Arjen Posted September 14, 2012 Report Share Posted September 14, 2012 So, I saw this posted on Facebook by an ecologist / animal crusader.. Thoughts? http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/whales-and-dolphins-are-so-intelligent-they-deserve-same-rights-as-humans-say-experts-7237448.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian0918 Posted September 14, 2012 Report Share Posted September 14, 2012 They are not conceptual beings. They do not have the physical capability to respect the rights of conceptual beings, and so do not themselves have rights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairnet Posted September 14, 2012 Report Share Posted September 14, 2012 They need to develope a way to communicate with these animals before we can actually verify their level of intelligence and their ability to join a right respecting community. Dolphins aren't really any better than a biker gang in their behavior... Giving them property rights is also going to be difficult as they have no realy ability to be anything other than nomads. I really have no idea what to do with that one. I am all for creating a bill of rights the covers all rational beings. Even the ones we haven't seen yet. We need a test though that is actually scientifically viable. I think the best place to start is to see if we can either learn the language of the animals or teach them ours. Then we need to be able to conversate with them about boundaries and things like that, and see if they can understand what we are talking about. I think we can get to step one with some creatures, but step two seems difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oso Posted September 15, 2012 Report Share Posted September 15, 2012 (edited) I doubt that article makes any attempt to explain the source of rights. Edited September 15, 2012 by oso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volco Posted September 21, 2012 Report Share Posted September 21, 2012 I see there's a yearning (i guess since the 70s) to either give Cetaceans intelligence, or learn that they might be smarter than we earlier thought. I've read some ridiculous Libertarian fiction where this happens in a Libertarian future; we've all unfortunately had to watch Free Willy at some point in our lives, and I remember some adventure game by Sierra back in the 90s. All of it speculative and at the service of an emerging culture (new age?). Computers will get rights as undertood in this forum, before animals. On the other hand I see that historically humans give, not rights, but extensive entitlements to animals, not based on intelligence, but rather on honor, fidelity, piety, mammalian kinship, symbolism, and other human characteristics that are actually rather primitive in us (and therefore more connected to our own animal forefathers). Dogs in most of the World enjoy these entitlements, to a point also do horses. Central Asian Turks also loved and respected horse and dogs, but also extended this kinship to falcons, a non mammal. Siamese and South Asians in general respect elephants in a particular way as well. If a future colony of seasteaders develops some relation and indeed boundaries with manatees or dolphins, then their entitlements will flow from this 'domestication', not the other way around. Dogs are respected and cared about almost as much as humans without the need of animal rights. There's a deep rooted historical and pre historical reason for that which is simply absent in cetaceans no matter how clever they are. Parrots are also clever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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