The
DNA of gorillas is highly similar to that of a human, from 95-99%
depending on what is counted. They are the next closest living relatives
to humans after the two chimpanzee species, with all of the Hominidae
having diverged from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago.
Gorilla infants are vulnerable and dependant and thus mothers, their primary caregivers, are important to their survival
.
Gorilla mothers invest years caring for their offspring. Male gorillas
are not active in caring for the young. However they do play a role in
socializing them as they will associate with older infants and juveniles
[Source: Wikipedia]
A group of gorillas living together
is called a “troop.” There can be 5 to 30 gorillas in one troop, led by a
strong, experienced male known as a “silverback.” His job is a big one.
He is responsible for the safety and well being of the members of his
troop. The silverback makes all the decisions, such as where the troop
will travel for food each day, when they will stop to eat or rest, and
where they will spend the night. [Source: San Diego Zoo]
Photograph by NATALIE MANUEL
The
DNA of gorillas is highly similar to that of a human, from 95-99%
depending on what is counted. They are the next closest living relatives
to humans after the two chimpanzee species, with all of the Hominidae
having diverged from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago.
Gorilla infants are vulnerable and dependant and thus mothers, their primary caregivers, are important to their survival
Gorilla infants are vulnerable and dependant and thus mothers, their primary caregivers, are important to their survival
.
Gorilla mothers invest years caring for their offspring. Male gorillas
are not active in caring for the young. However they do play a role in
socializing them as they will associate with older infants and juveniles
[Source: Wikipedia]
A group of gorillas living together is called a “troop.” There can be 5 to 30 gorillas in one troop, led by a strong, experienced male known as a “silverback.” His job is a big one. He is responsible for the safety and well being of the members of his troop. The silverback makes all the decisions, such as where the troop will travel for food each day, when they will stop to eat or rest, and where they will spend the night. [Source: San Diego Zoo]
Photograph by NATALIE MANUEL
[Source: Wikipedia]
A group of gorillas living together is called a “troop.” There can be 5 to 30 gorillas in one troop, led by a strong, experienced male known as a “silverback.” His job is a big one. He is responsible for the safety and well being of the members of his troop. The silverback makes all the decisions, such as where the troop will travel for food each day, when they will stop to eat or rest, and where they will spend the night. [Source: San Diego Zoo]
Photograph by NATALIE MANUEL
![The DNA of gorillas is highly similar to that of a human, from 95-99% depending on what is counted. They are the next closest living relatives to humans after the two chimpanzee species, with all of the Hominidae having diverged from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago.
Gorilla infants are vulnerable and dependant and thus mothers, their primary caregivers, are important to their survival. Gorilla mothers invest years caring for their offspring. Male gorillas are not active in caring for the young. However they do play a role in socializing them as they will associate with older infants and juveniles
[Source: Wikipedia]
A group of gorillas living together is called a “troop.” There can be 5 to 30 gorillas in one troop, led by a strong, experienced male known as a “silverback.” His job is a big one. He is responsible for the safety and well being of the members of his troop. The silverback makes all the decisions, such as where the troop will travel for food each day, when they will stop to eat or rest, and where they will spend the night. [Source: San Diego Zoo]
Photograph by NATALIE MANUEL](http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/s480x480/59875_382298681845181_1808387872_n.jpg)
Unless a Gorilla posts a comment to this article after driving home from the hospital where he went to see his wife and new-born that was conceived through embryonic selection, and unless he sits on the couch while typing onf his gorilla produced lap-top, spending time in self-reflection, as he gazes at the gorilla art on their walls while enjoying gorilla produced symphony, while wondering if his enjoying is real or illusory, and unless this gorilla demonstrates his enormous vocabulary, and complex grammar, perhaps relating to you a conversation he had earlier in the day that was deep and meaningful on when life begins, unless he commiserates about the selflessness, love, and the exercising of our rational faculties that doctors and scientist used as they sacrificed 1,000's of hours to make it possible for his child to exist, and unless this gorilla demonstrates our ability to develop an argument, follow a line of logic, draw conclusions and frame hypotheses then I'd say that last 1% makes quite a difference.
ReplyDeleteDon't you agree?
Unless this gorilla posts a comment demonstrating an understanding of the gorilla species strong spirit of enquiry, their research in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, medicine and physics, unless you can sense in this gorilla a satisfaction for cultivating a garden, putting flowers in a vase, or hanging up a painting, unless he is expressing a love of beauty and a strong creative impulse that results in common gorilla behaviours of weekly craft groups where baskets are woven, wool is spun, shawls are knit, and photo albums are covered, I'd say that last 1% makes quite a difference.
Don't you agree?
Reason, language, enquiry, wonder, longing, religion, morality, aesthetics, creativity, imagination, aspiration and humour, to such intangible but fundamental qualities, atheists like Bertrand Russel can only respond, and in the total absence of proofs or evidence, yet driven by a desperate desire to be free from all accountability to one’s Creator, they hope that you will agree, “That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction . . . that the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried - all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.”
As for me an my household, I'd say that last 1% is nothing but interesting for it is the human soul that accounts for who we are and what they are.
The human soul is but the expression of the consciousness which in turn is just the workings of the brain and its programmes. The Astonishing Hypothesis by Francis Crick that YOU are just "a bundle of nerves" has never been debunked.
DeleteThe small genetic difference between the Gorilla and the human being is not the only factor responsible for the behavioural difference between the two groups. Epigenetics, memetics and psychological evolution all play a role.
In fact among all human beings with the same genetic make-up you will encounter vast differences concerning aspirations and other psychological qualities.
Steven Hawking is also convinced by analogy that a computer which has packed up goes to no heaven.