Saturday, January 2, 2016

Climate Absurdity Reaches a New Height

I'm tempted to call this the most absurd thing of the year, but being January 2nd, that doesn't mean much.  Let's just call it the most absurd thing in long time.

Some group of greenies taught Koko, the famous sign-language speaking gorilla, a script for climate change screed, urging humanity to stop destroying the planet.
In the 60-second video, the 44-year-old great ape, which has been learning sign language since she was one, said: ‘I am gorilla, I am flowers, animals. I am Nature. Koko love man. Earth Koko love.

‘But man stupid… stupid! Koko sorry, Koko cry. Time hurry. Fix Earth! Help Earth! Hurry! Protect Earth. Nature watches you. Thank you.’
I swear I'm not making this up.
I think the experiments they've done with Koko are cool and that she really does have language internalized - she has made up new words for new things she's shown that are based on things she knows.  That's real inventiveness.  Once, after being taught not to touch her used diapers because they were "dirty", proceeded to call her trainers "dirty" when she was mad at them.  Nobody taught her that.  She made the connections herself, thus proving the profanity is universally wired. 

But this advertisement  is clearly too much, too far.  Does an ape have the capability for abstract ideas like planet?  Ideas like Nature, Man as a species, and Earth?  I'd really, strongly suggest no.  Judging by the answers Mark Dice gets in his YouTube video surveys, I'd put down a small bet that many college freshman don't have these concepts, either, and the best I've heard is that Koko has the intellect of a child under 10.  (For those who don't recall the name, Mark is the guy who asks things like "should Hillary lower the standard of living for everyone?", "should Obama nuke North Korea?", and "should we confiscate all guns, including the police guns?" - for just a few).

According the article, the message was scripted by a group called NOE Conservation, based in France.  If any one believes that Koko the gorilla really said this on her own, they got one thing right, though:  man is stupid!  In particular, a man who buys that crap.


2 comments:

  1. I happened to visit Koko back in the late '70's when the project was just started. Koko is smart but I bet she parroted the script given to her so she could get more of her favorite snack. But I am pretty sure she would agree with Einstein and his quote "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

    You are absolutely correct about the stretch required to understand the concepts involved. But this gorilla is smarter than most of the enviro-whacko crowd ... at least she got her extra snacks!

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  2. Turns out she was right about the trainers.
    Dirty.
    Terry
    Fla.

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