?

? Someone is playing an electric piano（電子琴）.

? It's a chimpanzee?!?

? Is this one drawing?

? This is the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto university. There are chimpanzees with amazing abilities here. And?Ayumu, a young male, especially stands out.

primate: 靈長目人

? When random numbers show up on the computer screen, he is able to touch the numbers in order from smallest to largest.

? But the real surprise is yet to come.?

? After he touches the first number, 1… The other numbers are covered by white squares.

? We'll let you see the answer.?

?The chimpanzee remembers where each number was. And he can respond at this speed from the moment the numbers appear. He memorizes them instantly.

? Ayumu's mother?is sitting next to him. Her name is AI, known as the first non-human primate who learned language using computers.

? Ai is matching the kanji, or chinese character, of the color to the actual colour itself.

? Professor Tetsuro Matsuzawa?has been leading the research. For the last 38 years,?Matsuzawa and his research team have been examining various aspects of the chimpanzee mind.?

? Discovering who we are as humans is their mission.

? The Primate Research Institute is located in historic Inuyama?City,?Aichi?Prefecture.

? The institute has been leading research in the field of human evolution for almost half a century.

? These lively noises are…

? 13 chimpanzee spanning 3 generations live here.

? Here again?is Ai... meaning?love.

? Coincidentally, A.I. also refers to artificial intelligence. We will soon see how her name reflects this.

? "A—I—"

? She leaves the outdoor habitat where she usually lives and heads indoors as her name is called.

? This is the music room. They are now working on an assignment to explore the sense of rhythm in chimpanzees. They use an electric piano connected to a computer.

? After Ai?hits the lighted key, the next key will light up.?At first, she hits the keys at her own pace. Next the researchers gives a fast-tempo tune from the speaker.?Then?AI?start to play faster.

tempo: 節(jié)拍

? She is playing in tune with the tempo coming from the speaker.

? To wrap up?the session,?Ai?enjoys?the tune.

wrap up:?"To wrap up" is a colloquial expression that means to bring something to a conclusion or to finish it. It is often used in the context of meetings, presentations, or sessions, as in your example sentence.

? Next, Matsuzawa?performs a health check on Ai while playing with her. Through observing and interacting with Ai?and other chimpanzees, Matsuzawa has?been exploring various abilities in the species for almost four decades. The purpose of his research was to find out what kind of creatures?we, as humans, are.

? "When we trace back the ancestry?of humans and chimpanzees, we find that we had a common ancestor around 7 million years ago.?From this common ancestor, humans and chimpanzees diverged. I think it was what each obtained in their evolutionary process that made them diverge. Chimpanzees are close to humans, but not quite the same.?By studying chimpanzees further,?I thought we would be able to better understand ourselves."

ancestry: Your ancestors who lived a long time ago, or the orgin of your family

diverge: to follow a different direction, or to be or become different

? The common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees lived in the ancient forests of Africa. About 7 million years ago, the group that evolved to be humans left the forest. The ancestors of chimps remained. Even today, chimpanzees only live in Africa.?

? There they are,?Light-footedly walking on a high branch. They love ripe fruits. T hey also eat leaves and insects. They live in a social group and move in their territory in search of food. They use calls, sounds and gestures to communicate with others.

? Genetically, the difference between humans and chimpanzees is less than 2%. Both species are so similar, yet so different in many ways.

? The differences are what we acquired or may be lost after the evolutionary split. What did we humans inherit from our ancestors and what have we lost?

? The project to get answers started in 1978, when Ai was 1 year old.?The institute had launched the world's first experiment to try to discover and explore the cognitive abilities of chimpanzees using computers.

? Professor Matsuzawa was one of the founding members of the project. First,?Ai?learned the names of objects and colours using symbols. She also learned single digit?numerals. And when a researcher displayed objects through the window, she was able to answer by giving its color,?name and number using the computer keys.

? Amazing!

? So does that mean she can understand language like we do?

? Well, not exactly.

? Human words have this rule that when we say pencil, it refers to any pencil. When we say the color orange, it indicates anything orange. For example, this is a red pencil. There are five of them. Ai proved that chimpanzees could understand such word rules as well. Ai also showed that she could understand rules for numbers.

? Not only can she count the dots on the screen, but she can also touch the numbers in order from lowest to highest, just like this.

? Ai?and Matsuzawa proved that chimpanzees had the potential to understand and utilize language which was previously only associated with humans.?

? Around 30 years ago, Dr. Matsuzawa?started visiting Africa to learn more about chimpanzees in their natural environment.

? This is a place called Bossou in Guinea. There is a group of chimps that the kyoto university team has been observing. The chimpanzee is striking something with a stone. The chimp places?a hard nut on a stone anvil, cracking it open with another stone and eating the inside of the nut.

anvil: a heavy block of iron on which heated pieces of metal are made into a particular shape with a hammer

? It's amazing.?They can combine the two stones and use them as tools.

? Matsuzawa's?focus, however, was on something else—children. How are children raised in their society and how do they develop the skills and knowledge to use such tools?

? Those answers provide important clues for exploring human evolution.

? Matsuzawa longed to closely observe and witness the growth of chimpanzees from birth.

? In the year 2000, an opportunity presented itself at the institute when Ai became pregnant.

? She gave birth to a baby boy.

? Hoping for the baby to make big leaps in life, he was named "Ayumu", which means taking steps in Japanese.

? During the close observation, the research team realizes there is a problem they need to overcome. A new born chimp's mother doesn't let anyone touch the baby before reaching about 5-months old.

? Even Dr.?Matsuzawa's??gentle attempts were brushed off by Ai.

brush off:?to dismiss or reject someone or their attempts in a casual or indifferent manner.

? "Please let me touch Ayumu. C'ome on, let me touch him.?Please.?Thank you. Thank you. Ai, please let me touch Ayumu. Why not? C'mon. It's not fair you have him all to yourself. It's not fair. You want me to groom your back?"

groom: to clean an animal, often by brushing its fur

? After 20 days Ai finally gives in to Matsuzawa. When he gestures,?Ai?lies down, and allows him to see Ayumu. That led to many discoveries.

? When he moves his hand in front of Ayumu's face —

? This is the smile of a chimpanzee.

? When he shows Ayumu?the mirror, he smiles again. Human babies start to smile frequently when they reach around 3 months old. Baby chimps are the same. Why do babies smile a lot? We found the answer while observing Ayumu spending time with others.

? Ayumu grew stronger, and became able to sit by himself. Pendesa, who is like a little sister to Ai,?approaches.?When Pendesa touches Ayumu. He?smiles. That seems to make Pendesa?happy, and she keeps making funny faces to humor Ayumu.

? The reason babies smile so much is so that they can interact more with the others. Smiling and showing happiness is something we share with chimpanzees.?

? Just after?Ayumu?turned 1, there was another important milestone. Pendesa really wants to hold Ayumu, but has not been able to.

? She gently brushes the rain off of Ayumu's back. But when Ai turns?around, Ayumu follows Pendesa. Ai keeps a close watch, but does not stop Ayumu.

? Taking another big step, Ayumu leaves his mother's side to play with someone else.

? This is Ayumu's ?true debut into chimpanzee society.

debut: the occasion when someone performs or presents something to the pubic for the first time

? A new study to explore how children develop skills for using tools is underway.?

? A researcher attaches a small container with honey to a wall with a tiny hole. The honey cannot be obtained without using a tool.

? Ai, Ayumu?and another mother and infant are called in

? Ai?picked an item from a variety of objects scattered on the floor and sticks it into the hole. The item she chose is a piece of plastic with a bumpy surface. It is easy to insert into a small hole and the bumpy surface catches a lot of honey.

? One-year-old Ayumu?is licking the honey from his mother's tool. So this is how babies learn the taste of food.

? Ayumu picks up a brush. Just like human babies, baby chimps tend to put everything in their mouths to investigate.

? 4 months on,?Ayumu?starts to follow the object Ai?is using with his eyes. That's one step forward.

? Furthermore, Ayumu demonstrates interesting behavior. He starts to observe what the other mother is doing.

? This mother is using a rubber tube as a tool. It's soft, so it's a bit tricky to insert into the hole, but it can collect more honey.

? Ayumu continues to stare. Actually, this kind of behavior was also witnessed in the chimpanzees living in the wild using stone tools.

? This infant is about the same age as Ayumu. She is eagerly observing how the adults are skillfully using tools. She is leaning in so much, but even so the adult is not annoyed.

? Afterwards, the infant puts a nut on the stone table. But she cannot strike it with another stone yet. She goes back to the adult to observe more.

? In the wild young chimpanzees closely observe how the adults are using tools and learn from them.?

? At the institute Ayumu continues to closely monitor the skills of the adults.

? 3 months have passed, he begins to try with a rubber tube. But it's proving to be quite tough.

? Then he tries with a piece of plastic, he compares the different tools, but still can taste the sweet reward.

? Another month since then... Finally, he was able to get a little bit of honey on the plastic. He is now able to use the same tool as his mother. But the real surprise came after this.

? Ayumu is with another mother, he wants to master the rubber tube as well.

? He tries again. The tube?went through the whole, but it doesn't reach the honey.

? Look at this face.

? Success. He did it!!!

? Ayumu?was even able to master a different tool from his mother's.

? "We were able to understand young chimpanzees learn not only from their mothers, but also from other adults around them, the adults showed the infants the skills and never push them away. This characteristic is also found in humans and I think that both humans and chimpanzees inherited the social code from our common ancestors."

? Children interact with the adult members of the group and learn good behavior. Adults help them by allowing their children to behave freely. It sure sounds a lot like our human society.

? The ability to understand words and numbers, skills to use tools and a society that supports the growth of children... We see that the "seeds" of those abilities have been planted in chimpanzees as well from their ancestors.

? Then how did human beings and chimpanzees grow apart?

? Spring of 2004, an opportunity to solve this mystery arose.

? Ayumu was about to turn four.?Around this time, the research team launched a project to study memory.

? It was decided that he would take part in this project

? Ayumu enters the room with his mother. First, he learns the order of numbers.

? He is supposed to touch the numbers one and two that simultaneously appear, but for some reason he keeps touching 2?first. The numbers disappear.

? Oh, what was that?

? He touches both numbers at the same time. Children can be so creative.

? But the next day...

? Ayumu seems to have gotten the hang of it.

? Once he's cleared one and two, number 3 is added.

? Then number four.

? By increasing one number at a time, Ayumu was able to learn the numbers up to nine within 6 months.

? He looks confident.

? Now they finally move on to the next stage of testing.

? This is the method the research team came up with: when a circle on the lower left of the screen is touched, random numbers pop up on the screen, the goal is to touch all the numbers in order from lowest to highest, but when the first number is touched, the other numbers are covered up by white squares. So unless the chimpanzees remember where each number was, they cannot complete the task.

? Ai,?who already learned the numbers, has?started on this project one step ahead of Ayumu. Amazingly, she memorizes five numbers in less than a second.

? Does it seem easy? Why don't you give it a try?

? At this speed, it's quite difficult, isn't it?

? Ayumu can do it perfectly up to four numbers now, and he is about to move on to try five numbers like his mother.

? He can do it.

? And he's also very quick.

? He could take his time to memorize them, but he somehow answers right away. And, it even seems easy for him.

? Let's see if he can handle 6 numbers...

? He can!

? He is successful again. Look at the speed.

? After that, Ayumu?continued to challenge more numbers, one by one. You may not be able to tell since it is so fast, but there are eight numbers.

? And finally, he takes on nine numbers, and?he clears them.

? Even with this many numbers, he starts touching the screen in less than a second, and he answers almost perfectly.

? Thousands of humans have tried to complete the same task, but none of them could exceed Ayumu's speed and accuracy.

? This was something professor Matsuzawa?had not expected.

? "Just by taking a glance, he can memorize nine numerals and the location of each numeral. This was very surprising. I was more stunned than happy.?Actually, not only Ayumu, but two other young chimpanzees here, Cleo?and?Pal,?were also able to achieve similar results. We humans believe that we are superior to any other creature in terms of intelligence, we never had that belief crushed before, but our studies have proven for the first time, that in the area of memory, young chimpanzees are superior to human adults."

? It was a shocking discovery. Studies were conducted to see if we can find "seeds" of superior intelligence for humans in chimpanzees. But to our surprise, we found abilities in chimpanzees that humans don't have.

? Did the chimpanzees acquire such excellent memory after our ancestors diverged?

? Or have we humans lost that ability in the process of our evolution?

? A clue to that answer was found in the forest-dwelling wild chimpanzees of Africa. They climb large trees as tall as 20 meters to eat ripe fruits, which they love so much.?

? After many observations, Marsyzawa came to this conclusion as to why chimpanzees are able to memorize so quickly.

? "The ripe fruit is red, the unripe is green. Unless they are able to instantly memorize where the ripe fruit is located on the tree, other members coming from behind will surpass them and get it first.?Chimpanzees need to be able to memorize how a tree is at a glance, or to be able to grasp the situation when met by adversaries from other groups. I think such instant memory is essential in their everyday life."

adversary: an enemy

? Danger can lurk anywhere in the wild. There is always competition over food with other chimpanzees, so a photographic memory is essential.

? Matsuzawa?believes our ancient ancestors who had a similar life must have had such a memory. In the process of evolution, humans lost that photographic memory.

? Why did they lose it? And how did they continue without such a crucial ability?

? The key to answering those questions came from a surprising place. Ai has?been drawing a lot since she was young. The drawings are colourful and bold. They look like the drawings of a human child who has just started drawing.

? Drawings are said to reflect how a person perceives the world around them. One of the research team members came up with the idea of trying to figure out the mind of a chimpanzee using such drawings.

? They prepared a drawing of a chimpanzee.?it was a typical chimpanzee face; with a twist.

? One eye was missing.

? What is the chimpanzee's?reaction to it?

? This chimpanzee starts drawing over the eye that's already there. She keeps drawing over the same part. This could be interpreted as her focusing her attention only on the eye that was already drawn.

? When we show the same drawing to a human child, their attention immediately goes to the missing eye. This child fills?in the eye that was already drawn.

? And then draws the other missing eye.

? This time a drawing with neither eyes nor mouth was used.

? This chimpanzee drew over the facial line but did not draw the eyes or mouth. On the other hand, human children tried to draw the missing eyes and mouth even if they weren't good at it.

? “We've conducted the experiment on the chimpanzees here and on about 60 human children. The humans, when they reached the age of two-and-a-half to 3 years old, clearly start to draw-in the missing parts. Chimpanzees traced over drawn parts, but they never drew the missing parts. They seem to focus on what's in front of them, but don't seem to think about what is missing in that picture. But human children are able to think of what isn't there.?The ability to call to mind what the eyes cannot see is, simply,?"imagination"."

?Imagination. That's what humans have and chimpanzees don't. But how has the power of imagination helped us to survive?

? In 2008, Matsuzawa's?team embarked on a new experiment to solve that question.

? Ai and Ayumu?are led into separate rooms. The researcher places?a juice box in front of Ai's room. It is placed out of arm's reach.

? Meanwhile, Ayumu is given an assortment of tools.

? A walking stick is the tool Ai would need to get the juice.

? The door to Ayumu's?room is closed so that he won't be able to use the tools to get the juice box. The purpose of the experiment is to see whether Ayumu would hand Ai?the tools she needs.

? However, he shows no intention of handing the tools to her. He can see Ai's situation, so he knows what she needs.

? He starts to play on his own.

? Ai stretches her hand from the window, urging Ayumu to hand her the tool. Although he is aware that Ai?needs the walking stick, he doesn't hand it to her until he is prompted.

? Ai?pulls?the juice closer with a stick and drinks it up by herself. She didn't offer it to Ayumu?to thank him for his help.

? Numerous experiments done with different chimpanzees produce the same result. The tool was only handed after being urged.

? "The interesting thing about the situation is, that the chimpanzee hands?the tool to the other one, although there isn't going to be any reward for it. In that respect, we can see that chimpanzees have an inherent ability to help others. But if you look closely, you'll see that they are not voluntarily helping. They?only respond when prompted.?On the other hand, we humans have the power of imagination. So when someone is in trouble, we can understand why that person is in trouble and what he or she needs."

? A photographic memory is essential in getting food and avoiding danger.?Imagination enables us to help one another. Why is it that human beings don't possess both these traits?

? "The human brain did grow larger in the process of evolution. But it couldn't have happened all of a sudden.So?the capacity of the brain was limited at a certain point during evolution. I think this limited capacity is the key. In order to acquire new and wonderful power, they had to let go of something and make space. There had to be a trade-off. Our human ancestors lost the ability to instantly memorize like chimpanzees. But in exchange, we acquired something that is similar and even better. Imagination and language. That's how we perceive it."

trade-off: a balancing of two opposing situations or qualities, both of which are desired

? Our ancient ancestors like chimpanzees living in the wild today needed a photographic memory to survive. Then why are language and imagination better than the ability to instantly memorize?

? Language is a powerful tool that allows humans to communicate and share ideas with one another. With language we can acquire information and learn from others. Imagination fosters creativity that is essential in telling and comprehending stories. Language fuels imagination which in turn has been supporting the lives of human beings.

? By?using the power of imagination, we can help each other and thrive. That is humanity's?way.

? Through my 38?years of research, I've come to believe that the essence of humans is our imagination. That is what makes us... us.

? You might think this is the end of our story, but it's not. When Ayumu?was 2 years old, Ai was practicing stacking up wooden blocks as demonstrated by doctor Matsuzawa.

? Ayumu Interrupts.

? He probably wanted to do something with the wooden blocks like his mother. But Ai won't be able to focus on her assignment as long as Ayumu is here. Matsuzawa hands Ayumu some?blocks, gesturing for him to play with them.

? Ayumu?was playing with the blocks for a while, dragging them around.

? But then something totally unexpected happened.

? Look at Ayumu's?hands. There are no blocks. Matsuzawa is?happily surprised at this unexpected occurrence.

? "He's?pretending!"

? On a different camera,?Ayumu is caught going around the red block deliberately. He is pretending to drag imagined blocks in his hands.

? The students watching Ayumu cracked up at the scene, but... that upset him.

crack up:?In the sentence provided above, it means that the students watching Ayumu burst into laughter or found the scene extremely funny.https://www.bilibili.com/bangumi/play/ss26250?t=95

? So maybe the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees already had the "seed" of imagination.

? And that seed briefly manifested itself at this moment. That is how professor Matsuzawa?and his team understand it.

? Chimpanzees have many undiscovered talents.

? Matsuzawa's journey to explore the relationship between chimpanzees and the human mind continues.

? Ayumu is now 16 years old. A female comes up to give him a kiss. Everybody likes him.

? In 2016, Ai?turned 40... almost 60 in human years.

? "Ai, show me your hand."

? "That's your foot."

? "Ai, show me your right hand."

? "That's your foot again."

? What kind of wisdom will Ai?impart as she grows older?

? Working together with chimpanzees, Matsuzawa?and his team have learned a great deal about our shared common ancestors. Most of all, it is imagination that makes humans unique.

? We, as a species, have been able to survive, thrive and progress because of the power of imagination.

? How will we make use of this power as we evolve?