My coworkers gifted me a painting by cheeta (the last chimp to play him) when I left the job. I framed it professionally in rattan and banana wood. The painting itself looks very similar to the paintings by Ai- same color schemes and patterns.
Edit to add instead of a new comment:
I also remember how good of a life he had in retirement. He lived in an apartment-like dwelling. Slept in a bed, woke up and ate some fruit. Would plink on the piano awhile, maybe paint some, go for a swim or walk, maybe play the piano or paint some more.... it was amusing to read while slaving away at the coding mines.
I think it is only a question and matter of time before
the prison systems for monkeys may have to be reconsidered
completely. Of course even smarter monkeys than Kanzi
won't reach human brain functions, but they are also very
convincingly extremely clever and can adapt. Numerous videos
where monkeys handle (!) smartphones show this already and
this is just the beginning. Like, in the movie Planet of the
Apes. Just long-term in smaller steps.
To dismiss it as total fraud is disingenuous, but I do agree that the personification of some of those videos is quite egregious. I don't think anyone expected a chimp to make coherent, grammatically correct sentences. But the relationship between sign/vocalization and emotion/desire is strong and seen in many animals, such as parrots. It depends on your definition of communication I suppose.
The japanese have it harder because "ai" means love. But perhaps "love" will be written in kanji while "AI" in katakana, so writing form is not confusing.
Thanks, they seem like more than just random splashes of color.. possibly I'm anthropomorphising but it feels like it was straining to draw something specific like a young child would.
Yes, same with Koko. I think they do not fully understand art and
abstraction, nor profits made by good art. It is too abstract.
They can, however had, understand sign language and symbol language,
and basically that art is also an abstraction. Will probably take a
while before we can identify abstract art by apes.
> Born wild, Ai was soon taken into captivity and sold to KUPRI in 1977 by an animal trader (this type of sale became illegal in 1980 with Japan's ratification of CITES).
I think monkeys are still bred in some zoos. I know that because there is typically media outrage when monkeys are killed in zoos when they were overbred. It's a very questionable system, since they are basically prisoners, then kind of forced or encouraged to breed, and then whacked to death when there are "too many". It's weird because zoos also claim to help preserve some species.
Zoos do help to preserve species. Whether that is worth it, when their natural habitat is destroyed is a different question.
And if we agree there should be Zoos (I don't) then breeding the animals there is definitely nicer, than capturing a wild animal and force it to adopt to the prison livestyle.
49 years enslaved in a laboratory, forced to learn tricks, likely deprived of food and comfort until she played along. No clue why Jane Goodall embraced such cruelty. Showing how intelligent non-human animals are, then forcing them to endure such inhumane treatment is par the course for 'scientists'.
Edit to add instead of a new comment: I also remember how good of a life he had in retirement. He lived in an apartment-like dwelling. Slept in a bed, woke up and ate some fruit. Would plink on the piano awhile, maybe paint some, go for a swim or walk, maybe play the piano or paint some more.... it was amusing to read while slaving away at the coding mines.
The only art-centric monkey I knew was Koko, the female gorilla.
Here she draws some things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iixL0CMOAM
Smartest monkey I ever saw was Kanzi though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENKinbfgrkU
I think it is only a question and matter of time before the prison systems for monkeys may have to be reconsidered completely. Of course even smarter monkeys than Kanzi won't reach human brain functions, but they are also very convincingly extremely clever and can adapt. Numerous videos where monkeys handle (!) smartphones show this already and this is just the beginning. Like, in the movie Planet of the Apes. Just long-term in smaller steps.
https://bigthink.com/life/ape-sign-language/
Afaik they didn’t actually sign anything other than random words, an “food” every second word or so..
https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/The_Librarian
The japanese have it harder because "ai" means love. But perhaps "love" will be written in kanji while "AI" in katakana, so writing form is not confusing.
Elon Tusk, Rick and Morty, S4E4: https://youtu.be/xQHCz9ZZorA?t=129
They can, however had, understand sign language and symbol language, and basically that art is also an abstraction. Will probably take a while before we can identify abstract art by apes.
Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees by Roger Fouts
Absolutely brilliant!
So how do we do this kind of thing now?
And if we agree there should be Zoos (I don't) then breeding the animals there is definitely nicer, than capturing a wild animal and force it to adopt to the prison livestyle.
I thought this place was supposed to be better than reddit in such ways. Do better, HN.