MICHAEL CRICHTON

3. Looking Through the BarsIN 1975, THE MATHEMATICIAN S. L. BERENSKY reviewed the literature onprimate language and reached a startling conclusion. “There is no doubt,” heannounced, “that primates are far superior in intelligence to man.”In Berensky’s mind, “The salient question—which every human visitor to thezoo intuitively asks—is, who is behind the bars? Who is caged, and who is free?.. . On both sides of the bars primates can be observed making faces at eachother. It is too facile to say that man is superior because he has made the zoo.We impose our special horror of barred captivity—a form of punishment amongour species—and assume that other primates feel as we do.”Berensky likened primates to foreign ambassadors. “Apes have for centuriesmanaged to get along with human beings, as ambassadors from their species. Inrecent years, they have even learned to communicate with human beings usingsign language. But it is a one-sided diplomatic exchange; no human being hasattempted to live in ape society, to master their language and customs, to eattheir food, to live as they do. The apes have learned to talk to us, but we havenever learned to talk to them. Who, then, should be judged the greater intellect?”Berensky added a prediction. “The time will come,” hesaid, “when circumstances may force some human beings to communicatewith a primate society on its own terms. Only then human beings will becomeaware of their complacent egotism with regard to other animals.”The ERTS expedition, isolated deep in the Congo rain forest, now faced justsuch a problem. Confronted by a new species of gorilla-like animal, theysomehow had to deal with it on its own terms.208