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Like Us, Chimpanzees Can Plan for Alternate Futures
We long assumed Humans were the only animals capable of such complex thinking, but yet again, we are proved wrong
You know, this is such a special time to be alive, and yet, I feel like so few people are aware. Sure, there’s plenty of chaos going on, and we’re teetering on the brink of many possible futures, but we’re also learning extraordinary things. Things that are challenging everything we thought we knew — specifically, everything we thought we knew about ourselves. Especially regarding our supposed uniqueness compared to the rest of the natural world.
In our quest to understand consciousness, scientists routinely discover that the differences between us and the rest of the animal kingdom are far fewer than ever assumed. Viewing animals as soulless or incapable of complex thinking or emotions made it far easier to view them as “less than.” Now, experts are learning that many animals share a myriad of traits and cognitive abilities with us. New research about chimpanzees adds even more evidence showing that other animals aren’t as different from us as we thought.
Modal Reasoning
Our brain remains an enigma in that experts still don’t fully understand everything about it or how it works, but…