>> ^berticus:

also this is a clip of kanzi (description kinda implies it might be panbanisha)


Thanks for pointing that out. I took this part of the article because it kinda explains the process behind this totally unimpressive gimmick.

also this is a clip of kanzi (description kinda implies it might be panbanisha)

It gets much more interesting than this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washoe_(chimpanzee)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanzi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot)

Comparative cognition is pretty cool.

Kanzi

Want

Cigarettes

Kanzi is more amazing than you might think just from seeing these videos. I recently had a series of lectures on animal cognition, and Kanzi is the star when it comes to language. Alex the parrot was also pretty special, but has sadly died. Apparently his successor, Einstein, has already surpassed him.

>> ^KamikazeCricket:
nobody is perfect. Kanzi did a great job! Chimpanzees love to do exercises like this. It's a game to them and it really helps develop their brains, much like teaching a baby how to stack blocks or whatever.

I'm a little confused about the welder's mask though. What is that for?


The mask is so he responds purely to vocal commands and not body language, reading lips, etc.

nobody is perfect. Kanzi did a great job! Chimpanzees love to do exercises like this. It's a game to them and it really helps develop their brains, much like teaching a baby how to stack blocks or whatever.


I'm a little confused about the welder's mask though. What is that for?

More of Kanzi here...

http://www.videosift.com/video/Chimpanzee-understands-spoken-English

>> ^dag:
I feel bad for Kanzi having to do all of these ridiculous things like some kind of trained monkey.

I don't quite agree. I think Kanzi has the opportunity to show that verbal communication is possible with an ape. That's why the keeper wore the mask, so it would be certain that he didn't respond to facial ques. It doesn't seem like Kanzi isn't enjoying the experience, he gladfully cooperates with the instructions. The bond between the keeper and Kanzi seems quite strong. You should look up more videos on Kanzi, it's really quite eye opening. Few quotes from wiki:

"Given matches and marshmallows, Kanzi snapped twigs for a fire, lit them with the matches and toasted the marshmallows on a stick."
"Sue Savage-Rumbaugh has observed Kanzi in communication to his sister. In this experiment, Kanzi was kept in a separate room of the Great Ape Project and shown some yogurt. Kanzi started vocalizing the word "yogurt" in an unknown "language"; his sister, who could not see the yogurt, then pointed to the lexigram for yogurt."
"Kanzi's accomplishments also include tool use and tool crafting. Kanzi is an accomplished stone tool maker and is quite proud of his ability to flake Oldowan style cutting knives. He learned this skill from Dr. Nick Toth, who is an anthropologist with the Stone Age Institute in Bloomington, Indiana. The stone knives Kanzi creates are very sharp and can cut animal hide and thick ropes."
"In one demonstration shown on the television show Champions of the Wild, Kanzi was shown playing the arcade game Pac-Man and understanding how to beat it."

Tragically these apes are showing us how closely are related to us and might even to be able to grasp aspects of our culture and bring meaningful interaction between human and another species. I mean tragically because of how these creatures have been seen and treated in the past up to now.

kanzi and humans are both monkeys, according to that other recent science vid.
i thought it was funny the trainer was happy about wasting whatever but then when it came to the Coke she was like 'wohh okay that's enough!' , yummy Coke..

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I feel bad for Kanzi having to do all of these ridiculous things like some kind of trained monkey.

Humanity is a sliding scale - Kanzi is probably 90% human. Your dog is about 50%. Would you be unkind to 9/10ths of a man?

>> ^MarineGunrock:
NOE GUISE!!1 THIS IZ WICHITA, KANZIS!
I CAN TOTULLY TELL FROM TEH GRASS!!11
Seriously, unless you know that exact fucking street, stop claiming to know where this is.


Why should you care and/or try to squelch a few people discussing where this took place?

You have much better to offer the sift than this sort of crap, MG.

NOE GUISE!!1 THIS IZ WICHITA, KANZIS!
I CAN TOTULLY TELL FROM TEH GRASS!!11

Seriously, unless you know that exact fucking street, stop claiming to know where this is.