We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

In a quote from “A Report to an Academy,” the protagonist writes that acting as a human was solely a survival mechanism, not anything else.

The story flashes forward to 2012. With access to the internet, Rosemary spends time researching the outcomes of various notable “cross-fostered” chimps. Many of these chimps passed away at very young ages from infections and diseases. Some developed severe diarrhea due to stress, causing them to die despite not having any other conditions. One chimp may have been killed in an experiment that injected him with large amounts of insecticide after his family returned him to the lab. Another chimp, Lucy, was sent to live with chimps in the Gambia after living with a human family for many years; eventually, her bones were found and it is believed that she was killed by poachers, whom she trusted after being raised by humans. Nim Chimpsky was sold to a lab after the psychologist who chose to work with him decided that he was not learning enough sign language. The most notorious of these chimps was Washoe, who learned hundreds of sign language words. One of the graduate students that worked with Washoe spent his life ensuring that Washoe would have a happy life and peaceful death.