Mental Leap
What apes can teach us about the human mind
By Eric Jaffe
At the opening of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a group of apes hovers around an object that has suddenly appeared in the desert. The sleek, black, rectangular object is five times as tall as the apes and clearly crafted by intelligent beings. The apes approach it with caution, and one animal runs a timid hand along the clean edges that glimmer in the sunlight.
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Suddenly, something clicks in the ape’s mind. The sight of a sophisticated innovation has launched dormant aptitudes, and the ape has realized that a large bone can be used as a weapon to advance its kind. Standing more erect than before and brandishing the weapon, the ape attacks another group.