[PREV - NATURE_OF_THE_WALLS]    [TOP]

MONKEY_KITCHEN

                                            September 14, 2004
                           Additions from:  March     19, 2003


     Ed and Ted talk while
     I do the dishes.

     Ed says, in disgust
     "Oh, the kitchen is
     full of monkeys!"

     Ted looks puzzled,
     and says "I can't --"
     He turns to me and says
     "Do you have anything
     to say to that?"

So I go into this spiel:

"It is not strictly true that
the kitchen is full of monkeys,
it might be more correct to say
that it's full of primates.
But in any case, I think you're
being reductionist --"                Ed throws up his hands
                                      "I'm being *reductionist*, right."
"It's like 'Oh, who cares about
*that* stuff, it's only made of atoms.'"     He made a face
                                             and waved the
                                             subject away.
        The point
        being: so?

   What's wrong
   with being a
   primate?         Understanding something
                    about the nature of things
It would indeed     doesn't change that nature.
be extremely
weird if                        A disdain for the physical world,
humanity had                    an expectation that the spirit should
*nothing* in                    be above such things.
common with any
other animal.                        The golem may be made of mud,
                                     but the spirit that animates
But it's clear that                  it is not.
human beings really
*are* a pretty weird
kind of animal.

The question is how            So... what kind of
weird, and in what ways.       primates are we?

   And: what                   There's a fair
   would it                    amount of variation
   take for us                 in behavior among
   to become                   the different primates.
   even better
   primates?                   It's often
                               claimed that
   To be the best              apes have
   primates                    less to be
   primate-kind                embarrassed       In many a "Planet
   has ever known,             of than human     of the Apes" movie.
   to be the best              beings.
   possible                                      And there's the Mark Twain:
   primates...                                   "Man is the only animal
                                                 that blushes. Or needs to."


                                                 First one considers
          "Beware the ape                        that humanity has
           with the crooked                      infinite potential,
           thumbs!"                              and then one
                                                 considers network
                                                 television.

                                                    Millions inside,
                                                    and we spend pennies.


--------
[NEXT - STEIN]