The end of war?

Posted at 3:00 PM on March 13, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

The apes. It always comes back to the apes. Discover Magazine has a story today, based on research involving primates, John Horgan explores this notion that we are somehow hardwired to engage in warfare.

He takes a look, oddly enough, at a group of baboons who fought their version of war from scraps at a garbage dump, until several of them died from tuberculosis.The remaining critters were far more sedate.

Conclusion? Once the cost of war reaches a certain level, it will no longer be waged. Conflict among monkeys eases, it says here, when they are assured of food and when they become interdependent.

Is this a concept that baboons get and humans don't?

Comments (1)

Humans in developed countries have been "assured of food" for centuries--yet have waged war throughout the world. Increases in global trade would seem to magnify our human interdependence--yet civil wars and regional disputes rage on. I would say that humans (especially men) wage war more for power, attention, females, and glory than for any notion of "interdependence"--after all, isn't interdependence for sissies?!

Posted by Jon Grabanski | October 8, 2009 5:07 PM

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories