Friday 19 August 2011

Hyperion to a Satyr

So why the gracile Pan paniscus? Why the noble Bonobo? The grand Pygmy Chimp?

Honestly, why not?

Bonobos are found exclusively in a small region of jungle thicket in the DRC. They are considerably more amicable than their troglodyte cousins and honestly are far more, and I say this with hesitance for fear of insulting them, human.


 They are similar to the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), however, they do differ in some notable respects in that the bonobo is shorter, narrower in the chest and hips, has longer limbs and a more upright posture.

Bonobo society is almost nearly devoid of violence and has come to this “enlightenment” by a very special means:

They have shit loads of sex;


In any position, in any setting; for food; a greeting, with any member, be it homosexual or heterosexual or even with their own offspring.

About 60% of all sex in Bonobo society is Female-Female genital rubbing and represents the highest level of homosexual behaviour in any species. There is also evidence of male-male homosexual activities, referred to, quite accurately, as “Penis fencing”.


“Anything that arouses the interest of more than one bonobo at a time, not just food, tends to result in sexual contact. If two bonobos approach a cardboard box thrown into their enclosure, they will briefly mount each other before playing with the box. Such situations lead to squabbles in most other species. But bonobos are quite tolerant, perhaps because they use sex to divert attention and to defuse tension” (Wikipedia, 2011)

Now, bonobos have a very “special” relationship with their off spring... Mothers will “train” their offspring in the ways of sex; yes, I’m saying that mothers will sleep with her sons and daughters (Incest is best). However, they will only train their offspring up to the point of sexual maturation (12 and 15 years for females and males respectively).

The bonobo is truly a remarkable anatomical specimen, with an opposable “Thumb” on the foot.


This allows for unmatched levels of precision, allowing bonobos to use both their hands and feet equally.

Now to mention their culture and ability to learn:


“Bonobos are capable of passing the mirror-recognition test for self-awareness. They communicate primarily through vocal means, although the meanings of their vocalizations are not currently known. However, most humans do understand their facial expressions and some of their natural hand gestures, such as their invitation to play. Two Bonobos at the Great Ape Trust, Kanzi and Panbanisha, have been taught how to communicate using a keyboard labeled with lexigrams (geometric symbols) and they can respond to spoken sentences. Kanzi's vocabulary consists of more than 500 English words.and he has comprehension of around 3,000 spoken English words. Kanzi has also been known for learning from observation of people trying to teach his mother. His mother was not learning some things and Kanzi started doing the tasks that his mother was taught just by watching. Some, such asphilosopher and bioethicist Peter Singer, argue that these results qualify them for the "rights to survival and life", rights that humans theoretically accord to all persons.


There are instances in which non-human primates have been reported to have expressed joy. One study analyzed and recorded sounds made by human babies and Bonobos when they were tickled. It found although the Bonobo's laugh was a higher frequency, the laugh followed a similar spectrographic pattern to human babies.” (Wikipedia 2011)

In short bonobos have the ability to understand self and to outperform a 2 year old in verbal communications. There is serious research into using Kanzi’s lexigrams to help mentally retarded Humans to communicate.

So I ask, why do we not attribute the genus Homo to these noble creatures? Are our anthrocentric views, so strong that we cannot accept that we are somehow not special?

I believe that we should expand the genus homo to encompass the entire genus Pan, and perhaps use the generic Pan as a sub-genus. That is Pan paniscus will become Homo (Pan) paniscus and Pan troglodytes will become Homo (Pan) troglodytes.

If this is too difficult for the masses to accept that, I wish to remind them that the old adage “Vox populi, vox dei” does not hold in the field of science. Just because the belief that something is not true is held by the multitude, does not necessarily make it immediately false.

Humans are not a special creation, removed from nature; we are animals, and bloody terrible ones at that. No mass extinction before has been attributed to one species, however, we are currently in an anthropic extinction, with levels of extinction rising exponentially, as can be seen below


It may be argued that we are special creation due to our increased intelligence and moral code. I will deal with these two points separately.

Increased intelligence? How is this an argument? What gives us the right to attribute one phenotype as more beneficial than another? One characteristic as superior to another? Why is a cheetah or a peregrine falcon not “greater” than us because of their attribute of speed? Why is a Blue Whale not superior because of its size? What I am arguing is that there is no such thing as a superior, and by inference, inferior species. All species are as evolved as each other in order to cope with their particular evolutionary niche.


The moral code can arise through evolution, the basic premises where explored in Hamilton’s 1966 treatise. Morality could arise purely through inclusive fitness and basic game theory. The optimal strategy proposed by Hamilton and Maynard-Smith is Tit-for-Tat. This is the basic morality as expressed in the Old Testament, viz. Exodus, chapter 21, verse 12. This is the basic idea behind all “Rehabilitation services”. Now, I am not saying that I agree with the death penalty, in fact I am categorically against it, for various reasons which I hope to explore in a later post, but this is not the time and it is hardly relevant. In short, a moral law, does not predicate a moral law giver, all that is required for a moral law to exist is the presence of a basic society. In fact, evolution can account for all our moral practices (Dawkins, 2006)

We are not a special creation and are actually doing more damage to this planet than any other organism before us.

So, if we are so evil, why hasn’t nature knocked us out? It is important to remember that evolution is a “blind watchmaker” (Dawkins, 1986). Evolution does not have any comprehension of past or future, only present. Human Society has developed a way of overcoming natural selection, we call it Medicine. I will be the first to admit, that natural selection should have knocked me out ages ago, I was a breach birth, with my head trapped behind a fold in my mother’s uterus. I have a wonky knee, actually I had to have a full patella reconstruction on one of my knees and can foresee another one coming soon. Thank Jupiter for modern medicine, without it, many of the great minds that enable the minds of today to “Stand on the Shoulders of Giants” would never have lived to publish anything. However, medicine has virtually halted Human evolution, with some notable exceptions, for instance, the genetic disease of acephaly.

So why do we still hold the genus Homo as sacred? Why is it the proverbial holy cow?

You know, on second thought, I retract my statement on “elevating” the genus Pan to the genus homo, as it will obviously degrade this noble creature to be in cohorts with us. I mean, it would be hard enough being Hitler’s cousin, without having to carry the surname aswell.

Who am I?

Well, being confined to bed by the doctor for bronchitis certainly is a double edged sword, got nothing to do so I thought I would post, and where better to begin than to give you a glimpse of who I see myself as now.

My name is Jaryd, I am a final year student reading towards a BSc in Genetics. I am, however, an evolutionary biologist.



"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" (Dobzhansky, 1973).

I have been at the University of Cape Town for 5 years now, and after a 2.5 year bout with Actuarial Sciences (It won), I moved to a BSc in Genetics. Now, at the point of this move, I was a raving creationist, for goodness sake, I was quoting Kent Hovind on a virtual daily basis, now that is a Mortifying Reflection.

So what changed me?

I took a course in Human Evolution (Purely because I thought it would be fun to argue), run through the Archaeology department and taught by a Biological Anthropologist. It was eye opening, to say the least. Within 1 week, the lecturer had answered all my questions concerning evolution and creation. I mean, thank God, and "I choose that word advisedly" (Dawkins, 2009) and well after that, the rest is history, in the past 25 months, I have never been without a course in evolution.

This slow, gradual change over 25 months has been a truly "Triumphal" (Dawkins, 2009) stage of growth for me, I shudder to think where I would be currently, and for a better point, who the hell would I be?

Streuth, that is a terrifying thought, I am now a Temporary Agnostic in Practice (Dawkins, 2006), I honestly don't know if there is a God or not, but again, my religious views will be explored in time...

What I do want to comment on is the recent New Scientist article 'Can spotting dead polar bears add up to misconduct?" http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128244.600-can-spotting-dead-polar-bears-add-up-to-misconduct.html

Please read it before continuing...

Now, if you can condone this, please let me know how... As far as I am concerned, this is an obvious ploy by the Big Oil companies to set up drills in Alaska, and doing this by shutting up a scientist. I didn't think this was possible in today's world. I am disgusted.

Now, I can see why the oil companies want to get into Alaska, it is estimated that there are 16 billion barrels of oil under the state. That is approximately $12 176 493 112.57 in income working from projected prices for between 2006 and 2027. 12 Billion dollars, blimey, selling our planet for a mere 12 billion dollars, at current exchange rates that's 87 billion rand, what the hell is big oil thinking. Basically, we are at a cross roads here, where will this insanity end.

It costs in the order of $20 million to set up a drilling plant. so there will be a huge revenue for any oil company that "conquers" Alaska

Apparently the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), holds 7.7 billion barrels of oil which will be 1.2% of the world's oil requirements in 2030 within 19 million acres. This new find will not reduce the cost of oil as OPEC will continue to set their own prices and only release oil to maximise their own profit.



It may be argued as to the small size of the drilling, but look exactly where it is. It can be seen the proposed drilling site lies on the tundra, this has the ability to destroy many native species, including the migration routes of the caribou.

There is already substantial drilling in Alaska, with 1.8 million barrels being produced daily, to put that into perspective, it's approximately 25% of US total oil production. This is from the 2 largest oil fields in America, namely Prudhoe Bay and Kuparak River.




For any more information on Alaska, check out http://www.alaskaheritage.com/FAQ/aboutalaska.htm#oil

Anyways, better make myself a cup of tea

Keep thinking,



For your interest:
http://www.alaskaconservationsolutions.com/acs/images/stories/docs/Polar%20Bears-ExtendedOpenWaterSwimmingMortality.pdf

Thursday 18 August 2011

Welcome

Well, I've eventually decided to start blogging, took a while. I would like to thanks Nick and Ky for pushing me in the right direction.

Well, some of you may be wondering as to the name of this blog... It was inspired from a quotation from an English playwright and poet called William Congreve:

"I confess freely to you I could never look long upon a Monkey, without very Mortifying Reflections."

The bombshell comes when you realize that Congreve died 120 years before Darwin published On the Origin of Species. This has a kind of double entendre as the main idea behind this blog is to explore my views on evolution, nature, life and everything else that comes between. Most of this is me myself coming to terms with what has been happening in my life over the past 5 months, lots of changes and many Mortifying Reflections, but that is for another post; I hope that each of you will enjoy the journey.



Anyway, my bed is calling and it is rather early in the morning

Fare-thee-well