December 19, 2006--Remembrance of Things Present
Scientists have all the fun. Though it’s not every day that they get to compare humans with dogs.
But out in California, where else, a group of researchers, ever curious, devised a series of experiments to see how good humans are at olfactory tracking. We’re not here talking about our capacity to evoke childhood via the unique scent of Madeleines. Rather, they wanted to determine if humans would make good hunting dogs. Really. (If you don't believe me, see NY Times article linked below.)
They were surprised to learn that we’re pretty good at it. Especially if the undergraduates they used as their “experimental animals” were willing to let it all hang out and get down on all fours, put their noses right at ground level, and crawl along, following the scent trail, an inch at a time. That worked best. In fact, with a little practice humans on the scent learned to move along at a two-inch at a time clip. Not bad, but still not up to beagle speed.
For the dogs that they used as their control group the scientists found that the best target was a dragged dead bird; the humans did best when the scientists laid down a chocolate trail. No surprise in either case.
Though this may sound trivial and a waste of time and money (they probably had a federal National Science Foundation grant to underwrite this), it has larger implications—
It is yet another reminder that we too are animals and that we retain many characteristics of animals that we needed tens and hundreds of thousands of years ago when we were hunters and gatherers, before we developed agriculture, formed communities, and eventually used the discoveries and developments of science and technology to dramatically alter the way will live.
On the other hand, some of these all-too-human residual characteristics and capacities present considerable danger to us and the planet. We “progressed” much faster, thanks to our large brain, in our ability to “control” nature and alter our environments than we did in other biological ways. Thus, we are still more violent than we needed to be back then in order to survive. We still have all those hunter capacities that no longer have natural outlets, and thus they tragically spill over into other forms of deadly aggression and combat.
Therefore, it’s probably a good idea to get our noses off the ground so we can stand up and take a look around at the mess we’re making.
But out in California, where else, a group of researchers, ever curious, devised a series of experiments to see how good humans are at olfactory tracking. We’re not here talking about our capacity to evoke childhood via the unique scent of Madeleines. Rather, they wanted to determine if humans would make good hunting dogs. Really. (If you don't believe me, see NY Times article linked below.)
They were surprised to learn that we’re pretty good at it. Especially if the undergraduates they used as their “experimental animals” were willing to let it all hang out and get down on all fours, put their noses right at ground level, and crawl along, following the scent trail, an inch at a time. That worked best. In fact, with a little practice humans on the scent learned to move along at a two-inch at a time clip. Not bad, but still not up to beagle speed.
For the dogs that they used as their control group the scientists found that the best target was a dragged dead bird; the humans did best when the scientists laid down a chocolate trail. No surprise in either case.
Though this may sound trivial and a waste of time and money (they probably had a federal National Science Foundation grant to underwrite this), it has larger implications—
It is yet another reminder that we too are animals and that we retain many characteristics of animals that we needed tens and hundreds of thousands of years ago when we were hunters and gatherers, before we developed agriculture, formed communities, and eventually used the discoveries and developments of science and technology to dramatically alter the way will live.
On the other hand, some of these all-too-human residual characteristics and capacities present considerable danger to us and the planet. We “progressed” much faster, thanks to our large brain, in our ability to “control” nature and alter our environments than we did in other biological ways. Thus, we are still more violent than we needed to be back then in order to survive. We still have all those hunter capacities that no longer have natural outlets, and thus they tragically spill over into other forms of deadly aggression and combat.
Therefore, it’s probably a good idea to get our noses off the ground so we can stand up and take a look around at the mess we’re making.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
11:37 AM
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