Animal experience and consciousness

Animal Experience - Abstract

Though Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Wyatt, 2011) is classified in the Sci-Fi genre, this film portrays the reasonably foreseeable possibility of intelligent apes successfully revolting against humankind. The main character, Caesar, is a chimpanzee injected with an experimental Alzheimer's-treatment drug that surprisingly develops Caesar's humanlike intelligence and emotions. Though initially well-treated by the drug's inventor and a primatologist, Caesar is eventually relegated to an ape sanctuary, where he grows to resent the cruel conditions to which apes are subjected. As a result, a defiant Caesar administers the same experimental drug to other apes, creating an ape army that escapes from the sanctuary, wages war on Homo sapiens and eventually crosses the Golden Gate Bridge as humans are decimated by a deadly virus.

In its depiction of the intelligent apes' interactions with humans, the film explores at least three scientifically supported human/animal experiences. First, the surprising level of intelligence in apes is so well-documented that "It's not a question of whether they think - it's how they think" (Borenstein, 2012), as research scientists increasingly uncover the human-like abilities (Borenstein, 2012), consciousness and empathy of apes (Manisha, 2011). Secondly, as the documentary called Project Nim (Marsh, 2011) illustrates, harmful conflict results when scientific good intentions and arrogance disregard the aggressive, unpredictable nature of a wild animal such as an ape. Finally, modern discoveries about ape intelligence warrant a severely reduced number of chimpanzees in biomedical research (Borenstein, 2012), as philosophers acknowledge the apes' right "not to be killed, not to be tortured, not to be confined unnecessarily" (Borenstein, 2012) and conservationists strive to give apes the basic rights enjoyed by humans (Panaman, 2008). Comparison of the film's themes with in-depth review of these human/animal experiences results in viable new perspectives about animal rights in the context of human/animal relationships.