15 – Animals

Katrina referenced the book “Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?” Wiki page about the author. See also, wikipedia on animal cognition. About the crow facial recognition and warning study. Prairie dog language study. The thought experiment of Torture vs Dust Specks. The Machiavellian Intelligence Hypothesis. Also, like most good things, discussed in Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. SMBC: Who’s cloning all of these Hitlers?! Peter Singer’s essay All Animals Are Equal. Archerfish face recognition study. Summoning Elder Gods can be a risky proposition – be glad that breeding aggressive chickens was the worst that happened (that time) The anti-CAFO organization is called Socially Responsible Agriculture Project. Steven insists on linking to Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about intelligence since he really doesn’t feel like he did any justice in his paraphrasing. Katrina’s self-corrections and comments: * I said that there isn’t much of a difference between social and solitary animals in terms of modeling other individuals. That is false. There is a difference. I just don’t want to discredit other forms of cognition. * I used terms like “intrinsic value,” but I don’t actually think that anything has value other than what it’s assigned by itself and/or others. I DO think that non-humans can confer value. * “Insects are the equivalent of moving rocks,” is quite a thing to say to an entomologist, guys. * We were negative about hunting. On its face, hunting animals with healthy wild populations for food is probably preferable to consuming an equivalent amount of factory farmed animals. * I meant “legislation” regarding condensed animal feeding operations (CAFOs), not “litigation,” although that has its place as well.