RoboBonobo: A Project To Outfit Apes With Tablets and Telepresence Bots 68
MrSeb writes "Ken Schweller, a computer scientist and psychologist, and also the chairman of the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, has a vision: He wants to put wireless Android tablets in the hands of bonobo apes. The Great Ape Trust Sanctuary is home to seven bonobos, including the world-famous Kanzi, and two orangutans. So far the Sanctuary has focused almost exclusively on language, with the bonobos and their keepers communicating through lexigrams on a touch-screen TV. Now Schweller wants to go one step further and outfit the bonobos with wireless tablets running custom Bonobo Chat software, allowing the apes to communicate with their keepers (and other bonobos!) from anywhere in the Sanctuary, and to remotely control devices such as vending machines, doors, and the RoboBonobo. If all this wasn't weird (cool?) enough, the RoboBonobo is even outfitted with a water cannon (so the telepresent apes can play "chase games" with humans) and Schweller is trying to fund the whole thing with Kickstarter. If you're a big fan of apes (or Darwinism), be sure to donate."
Re:Rise of the... (Score:5, Informative)
Planet of the Bonobos.
A female dominated polygamous society that spends most of the day eating fresh fruit and screwing? Count me in!
However there's a flaw in your vision of paradise, bonobo's are the hippies of the ape world, they have a complex society that allows them to spend their days eating fresh fruit and fucking. They are not known to kill others of their species, territorial disputes, mating rights, etc, are settled via bonobo politics and diplomacy. So of the 3 species in your vision, I think they are the species most likely to be picking daisies.
Now if a regular chimp got hold of a predator they wouldn't hesitate to shoot you in the face and rip your genitals off.