Lord Zuckerman's views on science and policy

Zuckerman

The same types of communicative behaviors may be exhibited among primates, particularly bonobo, apes, humans, and chimpanzees. However, there are also some core differences in the specific language expressions and their corresponding cognitive patterns among the descendants of a common ancestral lineage, particularly human, bonobo, and chimpanzee (Gillespie-Lynch, et al., 2014). Some of the most dramatic claims related to the philosophical import of non-human primate language imply either that human beings and their non-human primate relatives are completely alike, or alternatively, not at all alike save for some key animalistic features. Building on the formative research of Lord Zuckerberg, current researchers are showing that the question of whether humans and apes are similar is the wrong question; indeed humans are similar to non-human primates but there are distinct and meaningful differences between human beings and their primate counterparts. Those differences may, however, vanish over the next several million years.

Much of the insistence on difference relies heavily on language acquisition, development, and use. For instance, Beattie & Ellis (2010) note ape language does not represent higher-level cognitive functioning because it is only imitative in nature, and that apes never progress from imitation to semantic development in the same way humans do. Apes in fact depend directly on imitation for ongoing language use, unlike humans (Beattie & Ellis, 2010). Yet non-human primates are capable of learning sign languages as imitative but also as semantic systems. Moreover, chimpanzees do seem to be evolving with successive generations capitalizing on the gains made by their forebears in language and cognitive development. Hopkins, Russell & Schaeffer (2014) found that chimpanzee intelligence growth is passed down, especially with regards to specific cognitive traits.

This does suggest that if the evolution of non-human primates were traced over the course of the next million years, a unique picture may emerge in which a human-like or absolutely human species would have emerged. After all, human beings were once lacking in the cognitive functions that are perceived to be missing from apes now, and later developed those traits such as symbolic language. That which distinguishes human beings from non-human primates might also not be overly significant. When communicating with each other, bonobos, chimpanzees, and other higher-order primates use language, but human beings have not completely mastered their linguistic domains. Thus, humans and non-human primates do share a predilection for social communication and even for symbolic communication but the role such language development plays may be different for each species. For the non-human social primates, language may not serve the distinct social needs that it serves in human beings. If the need for language complexity were to develop in non-human primate communities, those species may evolve differently.