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- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!concert!borg.cs.unc.edu!news_server!martinc
- From: martinc@grover.cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin)
- Newsgroups: soc.singles
- Subject: Re: Meeting women in clubs
- Date: 23 Jan 93 12:53:49
- Organization: UNC Department of Computer Science
- Lines: 46
- Distribution: usa
- Message-ID: <MARTINC.93Jan23125349@grover.cs.unc.edu>
- References: <JMD.93Jan11141956@lion.bear.com> <1j1109INNm9a@mirror.digex.com>
- <JMD.93Jan13115529@lion.bear.com> <1jjlbtINN37a@mirror.digex.com>
- <JMD.93Jan20141137@lion.bear.com>
- <MARTINC.93Jan21095216@grover.cs.unc.edu>
- <ewright.727735876@convex.convex.com>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: grover.cs.unc.edu
- In-reply-to: ewright@convex.com's message of Fri, 22 Jan 1993 20:51:16 GMT
-
- In article <ewright.727735876@convex.convex.com> ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright) writes:
-
- In <MARTINC.93Jan21095216@grover.cs.unc.edu> martinc@grover.cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin) writes:
-
- >But every time someone proposes a distinction that is particularly "human" --
- >language use, tool making, "war", sexual behavior -- there is a primate that has
- >the same behavior, or the clear capability.
-
- Oh? Which primates create representational art?
-
- Thhat's an interesting question. I imagine you know about the various
- chimps etc who paint: at least some of them seem to repeat the same
- color and symbol for similar things. Is that "representational"? Is it
- even "Art"? I think we get tied up in definitinos that presume hte
- conclusion we want to believe.
-
- Which possess a substantial body of knowledge, or lore, passed down
- from one generation to the next?
-
- Ed, even *cats* do. Cats have the instincts, but they don't become
- efficient hunters unless they're raised by mama cats who are themselves
- efficient hunters.
-
- Which employ the scientific method?
-
- I don't know of any animals who publish referreed journal papers, or who
- (he said cynically) write grant proposals. But I've watched films of
- chimps solving problems by attempting a solution, apparently thinking
- about why it didn't work, and making a new attempt modifying the
- original approach.
-
- Just because we share some behaviors with apes does not mean mankind
- is just a (not very capable) ape. Nor does it mean we must artificially
- "ape" their behaviors to be more human.
-
- No, and I didn't after all say that our behaviors are 100 percent
- identical. But it appears to me that our behaviors lie in a clear
- *continuum* with the behaviors of the other primates; I suspect the
- continuum would be even clearer if we had access to more behavioral
- information on proto-hominids.
- --
- Charles R. Martin/(Charlie)/martinc@cs.unc.edu
- Dept. of Computer Science/CB #3175 UNC-CH/Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175
- 3611 University Dr #13M/Durham, NC 27707/(919) 419 1754
- "Oh God, please help me be civil in tongue, pure in thought, and able
- to resist the temptation to laugh uncontrollably. Amen." -- Rob T
-