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The Project Nim Trailer Goes From Chimpan-A to Chimpanzee

By Rob Payne | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (7)

pajibaprojectnim.jpg

My father likes to tell a story from when I was very young as proof that he knew I was going to be a writer before I did. To summarize, my father, his father, and I were walking through my grandfather’s property, which was surrounded by a dense forest. When we crossed the boundary between land and woodland, apparently I said we entered “the dark and dangerous wood.” Well, joke’s on dad, because that’s a fairly popular fantasy trope, and I probably osmosis’d it from a book or cartoon. Nevertheless, it is an interesting question: Do writers write because they are naturally inclined or are they conditioned write, if even subtly, by their parents or other societal pressure points. I’m not sure my dad’s story illuminates anything for us, really, other than to serve as an example that even at that age, I had a healthy respect (re: fear) for the natural world. It’s served me well.

Which is why the trailer for (and actual experiment of) Project Nim is so inherently fascinating. The upcoming documentary, directed by Man on Wire’s James Marsh, seems to satisfy both an appreciation for the unconquerable genetics of nature and the innate desire of humanity to bend however much of it we can to our will. Knowing that humans can become feral when raised by wild animals, taking on their adoptive parents’ characteristics, and that chimpanzees can learn human sign language, some clever scientists asked a logically sound question: Could an otherwise wild animal raised by humans take on human characteristics — in essence, be human?

If you felt like skipping the trailer, I’ll break it down for you (despite your cold, incurious soul). In short, no. Of course not.

Thankfully, none of the people in the film seemed to need to learn the hard way, like Timothy Treadwell or the woman who was nearly killed by a friend’s ape companion, that life always finds a way to do what it’s evolutionarily programmed to do. It can learn new tricks, like how to open doors, fly through space, or breastfeed a chimp, but inevitably it reverts back to its own biology. Sometimes that means little baby dinosaurs, sometimes that means ripping people’s faces off.

Nim Chimpsky might not have done any severe mutilating himself, but that just tells me we really don’t need to take a chance with Rise of the Planet of the Apes coming later this summer. Project Nim comes out this Friday, July 8, a full month before that CGI apocalypse. Thanks for the heads up, Science!


Rob Payne also writes the indie comic The Unstoppable Force, co-hosts the podcast We’re Not Fanboys, and can be mocked on the Twitter @RobOfWar. Even though he finds Li’l Nim adorable, his favorite barely intelligible primate will always be Charlton Heston.









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Comments

I am afraid of chimpanzees.

Posted by: ForbiddenDonut at July 6, 2011 8:22 AM

I second Donut.


This project is so unethical, both to Nim and his handlers, that it makes my head spin.

Posted by: Matty at July 6, 2011 8:41 AM

I don't understand why these researchers learned nothing from Lucy--- almost 10 years older than Nim and the subject of a similar investigation. Lucy was sent to live in a refuge when she was 12 because she was so destructive. She couldn't adjust to the new environment because she liked only people and had no foraging skills, so her life, and the lives of those who worked with her, ended up all adversely--some tragically so---affected by the colossal failure of the "project." And it was all for what? This is just sad and creepy.

Posted by: Stinky at July 6, 2011 10:00 AM

I would not have these animals around me or my family.

Posted by: logan at July 6, 2011 10:15 AM

Rob Payne post = blah blah blah


(Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to read my 425 words, your dedication to my blather is much appreciated! -RobP)

Posted by: zito at July 6, 2011 10:50 AM

Hmmmm the documentary nerd in me will watch this no doubt.

But it's definitely a head-scratcher.

Posted by: grace b at July 6, 2011 2:14 PM

I find it strange that scientists will collectively agree that biological evolution is a glacial process that takes countless generations over eons to be shaped, and yet the scientists here seem determined to contradict that in the crudest way possible. That said, I really don't see how any scientist could possibly believe that millions of years of natural selection and instincts could simply be pounded out and reshaped in but one chimpanzee's lifetime as though it was simply just a bad habit to be broken.

By this rationale, perhaps viruses could be taught to be benign if we talked to them sternly and gave them regular bedtimes. Sure, that sounds silly enough, so why can they not accept the same for another species simply because it shares some or our characteristics?

Even human beings, who have the very unique traits of individualism and free will fall prey to behavior that many would call falling back to our more primitive instincts from time to time (just ask the city of Vancouver). We human beings at best can try to externally nudge the evolutionary process one way or another mostly by altering the environment, but the thought of being able to outright reprogram a member of another species (even a closely similar one) simply by treating it as we would one of our own is both arrogant and foolish. You might be able to put clothes on it and teach it a few tricks, hell you may even be able to show that it does have intelligence on par with our prehistoric ancestors. But in the end it is still and animal and always will be one. A chimp cannot be a human being. If it can behave as only a chimp it's doing the best it can.

Posted by: bleujayone at July 6, 2011 2:50 PM