Tip! Next time anyone goes to a zoo or aquarium that has an octopus or especially a cuttlefish tank, take a small mirror. Hold it up so the cuttlefish can see itself and watch the fun!
YES, THIS IS APE.
I AM APE.
APE.
insert lameness-filter filler here...
Can't tell if serious...
or just monkeying around.
Please read the following part of the parent post out loud and tell me it isn't even a tiny bit ambiguous.
It is a relatively simple process to program apps and change the icons of apps to lexigrams geared towards apes, and I find the idea of giving apes like Kanzi, as well as other apes that have worked extensively with primatologists, exposure to such technology as worthy enough to hold sufficient merit.
Much like learning a foreign language, if we teach all these exposed and inclined apes the same 'words' it isn't a huge leap to believe that in a few generations it could manifest itself as something that is passed on within the confines of each society of apes from generation to generation.
Even across species Kanzi the Bonobo picked up some ASL from watching videos of Koko the Gorilla. With a little determination on our part, this could be the start of something much greater.
Humans came up the hard way, but that doesn't mean that apes have to go that route.
Just to clarify, paragraphs above include:
- proposal for development of software, GUI and an alphabet aimed at apes.
- describing equipping apes with 21st century entertainment technology as "worthy enough to hold sufficient merit".
- inventing an "ape Esperanto", teaching it to apes - hoping it will catch on as their Lingua Simia,
- the following line: "Kanzi the Bonobo picked up some ASL from watching videos of Koko the Gorilla".
- and finally, suggestion that apes SHOULD aim for some not clearly defined position (Evolutionary? Cultural? Civilizational? Consumerist? Political?...) which is currently being occupied by humans.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
"Thought we did that in a lot of legislative bodies already...
Pssst, i realize that was a pun, but don't make *that* kind of comparison in public! or things will start to get very strange around here.
If the public realizes that the Orangutans can catch onto technology much faster than the current legislature, then the Orangutans will be brought in to run the country much more efficiently, and for just bananas. (I tapped into their skype network, and I have personal knowledge that the Orangutans are already plotting against SOPA, and are intending to vote it down quickly to put the bill out of its misery once and for all.)
Once the Orangutans get their seat of power they will likely bring in the Gorillas for security enforcement details, and the next thing you know we have a live Planet Of The Apes situation going on! There will be pandemonium, screaming, people running crazy in the streets, you know, pretty much just the the usual. Nobody will even notice the shift of power until the legislature itself realizes the pay checks have stopped coming in, and they are then forced to give up their Learjets and resign from the DC area golf clubs. All this chaos just because some left wing zookeeper thought iPads were soooo cool.
From the Android OS API reference:
isUserAMonkey (): returns "true" if the user interface is currently being messed with by a monkey.
Does it mean that this function call does not exist on iOS ?
Can't tell if serious...
I'm serious enough that I'd vote for a 1 cent county tax to give more money to the local primate center down the street from my house (Yerkes NPRC) and vote against taxes aimed at giving money to the children/schools in Dekalb County. Too bad life and policy doesn't behave that way where I live, but I digress.
Allegedly Kanzi understands hundreds of lexigraphs, as well several thousand English words including complex sentences and embedded clauses. While some nay-sayers (often supported only by their religious dogma) still choose to believe that ape thought process and responses are merely tricks, Kanzi and other great apes over the last 40 years have demonstrated in numerous instances that they are thinking complex thoughts, expressing themselves cogently via the language "we've" taught them. In some cases it has been as simple as expressing the fact that they want to play with a particular toy, only to show regret through lexigraphs and signage at a later point in time that the play time they were told was going to happen was overlooked.
I don't profess to understand the minutiae that follows the progression of learning in non humans, but anyone who has ever even paid the slightest bit of attention to their own pets at home can relate to the fact animals aren't dumb. I've seen dogs that can identify over 200 independent items, fetch beer from the fridge, and many other simple tasks. Given the similar brain structure and opposable thumbs, if you put great apes into a safe, and more enriched learning environment than humanity had as we've evolved to this point, it is not entirely unreasonable to expect that adaption can occur.
Of course that would devolve into a whole new set of problems as we tried to get people in other countries to stop hunting apes for bush meat, secret remedies, sport and what have you. New debates would spring up regarding whether they qualified for the same rights and protections as humans, whether keeping apes in zoos is slavery, etc.
I'm not saying that I'm praying for the day we can communicate with horseshoe crabs, gila monsters and amoeba, but given our successes in the last 40 years in working with various apes I think we would be remiss if we didn't put more focus on trying to develop educational methods geared towards communication and structured learning.
P.S. - Let's end racism while we're at it. It's a win-win.
Look at the bright side. The next time someone acts like they are computer-hip because they use skype, you can bring up this news article.
Someone had to do it.