Ada Palmer on Nostr: A bonobo’s pretend tea party suggests that imagination predates humans. A study in ...
A bonobo’s pretend tea party suggests that imagination predates humans. A study in Science shows that Kanzi, a 43-year-old bonobo, could track imaginary juice and grapes in during a tea party, reliably distinguishing pretend from real objects. The findings suggest that at least some apes can mentally represent things that are not physically present, a capacity long viewed as uniquely human.
https://sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260210040605.htm#ShareGoodNewsToo
Published at
2026-03-01 18:02:03 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "c96ec672c865ca7aa539afe08a678406302054ab65f9b129ad23805e722b69c1",
"pubkey": "db81d5c67a10dd8cb2c3eaceb0423e7b69231b624fcb65b31c6cda27ddd76d03",
"created_at": 1772388123,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"t",
"sharegoodnewstoo"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://wandering.shop/users/adapalmer/statuses/116155228091156764",
"activitypub"
],
[
"client",
"Mostr",
"31990:6be38f8c63df7dbf84db7ec4a6e6fbbd8d19dca3b980efad18585c46f04b26f9:mostr",
"wss://relay.ditto.pub"
]
],
"content": "A bonobo’s pretend tea party suggests that imagination predates humans. A study in Science shows that Kanzi, a 43-year-old bonobo, could track imaginary juice and grapes in during a tea party, reliably distinguishing pretend from real objects. The findings suggest that at least some apes can mentally represent things that are not physically present, a capacity long viewed as uniquely human. https://sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260210040605.htm\n#ShareGoodNewsToo",
"sig": "36c6e5211439989d6c3e42561d83911e045b37c652cc7de6f76b8ea08d3e5794e1b7c58323cff042d3389ab382f70877ca5219445b1102054f85b969a12ad175"
}