Screencasts en apen

De screencast is een medium dat snel terrein wint, simpelweg omdat iets voordoen beter werkt dan iets uitleggen. John Udell heeft een mooie illustratie van dit principe.

"In trying to understand why, I’ve settled on what I call the “ape with a termite stick” argument. If you’ve heard it before, skip ahead. If not, it goes like this. People learn to use tools by watching how other people use them, and imitating what they see. Observation is the key. Suppose apes had language, and the discoverer of the termite stick could explain to the tribe:

“So, you find a stick about yea long, and strip off the bark so it’s sticky, and poke it into the hole, and presto, it comes up bristling with yummy ants.”

Some of the other apes might get it, but most of them wouldn’t. On the other hand, any ape who could observe this technique would get it immediately, and never forget it."