John Bartow
jbartow at winhaven.net
Thu Mar 6 17:52:22 CST 2014
No, get back on the OT list :-) -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2014 2:08 PM To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues Subject: [dba-Tech] Are Chimps More Intelligent than Humans? I know this is a tad OT, but tomorrow is Friday so maybe you'll forgive me. At Kyoto University there's a Primate Research facility whose star student is a chimp called Ayu (perhaps Ayun?), who can perform feats of cognition that are impossible for humans -- not just you or me, but *any* human. There are some preliminary training steps: first teach the chimp to recognize the numbers 0-9 and also the alphabet, using little 3D shapes of same. Then mix several of each category up and have the chimp sort them into two piles. Finally, teach the chimp to sort the numbers from 0 to 9. Once the chimp can do that (and all of them at Kyoto can), then we move on to more challenging turf. A touch screen displays the numbers 0-9 in random locations and in a larger font than normal, say 48. The chimp unerringly touches them in order in less than half a second. This is repeatable and Ayu never errs or even hesitates. Maybe a few humans in the world could do that. Maybe. Now for the impossible part: the numbers are again displayed in random locations and then immediately hidden with shaded boxes, and the chimp touches the numbers in order. Hidden how immediately? 600 milliseconds! And the chimp's execution time remains at less than half a second! No human can even see the numbers in that brief a display. I got all this from a program on TV Ontario, which is the local equivalent of Discovery Channel, but I just Googled "Kyoto University Chimpanzee" and arrived immediately at the web site, where there's wealth of material and videos about the chimp research going on there. For those interested, see http://langint.pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ai/. -- Arthur _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com