According to the article, Primate Use of Language (http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/language.htm), many believe that human beings are the only capable primates on Earth to be able to use a language. Noam Chomsky who believed that humans were the sole possessors of the cognitive hardware, which makes language possible, theorized such findings. Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh strongly believes that primates can possess abilities for language and she began to disprove Chomsky's theory with the help of a chimpanzee, Kanzi. Kanzi observed while her mother was taught and acquired a vocabulary of 200 words. He was also able to construct sentences by combining words. One example was caught on video when he was told to give a dog a shot, Kanzi injected the needle into his stuffed toy dog. This proved that Kanzi had the ability to learn the language, but could not master it in such a way like humans.
This finding proves that humans are superior to other primates, but how long would that last? After reading this article about the abilities of Kanzi, it concerns me to think that if we were teaching primates the language, would evolution take place and natural selection work to their benefit? There have been multiple movies out in theaters about animals taking over the world, which seemed farfetched at the moment, but how long before it becomes reality?
Throughout the years, researchers have painstakingly tried to teach primates language and from what Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh have found they have the capability to learn it. If one chimpanzee learns a little bit of the language and has an offspring that inherits his parents use of language whiling furthering its education, will it become too much? If this happens the chimpanzee's Broca's area and Wernicke's area will soon develop and contain very similar characteristics to the human brain. The world would no long be human dominated, but shared by primates.
This may not be possible for many decades later, but should we continue to teach primates the language or continue human domination? Will movies such as, Planet of the Apes, become reality?
Leave a comment