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Life
Screaming Trees and Octopus with PTSD
Evidence for animals sentience is all around us. How can we find aliens when we can’t even recognize our own kin here on this planet?
You know I get excited when I see animal videos where humans do something nice for the animal, like a scuba diver taking a hook out of a shark’s mouth, only to be surprised that the shark turns around and shows genuine affection, gratitude for the kindness! My philosophy is how we treat non-human intelligence is how it will treat us. I’ve written about my love for Koko the Gorilla. I’m bothered by why more gorillas haven’t been taught sign language. Was Koko an anomaly? Was she just brilliant, the Einstein of gorilla kind? Even so, doesn’t that mean if even one member of a species can achieve greater heights in vision we have to be kinder to all? Or, are scientists trying to keep us from knowing? Why the slows progress? Our own bias or a subconscious agenda to not break the paradigm of alleged human superiority?
A subconscious agenda not to break cultural paradigm is probably the kindest view. I prefer that to malicious manipulation for personal gain. Trying not to lose value in a society that economizes reputation is human enough, not malicious, but in terms of science and the pursuit of truth- the…
