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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   4633 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 28, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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Can we really not domesticate monkeys and employ them in repetitive labor like collecting fruit and removing trash from beaches? Does the world not yearn for monkey-based saffron plantations?

Have you not seen "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes"? Spoiler The Planet of the Apes is Earth. This is how you get a planet of the apes.

Monkeys are routinely trained to work. They're used to pick coconuts in Thailand and I think a few other crops in more isolated instances, but they tend to be awful thieves and like to attack people as far as I know.

Agricultural labor- particularly fruit picking- also has a large amount of seasonal variation and most farmers prefer the flexibility of questionably-legal migrant labor to having to feed hundreds of mischievous and herpes ridden primates that get animal welfare folks all up in your business.

Monkeys are trained to pick coconuts in Thailand commercially, that’s the central example of monkey labor as far as I know. There have been a few historic examples like the baboon in South Africa trained to be a railroad signalman (albeit one under supervision, apparently). I don’t think we really want large numbers of semi-wild monkeys living near populated places in Western countries; in the countries that do have them labor is usually cheap enough that it might not be worth it for many things.

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