Young Chimp Beats College Students

When they say that chimps and humans are 98% genetically identical we have to keep in mind that we have 20,000 genes in our genome, not including the huge numbers of regulatory sequences in between that determine just how those genes are used. All in all, we've got over 35 million GACT bases that differ from chimps.

It's not just a matter of us not using the "chimp" part of our brain or the chimps not using their "human" brain, were are completely different species with fundamentally different developmental capabilities.

Gee, ya think? Thanks for the lesson in common knowledge. And your responses to the main context of my post is....?

Gee, if it's such common knowledge then why did your post, which he responded to, not give the slightest hint that we ARE in fact very different genetically. You said we are only 1 gene away which isn't even close to a true statement.

All this article proves is the point I have been making since age 16. You don't need to be smart to go to college. And in fact most colleges are big jokes. Community colleges for instance don't have professors, in my experience, that are capable of working in the industries they are teaching. I dropped out of school to start college 2 years early and after teaching my professors more then they taught me I skipped out and went to work. Now I make 6 figures and a girl I went to school with who got her degree is an administrative assistant. In the end a piece of paper is worthless compared to practical knowledge and experience in any given industry. It makes sense to me that if you test a chimp against a student you find the monkey sitting in wrong chair.

I think what btrevor is saying is, we're more than just one gene away.

Sorry I meant one chromosome, and yes, that's my mistake. That I felt I was spoken to condescendingly is another one.

Collin wrote:

All this article proves is the point I have been making since age 16. You don't need to be smart to go to college.

Did you even read the article before jumping at the chance to go on your "college people are stupid, I dropped out and make 6 figures" rant?

I mean it's obvious from your post, that you think you could do better than these college students, (who couldn't match the chimp even after six months training). Which means you think you can memorize (with 80% accuracy) a sequence of 9 numbers that are only displayed for two-tenths of a second.

As the director of the center remarked: "I just watched the video of that and I can tell you right now, there's no way I can do it," she said. "It's unbelievable. I can't even get the first two (squares)."

The fact is, this shows us something pretty remarkable about chimps, not something pretty stupid about college students, so kindly get off your soapbox.

(Just to clarify, I don't particularly disagree with your remarks about colleges, but trying to use this study as "proof" of the poor quality of colleges is just asinine)

He mighta been being funny, Morwynd.

Sure doesn't look like it to me. Perhaps you can explain your interpretation?

Actually... it is not 1 gene, we share 98% of our DNA with them

Hello BMS, Hello, I know you can read, because some times you write things. Read my subsequent post I said I made a mistake and meant to say chromosome. Chimps have 44, Humans have 43, I think. But I know they have one more. We actually have one that fused through evolutionary time, that's why we have one less. Very cool.

Yes. I wrote with out reading the thread. Yes, I know about the fusion which was discovered by noticing one gene has 3 telomeres

I found the series of video's of this study, if anyone wants to see them, very cool.

I think your just upset thst your not as smart as a chimp

Says you.

I did once get together with a million of my friends and randomly pound out the combined works of Shakespeare on manual typewriters.

When the 5 year old chimp has to keep PIN numbers, passwords, kids' soccer practice schedules, grocery lists, phone numbers and reminders to pick up prescriptions and dry-cleaning in its head, THEN it is a fair test.

Technically those are all long term memories and shouldn't take away from your ability to remember items in the short term.

Oh sure, take away my only excuse.

Short term memory is affected by many things. Rest, Stress, nutrition, etc.

I guarantee that those chimps are better rested, under less stress and have better nutrition than all those students.

--shakes head slowly--

Did we learn nothing from "Planet of the Apes"?

They already have shown a high aptitude for language in the form of sign language.

Indeed, thus it would be wise to breed them for vocal chords, because most people don't speak sign language. I speak only a little myself.

How do you say, Prove it, in American Sign language? Come on, I'll wait....

I know the alphabet, except for q x and z. I take care of a deaf fellow. He does a few signs a little weird.

So I can spell prove it.

Yes, I figured some drunk frat guys were teasing the chimp, and he attacked them. This was kind of a letdown ;)

It was fun, for 3 seconds.

I'm easily amused for about 3.5

Oh I get it...He's going from 1 to 2. Wait...

*SHOCK* *Drool*

Anyway, I wanted to say that I am not sure the researchers are really testing an aspect of intelligence

I completely agree. I am actually surprised at how defensive a lot of people are getting. It seems like primarily a test of visual processing speed, which is more along the lines of reaction speed.

Anyone want to go heads up against a puma in the slap game?

Still, the ability of these chimps is very interesting. It would be interesting to see a comparison of short-term memory capacity. George Miller found that we have the capacity for 7 bits of information (plus or minus 2) in our short-term memory, ie. a seven digit phone number. But even this is hardly any indication of intelligence.

I think that it may be short-term memory, it may be pattern perception -- but the key thing is that this is VERY important for any wild animal to be able to take a quick look at ones surroundings and identify anything that may pose a threat! Like a lurking leopard that is looking for a meal. Such as you. Ulp.

When I see humans walking after dogs with pooper scoopers I think they are right.