Humangenuity

I want you to think back. Back to a time – oh, the 60s and 70s, maybe the 80s and 90s too – when people owned thermometers.

People just like you and me would put these thermometers outside, by a window so they could read them. They could read the air temperature all by themselves.

If it was a cold day, these people could read the thermometer and say to themselves, "It's a cold day." Then they could decide to adjust their clothing routine, based on this useful information.

Today, the government handles this complicated task for us. When it's particularly cold out, Environment Canada (a gov't institution) issues a special letter, telling everyone that it's cold outside. They tell us to expect it to be cold. They alert the media. Then they tell us that we should dress differently because it's cold. And they do this every winter.

Ingenious. This is what separates us from the apes.

Silly apes.

They wouldn't even think of getting a group of apes together and paying them money to tell the other apes that it's cold outside. Dress differently, apes.

Silly apes.