This raises the natural question: what if you gave an ape the buttons, and taught it from childhood, and put parent-level effort into it, not “70s research”-level effort? Perhaps the answer would surprise us.
The bonobo Kanzi had something very similar (“lexigrams”). And his sister Panbanisha was born in the research center and grew up with the lexigrams. As far as I’m aware, the research never seemed to generate extreme attention, so probably the learnings remained somewhat limited?
Bunny is quite obsessed over her bowel movements (how Freudian) and about her owners’ poop cycle.
As a youtube comment on the video points out, maybe the dog is just trying to be polite by imitating the conversation topic of its family. People probably ask their dog all the time about whether the dog needs or wants to go potty.
I wasn’t aware of this and it indeed looks very similar! Sue Savage-Rumbaugh who started the work did appear on Oprah and gave a TED talk, so she generated some attention. And in the Oprah clip she says she’s living and sleeping with the bonobos 95% of the time, and is raising a small one (Teco) being exposed to lexigrams from birth. That’s about as close to “parent-level effort” as one can get!
Unfortunately in 2012 she had a spat with her bonobo center over ethical concerns, which included a shadowy group of whistleblowers named “Bonobo 12” among other drama. According to her wiki she has left the center and is “embroiled in several legal battles” with her former employer. Their current research page provides scant information on what they’re doing these days. They’re pretty active on Facebook though, but it’s mostly begging for donations and asking people to buy stuff of their amazon wishlist, with no mention of any research. I think they’re struggling to stay afloat.
I can’t find any videos of Teco using the lexigrams, but here are some of the other apes:
Bonobo Panbanisha’s Coffee Conversation—fairly similar to dog button videos, but Sue does too much of the pressing for my taste and uses overly complicated syntax compared to the monkey.
A long recent interview with Sue, the channel seems to have a lot of interviews with people involved in the project, but I don’t have time to watch this much content.
I do not believe that there has ever been an example anywhere of a nonhuman expressing an opinion or asking a question. It would be wonderful if animals could say things about the world, as opposed to just signaling a direct emotional state or need. But they just don’t.
It’s notable that Bunny readily asks “where” and “why” and comments on things happening. But maybe the bonobos also did that, we don’t have enough material to tell, I only found this video where the monkey asks where the balloon is.
And here’s a Slate article with a deeper look at all the ape drama. The article isn’t too horrible, but it’s very much in Slate style.
The bonobo Kanzi had something very similar (“lexigrams”). And his sister Panbanisha was born in the research center and grew up with the lexigrams. As far as I’m aware, the research never seemed to generate extreme attention, so probably the learnings remained somewhat limited?
As a youtube comment on the video points out, maybe the dog is just trying to be polite by imitating the conversation topic of its family. People probably ask their dog all the time about whether the dog needs or wants to go potty.
I wasn’t aware of this and it indeed looks very similar! Sue Savage-Rumbaugh who started the work did appear on Oprah and gave a TED talk, so she generated some attention. And in the Oprah clip she says she’s living and sleeping with the bonobos 95% of the time, and is raising a small one (Teco) being exposed to lexigrams from birth. That’s about as close to “parent-level effort” as one can get!
Unfortunately in 2012 she had a spat with her bonobo center over ethical concerns, which included a shadowy group of whistleblowers named “Bonobo 12” among other drama. According to her wiki she has left the center and is “embroiled in several legal battles” with her former employer. Their current research page provides scant information on what they’re doing these days. They’re pretty active on Facebook though, but it’s mostly begging for donations and asking people to buy stuff of their amazon wishlist, with no mention of any research. I think they’re struggling to stay afloat.
I can’t find any videos of Teco using the lexigrams, but here are some of the other apes:
First False -Belief Test Passed by Ape (Liz from the vid apparently was kicked off the project in 2014 and her dying wish was to see Kanzi again even for a few minutes. She died in 2019 without seeing him)
Bonobo Panbanisha’s Coffee Conversation—fairly similar to dog button videos, but Sue does too much of the pressing for my taste and uses overly complicated syntax compared to the monkey.
A part of a documentary from 1985 on how it all started—notably, there’s a part where they’re using lexigrams to help non-verbal people communicate, so the idea is not new.
A long recent interview with Sue, the channel seems to have a lot of interviews with people involved in the project, but I don’t have time to watch this much content.
Criticism
This article has the following quote:
It’s notable that Bunny readily asks “where” and “why” and comments on things happening. But maybe the bonobos also did that, we don’t have enough material to tell, I only found this video where the monkey asks where the balloon is.
And here’s a Slate article with a deeper look at all the ape drama. The article isn’t too horrible, but it’s very much in Slate style.