Week 11
Who is AIBO?
A Japanese artificially intelligent robot dog that’s connected to the internet. For some, he is merely a toy, but others seek to use him as a substitute for real dogs.
What is the Anthropocene?
Age of Humans - Broad focus on the impact of human. Defined by the impacts of humans, at least since the Industrial Revolution. Every aspect of the Earth is impacted by us. We have touched it all. It’s “ours.”
What is Primatology?
Study of nonhuman primates - fossil and living apes, monkeys, tarsiers, lemurs, and lorises - including behavior and social life.
What is the Superwhale?
A socially constructed idea of a whale created by the Save the Whale campaigners. Combined traits of whales that make humans care about them; endangered species, largest tail, largest animal, largest brain, and friendly.
What is Post-Humanism?
An area of inquiry that looks beyond the human.
What is the Capitalocene?
Age of Capitalism - Focuses on the impact of capitalism. Same era as Anthropocene, but points to our Capitalist culture as being the issue, not necessarily humans. Mass production, mass consumption, mass waste, mass pollution, etc. Taker lifestyle
What are Indigenous Knowledges?
Long-term, place-base knowledge that predates Western and Eastern scientific knowledge by thousands of years
Why is the whale a good mascot for conservation?
They're universally recognized, intelligent, friendly, the largest animals on earth, and endangered. They deserve protection. Most people also don't know much about them, making it easy to project certain ideas onto them.
What is an Intersubjective Experience?
A moment/experience that exists between, or is shared by, two conscious minds. There has to be 2 subjects involved for it
What are the Impacts of the Sixth Great Extinction?
Loss of a variety of species, which then reduces biodiversity. Reduction in biomass of land animals. Risking ecological collapse
Not 100% certain what impact(s) this mass extinction event will have on humans
Why might Koko deserve personhood?
She has the capacity for rights, her behavior and cognitive ability is akin to a human child's, can communicate, expresses emotions, and demonstrates self-awareness. If five year old children are part of the moral community and have rights, then so should she.
How did the International Whaling Commission ban whaling?
They allowed some cultures to whale, and part of this is because these groups are part of a romanticized, noble savage group. Arctic communities are allowed to hunt regardless of the moratorium, while Japan is not
What is Gazing Back?
An intersubjective experience, when you look into the eyes of another subject, and they look back at you at the same time.
What is Ecological Memory?
Humans’ bonds with their environments. Removing humans from their environment threatens the narratives, traditions, memories and associations with the landscape. They lose access to the memories imprinted on their land
How was the "Great Writ" of Habeus Corpus used with primates in Unlocking the Cage?
The judge claimed that primates have no legal responsibility, and as such, [REDACTED] couldn’t apply to them / they can’t have personhood
What is Whale Culture?
Defined as the shared knowledge of whaling transmitted across generations, consisting of a number of different socio-cultural inputs: a common heritage and worldview, an understanding of ecological (including spiritual) and technological relations between human beings and whales, special distribution practices, and a food culture
How does studying robots relate to studying non-human animals?
We call into question how to integrate THEM into human society, if they’re killable, what ethical concerns are involved, etc. We start thinking about treatment of humans vs. nonhumans, cultural things, morality, emotions, etc. They’re practically the exact same considerations, challenges and questions that we have when studying non-human animals.
We complicate the notion of the human, which then complicates the notion of the animal, since we tend to define human by what isn’t animal.
What is Cultural Imperialism?
When one community imposes or exports various aspects of its own ways onto another community. Conservation goals that transcend state, national or cultural boundaries can lead to conflict Undermines traditional knowledge and denies indigenous groups’ autonomy when it comes to managing the wildlife they coexist with, and their own right to life
What is studied in Ethnoprimatology?
Studying human-primate contact and interaction. Includes zoonotic disease transmission, primates as pets, human consumption of primates, human-primate conflict, and folk knowledge of primates
How is whaling affected by cultural imperialism?
The moratorium placed on whaling undermines cultures and their traditional knowledge centered on whales and whaling, and denies indigenous groups autonomy (both with managing the wildlife they coexist with, and the right to their own live their own life)