Damn we gotta ante up, if they're taking away my title of engineer and giving it to chimps, guess I'll just find a job where they can issue me "Doctor" job title. "Doctor and Principal Cybersecurity Engineer" sounds good.
Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools
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Re: Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools
#32Damn we gotta ante up, if they're taking away my title of engineer and giving it to chimps, guess I'll just find a job where they can issue me "Doctor" job title. "Doctor and Principal Cybersecurity Engineer" sounds good.
There are no "they", it's all "we"
Re: Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools
#33Up next, a story about how ants act as 'engineers' - choosing soft-enough-to-dig ground, that is not waterlogged, to build their nests. After that, maybe a story about plant 'engineers', growing toward the sun.
> A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania, the University of Algarve and the University of Porto in Portugal, and the University of Leipzig, so, i have a question; do you think the team of researchers above have no idea what they're doing? t…
Re: Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools
#34I thought this would be more relatable, like, "chimpanzee engineers found pretending to managers about estimates, chimpanzee managers found pretending to listen".
Re: Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Chimpanzee closes Jira ticket, with acceptance criteria met but product not functional.”
“Chimpanzee ticks unmet acceptance criteria and closes ticket, knowing those with power don’t care and those who care don’t have power.”
Re: Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools
#36I thought this would be more relatable, like, "chimpanzee engineers found pretending to managers about estimates, chimpanzee managers found pretending to listen".
"Chimpanzees record their goals in four domains aligned with company values as part of a mandatory HR exercise."
Re: Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools
#37Re: Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools
#38Re: Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania, the University of Algarve and the University of Porto in Portugal, and the University of Leipzig, so, i have a question; do you think the team of researchers above have no idea what they're doing? t…
In the researchers’ publication, they didn’t substantiate the claim that chimpanzees are doing engineering (actually they didn’t even define what engineering is or why it would be significant if the chimpanzees were doing it). They document some interesting tool-making behavior, that the chimpanzees are somewhat picky about the material properties of the sticks they use to catch ants.
the researchers' publication[1] is literally called: "Engineering skills in the manufacture of tools by wild chimpanzees"
Literally "Engineering skills".
The graphical abstract:
https://www.cell.com/cms/10.1016/j.isci.2025.112158/asset/0e...
> "Chimpanzees show a degree of engineering acumen in the selection of plant materials for toolmaking."
> engineering acumen
[1] https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)00419-5
Re: Chimpanzees act as 'engineers', choosing materials to make tools
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's because there's no liability. In my country you need liability insurance to be an engineer.
In the US we have the concept of a Professional Engineering license, but most people who get engineering degrees don’t end up needing one. Around here is it more like… you need a license for your signature to mean anything while surveying land, or something like that.