• Question: could a monkey learn to build a weapon to destroy mankind because we did evolve from monkeys

    Asked by to Laurence, Dave on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Dave Jones

      Dave Jones answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Monkeys are pretty clever, and can do lots and lots of things, but I don’t think building weapons of mass destruction is one of them. Just because we evolved from monkeys doesn’t mean we can do everything they can or that they can do everything we can. We diverged long ago, with our bodies and minds developing so that we can survive in different circumstances and do different things. One of the main differences being the size (and ability) of our brains, meaning that a monkey would have to evolve into something new in order to develop the mankind destroying weapon you’re looking for!

    • Photo: Laurence Perreault Levasseur

      Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      I think the right way to think about this is that monkeys and us evolved separately form a common ancestor. Monkeys just evolved very differently from us, and now our species are very different. Regardless they are very clever, and they do show abilities to build tools.

      But making mass destruction weapons is a different story, they would need a different level of intelligence they don’t have right now. If they were to keep on evolving toward a species that makes mass destruction weapons, probably by the time they do that we ourselves would have evolved into a completely different species!

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