Susan Savage-Rumbaugh has made startling breakthroughs in her lifelong work with chimpanzees and bonobos, showing the animals to be adept in picking up language and other "intelligent" behaviors.
Why you should listen to her:
Into the great debate over intelligence and instinct -- over what makes us human -- Susan Savage-Rumbaugh has thrown a monkey wrench. Her work with apes has forced a new way of looking at what traits are truly and distinctly human, and new questions about whether some abilities we attribute to "species" are in fact due to an animal's social environment. She believes culture and tradition, in many cases more than biology, can account for differences between humans and other primates.
Her bonobo apes, including a superstar named Kanzi, understand spoken English, interact, and have learned to execute tasks once believed limited to humans -- such as starting and controlling a fire. They aren't trained in classic human-animal fashion. Like human children, the apes learn by watching. "Parents really don't know how they teach their children language," she has said. "Why should I have to know how I teach Kanzi language? I just act normal around him, and he learns it."
Blog Posts on TED
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Susan Savage-Rumbaugh on TED.com – April 20, 2007
Susan Savage-Rumbaugh's work with bonobo apes, which can understand spoken language and learn tasks by watching, forces the audience to rethink how much of what a species can do is determined by biology -- and how much by cultural exposure.
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Beyond the Top 10 TEDTalks: user favorites – July 1, 2008
Last week, TEDTalks celebrated our 50 millionth view by counting down the Top 10 TEDTalks of all time (so far) -- and inviting people to share their own favorites. Here are a few: My favorite is still Susan Savage-Rumbaugh and those bonobo apes. -- S.F., Boynton Beach, Florida Stamets (mushrooms), Isabel Allende (passion), Dave Eggers (schools), and Ballard (ocean) -- not to be missed. -- Marian Angele Majora Carter's talk on her environmental work in the Bronx. -- lydia chadwick Majora Carter's is my absolute favorite! -- Ariel, a TED fan I am dropping a line to say how much I enjoyed Aubrey de Grey's speech on aging. -- Diana Pasley I think Malcom Gladwell is that hidden gem. -- +Jono I nominate Theo Jansen's talk on creating new creatures as one of the "Hidden Gems." -- Paul If your own favorite TEDTalks aren't on the Top 10 list yet -- or you'd like to share your own hidden gems -- write to us at contact@ted.com or post a comment.
