Monkey Economics

Do monkeys understand the concept of money? Researchers think that they do. The NY Times has an article showing that tamarins, when trained to use a particular treat as an exchange for things, showed a startling ability to “… steal, exploit the gullible, and trade money for sex.” Nice.

Now this is an interesting development for a Christian like myself who believes in creation, but also believes in scientific exploration as a means to better understand just what it is that God created and how that creation came about. What are we to make of intelligent species other than ourselves that seem to show signs of self conscious decision making?

I suppose that it’s not out of reason that God would allow a creature to have intelligence close to what we do. But as such, it’s uncertain how that fits into God’s plan. It seems apparent that, although they contain intelligence, they are subject to the same results of original sin that the rest of the world is subject to. They display most of the horrible sinful behavior that we do.

The big question is, can they understand the concept of God.

Now these are just musings. It occurs to me that the observations that the NY Times takes note of are far from proof that this is the same concept of money that we have. These monkeys are trained to understand that trading can get them the things that they want. Monkey wants grape. Monkey knows that person with grape will give it up for a token. Monkey knows that in order to get a token it needs to have sex with Monkey number 2.

In essence the monkey is taught all these things. But can they figure out all these things for themselves?
Think of this as just a slightly more intelligent example than training your dog to stand on it’s hind legs for a snack.

Says one of the scientists:

''You should really think of a capuchin as a bottomless stomach of want,'' Chen says. ''You can feed them marshmallows all day, they'll throw up and then come back for more.''

Which belies the self awareness theory. Is it self awareness to know, intelligently, how to get what you want.

I think the real question of self awareness is how animals, such as the ones studied in this article, control their desires, not how they manipulate their world in order to fulfill them. Do animals have morals?