Scientist teach gorilla that he will die.

www.youtube.com...
scienceblogs.com...
www.theonion.com...

I don't know why it is important to teach a gorilla the concept of death. The scientists are so excited about this, but the poor gorilla is depressed. It has no hope at all. It was happier when it had ignorant bliss of its own mortality.

reply to post by jessieg


You sir or ma'am have been "Onioned".

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In 1998, Fred Phelps posted the The Onion article "'98 Homosexual-Recruitment Drive Nearing Goal" on his "God Hates Fags" website as "proof" that gay people were indeed actively trying to "recruit" others.

On June 7, 2002, Reuters reported that the Beijing Evening News republished, in the international news page of its June 3 edition, translated portions of "Congress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built". The story discusses the U.S. Congress's threats to leave Washington for Memphis, Tennessee; Charlotte, North Carolina; or even Toronto, Canada unless Washington, D.C. built them a new Capitol building with a retractable dome. The article is a parody of U.S. sports franchises' threats to leave their home city unless new stadiums are built for them. Evening News initially stood by the story, demanding proof of its falsehood. It later retracted the article, responding that "some small American newspapers frequently fabricate offbeat news to trick people into noticing them with the aim of making money."
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In 2006, the Danish television station TV 2 posted a story on the gossip section of its website that took seriously The Onion article titled "Sean Penn Demands To Know What Asshole Took [email protected]".
An article on Harry Potter inciting children to practice witchcraft was believed by many[who?] to be real and was the subject of a widely forwarded email which repeated the quotes attributed to children in the article. Columnist Ellen Makkai and others who believe the Harry Potter books "recruit" children to Satanism have also been taken in by the article, using quotes from it to support their claims.
In September 2009, two Bangladeshi newspapers, The Daily Manab Zamin and The New Nation, published stories translated from The Onion claiming Neil Armstrong had held a news conference claiming the moon landing was an elaborate hoax. Neither realized The Onion was not a genuine news site. Both of the newspapers apologized to their readers for not checking the story.
In October 2009, the Russian news site Russia.ru repackaged clips from The Onion video piece "New Anti-Smoking Ad Warns Teens 'It's Gay to Smoke'" as legitimate news.
In February 2010, among others the online newspapers Il Corriere della Sera (Italy) and Adresseavisen (Norway) repackaged clips from The Onion video piece "Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier" as legitimate news.
In June 2010, the soccer website Sofoot.com (France) mistook for real news the article "Nation's Soccer Fan Becoming Insufferable", picked up the story and translated it partially on their own website under the title "La solitude du supporter ricain". The article even ends with a kind word for the fake fan, telling him to be brave and to hang on.

SOURCE


[edit on 29-7-2010 by Watcher-In-The-Shadows]

That youtube video seems fake to me...
But if it is true...shame on them. They couldn't teach him
something else?

So I wonder what they were really teaching him to say? I don't know sign language. Maybe someone an see if it is really saying what the video says he is saying.

This gorilla has not been made aware of his own mortality.
What they have done is scared the hell out of him.
This experiment is a bit of a Chinese room.
Quigley may understand sequence.
He may even understand past, present and future tense.
He may remember his own youth, understand aging and grasp the concept that living things do die.
But can he understand why it is that there's nothing to be done about mortality?
Can he accept his fate and "move on?"
Can he even think about a life, any life, having meaning?

Very interesting, good find, even if it is a joke.

[edit on 29-7-2010 by briantaylor]

As the 2nd poster said, its a joke, satire....

The Onion is a spoof news outlet and its pretty funny most of the time :-)

I don't think this is very funny even. It is more thought provoking than funny to me.

I understand that children must learn about death at some point. Children can discover about death if they have a death of a pet or a family member. Probably it is better to answer their questions as they have them, rather than go into a long detail about death before they are ready. I guess sometimes children must be prepared ahead of time, if it is known someone will die.

It is really the parents or guardians that should teach about it when they and the child is ready, I think.

Some cultures embrace death more, and there is little secret about it.

In the American culture, we don't really talk about it that much, unless we know someone is dying or are expecting it.

I think it was about eight when my Granpa died, and I understood death by then. I think I did ask questions, but I knew he wasn't coming back.

I don't really like to think about death, I'd rather think of more pleasant things. As I get older, I find I am a bit more interested though.

Right now I am more interested in OBE, lucid dreams, and altered states than I am death though. I do believe in more after death anyway, from a Christian perspective, but that is off topic.

In this case, if this were a real story, it would prove that a gorilla can have some sort of abstract thought or higher order thinking, and even be depressed. It would prove something, but it wouldn't be very kind to a gorilla to teach it that.