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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Do Apes have the rights of personhood?
 
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The MUMPSorceress
Jan 6, 2012


^SHTPSTS

Gary’s Answer

ClearAirTurbulence posted:

Bees vote on where their next hive will be in a system similar to both the democratic process and the internal thought processes of humans.


This doesn't really imply intelligence. When the lead node of my elasticsearch cluster goes down, the other nodes vote on a new leader. They're programmed to do it. I think the earlier comparison of bees to simple robots is apt.

* # ¿ Dec 9, 2014 07:24
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# ¿ May 15, 2024 18:14
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The MUMPSorceress
Jan 6, 2012


^SHTPSTS

Gary’s Answer

Rorac posted:

At least caterpillars turn into things that are fairly pleasing to look at and won't try to murder you. :colbert:


Realpost though, I came across this little article about animal intelligence and it actually surprised me quite a bit as far as elephants go.

http://jonlieffmd.com/blog/wise-animals-2

One of the key things that was mentioned and actually makes me ask some hard questions regarding personhood of animals is just how *human* some of the shown behaviors were. Elephants in particular are capable of creating art (with different individuals showing differing levels of skill, however you judge that), gathering allies for tasks (one had a child stolen from her and built up something akin to a warband or the like and took her child back by force) and exhibit mourning (including placing sticks and leaves and such at the site of the deceased, coming back to it for years. Tribute, basically.)


I'm not sure I'm willing to list them as equals or give them full personhood as an adult human would have, but giving them rights similar to a human child? I can't find a good argument against that.

The best elephant behavior is the one where they go around murdering any lion cubs they can find to preemptively defend their young. Like humans, elephants realize that cats are dicks and can't be reasoned with.

* # ¿ Dec 10, 2014 21:25
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Do Apes have the rights of personhood?