had taken a university elective in taxonomy, the two species of chimpanzees had been
Pan troglodytes
(common chimps) and
Pan paniscus
(pygmy chimps).
But the split between chimps and humans had occurred just 500,000 generations ago, and they still have 98.4% of their DNA in common. In 1993, a group including evolutionist Richard Dawkins and best-selling science fiction writer Douglas Adams published the Declaration on Great Apes, which urged the adoption of a bill of rights for our simian cousins.
In took thirteen years, but eventually their declaration came to be argued at the UN. An unprecedented resolution was adopted formally reclassifying chimpanzees as members of genus
Homo
, meaning there were now three extant species of humanity:
Homo sapiens
,
Homo troglodytes
, and
Homo paniscus
. Human rights were divided into two broad categories: those, such as the entitlement to life, liberty, and freedom from torture, that applied to all members of genus
Homo
, and other rights, such as pursuit of happiness, religious freedom, and ownership of land, that were reserved exclusively to
H. sapiens
.
Of course, under Homo rights, no one could ever kill a chimp again for experimental purposes — indeed, no one could imprison a chimp in a lab. And many nations had modified their legal definitions of homicide to include the killing of chimps.
Adriaan Kortlandt, the first animal behaviorist to observe wild chimpanzees, once referred to them as “eerie souls in animals’ furs.” But now Peter Hobson was in a position to see how literally Kortlandt’s observation should be taken. The soulwave existed in
Homo sapiens
. It did not exist in
Bos taunts
, the common cow. Peter supported the simian-rights movement, but all the good that had been done in the last few years might be undone if it were shown that humans had souls but chimps did not. Still, Peter knew that if he himself did not do the test, someone else eventually would.
Even though chimps were no longer captured for labs, zoos, or circuses, some were still living in human-operated facilities. The United Kingdom, Canada, the U.S., Tanzania, and Burundi jointly funded a chimpanzee retirement home in Glasgow — of all places — for chimps that couldn’t be returned to the wild. Peter phoned the sanctuary, to find out if any of the chimps there were near death. According to the director, Brenda MacTavish, several were in their fifties, which was old age for a chimp, but none were terminal. Still, Peter arranged to have some scanning equipment shipped to her.
“And so,” Peter said to Sarkar during their weekly dinner at Sonny Gotlieb’s, “I think I’m ready to go public now. Oh, and my marketing people have come up with a name for the superEEG: they’re calling it a SoulDetector.”
“Oh, please!” said Sarkar.
Peter grinned. “Hey, I always leave those decisions up to Joginder and his people. Anyway, the SoulDetector patents are in place, we’ve got a backlog of almost two hundred units ready for shipment, I’ve got three good recordings of the soulwave leaving human beings, I know that at least some animals don’t have souls, and I’ll hopefully soon have the data on chimps, as well.”
Sarkar spread lox on a bagel half. “You’re still missing one important piece of information.”
“Oh?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t thought of the question yourself, Peter.”
“What question?”
“The flip side of your original inquiry: you know now when the soul leaves the body. But when does the soul arrive?”
Peter’s jaw went slack. “You mean — you mean in a fetus?”
“Precisely.”
“Holy shit,” said Peter. “I — I could get in a lot of trouble asking that question.”
“Perhaps,” said Sarkar. “But as soon as you go public, someone will ask it.”
“The controversy will be incredible.”
Sarkar nodded. “Indeed. But I’m surprised it hadn’t occurred to you.”
Peter looked away. He’d been suppressing it, no doubt. An
Pan troglodytes
(common chimps) and
Pan paniscus
(pygmy chimps).
But the split between chimps and humans had occurred just 500,000 generations ago, and they still have 98.4% of their DNA in common. In 1993, a group including evolutionist Richard Dawkins and best-selling science fiction writer Douglas Adams published the Declaration on Great Apes, which urged the adoption of a bill of rights for our simian cousins.
In took thirteen years, but eventually their declaration came to be argued at the UN. An unprecedented resolution was adopted formally reclassifying chimpanzees as members of genus
Homo
, meaning there were now three extant species of humanity:
Homo sapiens
,
Homo troglodytes
, and
Homo paniscus
. Human rights were divided into two broad categories: those, such as the entitlement to life, liberty, and freedom from torture, that applied to all members of genus
Homo
, and other rights, such as pursuit of happiness, religious freedom, and ownership of land, that were reserved exclusively to
H. sapiens
.
Of course, under Homo rights, no one could ever kill a chimp again for experimental purposes — indeed, no one could imprison a chimp in a lab. And many nations had modified their legal definitions of homicide to include the killing of chimps.
Adriaan Kortlandt, the first animal behaviorist to observe wild chimpanzees, once referred to them as “eerie souls in animals’ furs.” But now Peter Hobson was in a position to see how literally Kortlandt’s observation should be taken. The soulwave existed in
Homo sapiens
. It did not exist in
Bos taunts
, the common cow. Peter supported the simian-rights movement, but all the good that had been done in the last few years might be undone if it were shown that humans had souls but chimps did not. Still, Peter knew that if he himself did not do the test, someone else eventually would.
Even though chimps were no longer captured for labs, zoos, or circuses, some were still living in human-operated facilities. The United Kingdom, Canada, the U.S., Tanzania, and Burundi jointly funded a chimpanzee retirement home in Glasgow — of all places — for chimps that couldn’t be returned to the wild. Peter phoned the sanctuary, to find out if any of the chimps there were near death. According to the director, Brenda MacTavish, several were in their fifties, which was old age for a chimp, but none were terminal. Still, Peter arranged to have some scanning equipment shipped to her.
“And so,” Peter said to Sarkar during their weekly dinner at Sonny Gotlieb’s, “I think I’m ready to go public now. Oh, and my marketing people have come up with a name for the superEEG: they’re calling it a SoulDetector.”
“Oh, please!” said Sarkar.
Peter grinned. “Hey, I always leave those decisions up to Joginder and his people. Anyway, the SoulDetector patents are in place, we’ve got a backlog of almost two hundred units ready for shipment, I’ve got three good recordings of the soulwave leaving human beings, I know that at least some animals don’t have souls, and I’ll hopefully soon have the data on chimps, as well.”
Sarkar spread lox on a bagel half. “You’re still missing one important piece of information.”
“Oh?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t thought of the question yourself, Peter.”
“What question?”
“The flip side of your original inquiry: you know now when the soul leaves the body. But when does the soul arrive?”
Peter’s jaw went slack. “You mean — you mean in a fetus?”
“Precisely.”
“Holy shit,” said Peter. “I — I could get in a lot of trouble asking that question.”
“Perhaps,” said Sarkar. “But as soon as you go public, someone will ask it.”
“The controversy will be incredible.”
Sarkar nodded. “Indeed. But I’m surprised it hadn’t occurred to you.”
Peter looked away. He’d been suppressing it, no doubt. An
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