From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com>
>Does anyone know the name of the female
>chimpanzee/monkey/ape/whatever genius that learned a new way to
>crack coconuts (or something), after which the behavior spread to
>the rest of the tribe on the island? An online source for the
>details?
From: GBurch1@aol.com
>Don't know the name of the famous primate Prometheus, but I
>believe these were Japanese macaques and the skill was washing
>sand and grit out of rice by throwing it into water. The rice
>floated and the sand sank, allowing the monkeys to scoop the
>cleaned rice off the surface. Other members of the troop quickly
>learned the behavior from the innovator, who was an adolescent
>female.
From: GBurch1@aol.com
> hal@finney.org wrote:
> >
> > I could not find a name, but you can read something about it
> > at http://skepdic.com/monkey.html. You can also do a search
> > on the "hundredth monkey" phenomenon which will provide
> > many highly embellished accounts of the story, for example
> > http://www.hemp-sisters.com/quantummonkey.htm.
>
> Thanks! This is what I needed.
>
> Her name is "Imo", and it was potato washing.
>Ooops -- that's what I get for shooting off a reply before reading
>the morning's take of messages. I had most details right, though
>. . . (and knew the "100th Monkey" thing was bogus).
Greg you were right!!
Imo the same young female who did the potato washing later also
"discovered" the rice separating trick. The researchers took this
as additional proof of her inteligence.
So do I....
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
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