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anthropomorphism: cuttlefish
2007-Nov-20, Tuesday 12:12 amSome people are prone to seeing human motivations and feelings in the actions of other animals, even in non-animate objects or events like the wind itself. I sometimes do that too. For instance, there was the time when I was taking a Sign language class and accidentally saw video of Koko (a gorilla) signing... and I understood her. It's difficult to not anthropomorphize when you're "listening" to an animal talk in a language that you comprehend. I tend to do it a little for any warm blooded animal, but there's one animal in particular that always gives me an emotional jolt. It's not even warm blooded, or furry, or living on land, or possessing a spine.
It's the cuttlefish.
Over the years, I've seen too many television clips of these animals being playful and friendly, squirting water through the air at their keepers and then rushing to them in a colorful and brief tentacle clasp when the keeper puts their hand in the water. I've seen them flash colors and patterns at each other, much of it looking to me like language. I've seen them (seemingly, of course) treat each other tenderly during mating and egg-laying. I've been slightly nauseated when I met one at Disney Epcot, floating greyly and near-motionless in a round tank with white pebbles and not a speck of color, rock, or branch anywhere... the semi-life of a brain starved of any opportunity for curiosity, locked in its white room alone for too long.
Thankfully, others are beginning to take seriously the potential of intelligence in these and similar creatures of the waters. Today, I discovered that some people are watching them for (and finding) signs of behavior in these creatures that warrant another examination of our own ethical standards in working with these animals.
I'm not a PETA member. I think it's okay to use animals in some ways for our benefit. But what I think is okay treatment is quickly brought up to near-human standards when an animal is capable of despair and friendship and curiosity. Even assuming that humans exist today as only one species, it is certain that it will not always remain so. Someday there will be more than one "kind" of human. We should be prepared for that eventuality by creating a trans-species codification of legal "Rights", explaining how we should approach any kind of life that we meet, what is permitted and what is never to be tolerated. Rules that a "more advanced" species would still follow in dealing with us primitive humans as well.
From their paper (linked at "finding" above):
Yeah. "Do Unto Others", and all that.
It's the cuttlefish.
Over the years, I've seen too many television clips of these animals being playful and friendly, squirting water through the air at their keepers and then rushing to them in a colorful and brief tentacle clasp when the keeper puts their hand in the water. I've seen them flash colors and patterns at each other, much of it looking to me like language. I've seen them (seemingly, of course) treat each other tenderly during mating and egg-laying. I've been slightly nauseated when I met one at Disney Epcot, floating greyly and near-motionless in a round tank with white pebbles and not a speck of color, rock, or branch anywhere... the semi-life of a brain starved of any opportunity for curiosity, locked in its white room alone for too long.
Thankfully, others are beginning to take seriously the potential of intelligence in these and similar creatures of the waters. Today, I discovered that some people are watching them for (and finding) signs of behavior in these creatures that warrant another examination of our own ethical standards in working with these animals.
I'm not a PETA member. I think it's okay to use animals in some ways for our benefit. But what I think is okay treatment is quickly brought up to near-human standards when an animal is capable of despair and friendship and curiosity. Even assuming that humans exist today as only one species, it is certain that it will not always remain so. Someday there will be more than one "kind" of human. We should be prepared for that eventuality by creating a trans-species codification of legal "Rights", explaining how we should approach any kind of life that we meet, what is permitted and what is never to be tolerated. Rules that a "more advanced" species would still follow in dealing with us primitive humans as well.
From their paper (linked at "finding" above):
"Ethical consideration is being extended to the cephalopod mollusks because researchers are in the process of learning about their intelligence and cognitive abilities and making this information public (see Hanlon & Messenger 1996). Scientists are beginning to learn about not only the scope and diversity of the marine invertebrates (Cassis 1999) but the extent to which their responses to stress are similar to ours (Stefano et al. 2002)."
Yeah. "Do Unto Others", and all that.