There is some really cool science in this BBC article (having to do with animal behavior and actual planning furture actions, something considered part of consciousness). But what struck me most was that if I were a captive chimp in a zoo...THIS just might well be what I would be like. And I know some local politicians who may well view me as being just like this chimp. From BBC News:
A male chimpanzee in a Swedish zoo planned hundreds of stone-throwing attacks on zoo visitors, according to researchers.
Keepers at Furuvik Zoo found that the chimp collected and stored stones that he would later use as missiles.
Further, the chimp learned to recognise how and when parts of his concrete enclosure could be pulled apart to fashion further projectiles.
The findings are reported in the journal Current Biology...
Let me just say that Current Biology is an excellent journal. It is one of the journals I am considering sending my next paper.
Dr Osvath embarked on the study after zoo staff discovered caches of stones in the section of the enclosure facing the public viewing area.
Since the initial discovery in 1997, hundreds of the caches have been removed to protect visitors, to whom the caching and the aggressive displays seem strictly related; in the off season, Santino neither hoards the projectiles nor hurls them.
There are many behaviors that once were considered unique to humans that have since been found in animals: tool use, language skills (though not necessarily full scale language with grammer and syntax), emotion...etc. Among those behaviors has been advanced planning where the brain can in essence imagine future events and, in essence, create a kind of metal stage performance with the individual acting out possible future actions. This has been considered the essence of "consciousness" and plays a central role in such fascinating books as Julian Jaynes' "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind." Jaynes, in this great book, actually tries to pinpoint the origin of consciousness as late as the transition between the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, a rather radical notion where non-conscious humans existed for centuries to be replaced by a new kind of human who had evolved full consciousness. The differences between the Iliad (where human actions are directed by deities) and the Odyssey (with the first description of an individual human making individual decisions) marks this critical change in Jaynes' view.
Now I never really thought Jaynes was right...but it was an intriguing theory. But this chimp seems to indicate that, as with so much previously "unique" human behavior, animals evolved the same capabilities we have. It seems to me that this chimp displays precisely the elements that Julian Jaynes uses to define "consciousness" and which Janyes thought only post-Bronze Age humans posessed.
Increasingly it seems humans are not unique. Our uniqueness lies in no single skill, but in the range of skills, perhaps none unique to use, we combine and the elaboration of those skills we have achieved.
But when it comes to us chimps in a zoo, I am with Santino, the chimp in the article, in throwing rocks at those irritating people staring at me.
And more seriously, the survival of the Great Apes has been an issue of concern to me for several years. The Gorillas, Chimps and Bonobos are our closest relatives and they each are on the verge of extinction, particularly the Mountain Gorillas. I have discussed this issue, with pleas to action, in past articles (e.g. here, and here). This kind of understanding of who we are and where we are in the range of animal evolution is one of several reasons why I have been working to preserve the remaining mountain Gorillas, Cross River Gorillas, lowland Gorillas, Bonobos and Chimps.