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Originally Posted by pbradley
There was an interesting article I read a little while ago from a neurologist who studied monkey brains and came to the conclusion that there is a direct relation between the size of a certain part of the brain and the size that a group of that species of monkey would be. This was dubbed the 'monkeysphere.' Eventually these guys got pretty good at determining the size of various spheres for the autopsy of a brain.
Soon after, somebody slipped them a human brain and they came to the conclusion that the monkeyshere for humans is around 150 individuals. That is to say, we are capable of recognizing 150 people as people before we begin to recognize people as an object of a particular means. Of course this is a big number and we all interweave as to be on large lonely crowd. However, to come to the point, this recognition that our ability to empathize and humanize is limited makes the idea of an ecological respect for nature daunting. I can barely give a fuck about my garbage man beyond 'that thing that makes my garbage disappear' without being forced to reflect on him.
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Oh shit! Of course! Theres a really wicked animation about the monkeysphere as well, and ever since I saw it a couple years ago its been a favorite insult of mine to tell a person that their monkeysphere is only as big as themselves. Gotta love the monkeysphere. I honestly think my monkeysphere has only shrunk throughout the years, though.