it turns out that chimps actually lose their ability to discern themselves as individuals in later age, unable to recognize their reflection as themselves:

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what could be the utility of this?

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ernest becker couldn’t have said it better. from the denial of death wiki:

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when chimps (or any species, domestic or alien) develop an intelligence too great, that’s exactly the point at which they’ll establish something worthy of the name “culture.” they’ll absolutely have to, in order to deal with the ultimate dilemma: paraphrased from camus, suicide v. illusions.