Project Nim Essay

The progression of humans was a long and lengthy process of advancement by which people originated from their hominin ancestors to intelligent beings. Humans were once merely defenseless and unable to hunt effectively until they discovered a new way of life. The breakthrough of the bipedal and industrial revolution changed the way humans got around and were able to become predators. Humans evolved from quadruped ape-like animals to one of the few animals that use bipedalism. Compared to animals, human language is more intricate and used all the time. In the documentary Project Nim, researcher Herbert Terrace and his team raised a chimpanzee and determined if the chimp could be subjected to developing subtle language skills. The documentary

Nim, the chimpanzee was taken from his mother and placed into the care of Herbert Terrace and his team. They raised Nim as if he was a child and there he learned sign language. As expected, Nim learned how to sign but couldn’t sign grammatically-correct sentences. He even learned the mastery skills of manipulation and used it during his lessons in the classroom. The team worked with Nim for a while until there were too accidents. Occasionally when he didn’t get his way, Nim would bite and cause members serious injuries. The chimp still had his primal dive and was not able to let it go. As he grew up, he had urges to establish his male dominance to anyone around him. Even later in Nim's life, he was still able to sign and communicate with

It has been proven that non-human primates such as apes and chimpanzees can learn the behaviors of language and chores. Several experimental chimps and apes are trained to grasp our language and produce it by signing and perform daily chores like sweeping and tidying up. Both Nim and Koko were taught by their trainers to gain the knowledge to communicate through sign language. Although, both of these non-human primates embraced language skills at an early age, the ape in Kafka's story educated himself during the middle of his life. All three of them were able to observe and still maintain the knowledge of human-like behavior. Nim and Koko's trainers interacted with them and that could be a reason to why they learned. Neither of them were ever tempted to run away from the care of their trainers. Throughout their human interactions, they did not lose the connection they have with their animal side, unlike the fictional ape in Kafka's story. The research gathered from Herbert Terrace and Francine Patterson showed the world just how quickly non-human primates could learn and uphold a conversation, similar to humans'. The willingness of both the animals confirm that they are prone to change directions from their normal behavior. Maybe it was the constant affection and treats that non-human primates enjoyed that made them be subjective to learn the human