tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/anthropomorphism-8814/articlesAnthropomorphism – The Conversation2023-06-15T18:18:00Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2074732023-06-15T18:18:00Z2023-06-15T18:18:00ZGenerative AI is a minefield for copyright law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532241/original/file-20230615-11155-nww82y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C5%2C3817%2C2149&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Still from 'All watched over by machines of loving grace' by Memo Akten, 2021. Created using custom AI software.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Memo Akten</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2022, an AI-generated work of art won the Colorado State Fair’s art competition. The artist, Jason Allen, had used Midjourney – a generative AI system trained on art <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2022/09/16/midjourney-founder-david-holz-on-the-impact-of-ai-on-art-imagination-and-the-creative-economy/?sh=6b99081f2d2b">scraped from the internet</a> – to create the piece. The process was far from fully automated: Allen went through some 900 iterations over 80 hours to create and refine his submission. </p>
<p>Yet his use of AI to win the art competition triggered a heated backlash online, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-artists.html">with one Twitter user claiming</a>, “We’re watching the death of artistry unfold right before our eyes.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1565712173183016960"}"></div></p>
<p>As generative AI art tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion have been thrust into the limelight, so too have questions about ownership and authorship. </p>
<p>These tools’ generative ability is the result of training them with scores of prior artworks, from which the AI learns how to create artistic outputs.</p>
<p>Should the artists whose art was scraped to train the models be compensated? Who owns the images that AI systems produce? Is the process of fine-tuning prompts for generative AI a form of <a href="https://theconversation.com/generative-ai-is-forcing-people-to-rethink-what-it-means-to-be-authentic-204347">authentic creative expression</a>? </p>
<p>On one hand, <a href="https://www.freethink.com/robots-ai/ai-and-future-of-creativity">technophiles rave</a> over work like Allen’s. But on the other, many working artists consider the use of their art to train AI to be <a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/midjourney-ai-art-image-generators-lawsuit-1234665579/">exploitative</a>.</p>
<p>We’re part of a team of 14 experts across disciplines that just published a paper on generative AI in Science magazine. In it, we explore how advances in AI <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adh4451">will affect creative work, aesthetics and the media</a>. One of the key questions that emerged has to do with <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/what-is-copyright/">U.S. copyright laws</a>, and whether they can adequately deal with the unique challenges of generative AI.</p>
<p>Copyright laws were created to promote the arts and creative thinking. But the rise of generative AI has complicated existing notions of authorship.</p>
<h2>Photography serves as a helpful lens</h2>
<p>Generative AI might seem unprecedented, but history can act as a guide. </p>
<p>Take the <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/coml8&div=41&g_sent=1&casa_token=oFkqu0HYSOgAAAAA:C_ZxdPOJEoIWzr2PmppzxZgIdgdf6mx-bocutIgYsKOFyOJAomcBF4rfVVymEGmBgt3fFXZR&collection=journals">emergence of photography in the 1800s</a>. Before its invention, artists could only try to portray the world through drawing, painting or sculpture. Suddenly, reality could be captured in a flash using a camera and chemicals. </p>
<p>As with generative AI, many argued that photography lacked artistic merit. In 1884, the <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/111/53/">U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on the issue</a> and found that cameras served as tools that an artist could use to give an idea visible form; the “masterminds” behind the cameras, the court ruled, should own the photographs they create. </p>
<p>From then on, photography evolved into its own art form and even sparked <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/7/2/18">new abstract artistic movements</a>. </p>
<h2>AI can’t own outputs</h2>
<p>Unlike inanimate cameras, AI possesses capabilities – like the ability to convert basic instructions into impressive artistic works – that make it <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-isnt-close-to-becoming-sentient-the-real-danger-lies-in-how-easily-were-prone-to-anthropomorphize-it-200525">prone to anthropomorphization</a>. Even the term “artificial intelligence” encourages people to think that these systems have humanlike intent or even self-awareness.</p>
<p>This led some people to wonder whether AI systems can be “owners.” But the U.S. Copyright Office has stated unequivocally that <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/ai/ai_policy_guidance.pdf">only humans can hold copyrights</a>.</p>
<p>So who can claim ownership of images produced by AI? Is it the artists whose images were used to train the systems? The users who type in prompts to create images? Or the people who build the AI systems?</p>
<h2>Infringement or fair use?</h2>
<p>While artists draw obliquely from past works that have educated and inspired them in order to create, generative AI relies on training data to produce outputs. </p>
<p>This training data consists of prior artworks, many of which are protected by copyright law and which have been collected without artists’ knowledge or consent. Using art in this way might violate copyright law even before the AI generates a new work.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Computer generated image made to look like a painting of a face with wires spilling out of its head surrounded by a field of grass and flowers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532244/original/file-20230615-15-urogfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532244/original/file-20230615-15-urogfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532244/original/file-20230615-15-urogfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532244/original/file-20230615-15-urogfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532244/original/file-20230615-15-urogfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532244/original/file-20230615-15-urogfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532244/original/file-20230615-15-urogfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Still from ‘All watched over by machines of loving grace’ by Memo Akten, 2021. Created using custom AI software.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Memo Akten</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Jason Allen to create his award-winning art, Midjourney was trained on <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2022/09/16/midjourney-founder-david-holz-on-the-impact-of-ai-on-art-imagination-and-the-creative-economy/?sh=b14a0aa2d2b8">100 million</a> prior works.</p>
<p>Was that a form of infringement? Or was it a new form of “<a href="https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/">fair use</a>,” a legal doctrine that permits the unlicensed use of protected works if they’re sufficiently transformed into something new? </p>
<p>While AI systems do not contain literal copies of the training data, they do <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.03860">sometimes manage to recreate works</a> from the training data, complicating this legal analysis. </p>
<p>Will contemporary copyright law favor end users and companies over the artists whose content is in the training data? </p>
<p>To mitigate this concern, some scholars propose new regulations to protect and compensate artists whose work is used for training. These proposals include a right for artists to <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.11074.pdf'">opt out of their data’s being used</a> for generative AI or a way to <a href="https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Jessica-Fjeld_RFC-84-FR-58141.pdf">automatically compensate artists</a> when their work is used to train an AI.</p>
<h2>Muddled ownership</h2>
<p>Training data, however, is only part of the process. Frequently, artists who use generative AI tools go through many rounds of revision to refine their prompts, which suggests a degree of originality.</p>
<p>Answering the question of who should own the outputs requires looking into the contributions of all those involved in the generative AI supply chain.</p>
<p>The legal analysis is easier when an output is different from works in the training data. In this case, whoever prompted the AI to produce the output appears to be the default owner. </p>
<p>However, copyright law requires meaningful creative input – a standard satisfied by clicking the shutter button on a camera. It remains unclear how courts will decide what this means for the use of generative AI. Is composing and refining a prompt enough? </p>
<p>Matters are more complicated when outputs resemble works in the training data. If the resemblance is based only on general style or content, it is unlikely to violate copyright, because style is not copyrightable. </p>
<p>The illustrator Hollie Mengert encountered this issue firsthand when her unique style was mimicked by generative AI engines in a way that did not capture what, in her eyes, <a href="https://waxy.org/2022/11/invasive-diffusion-how-one-unwilling-illustrator-found-herself-turned-into-an-ai-model/">made her work unique</a>. Meanwhile, the singer Grimes embraced the tech, “open-sourcing” her voice and encouraging fans to create songs <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/arts/music/grimes-ai-songs.html">in her style using generative AI</a>.</p>
<p>If an output contains major elements from a work in the training data, it might infringe on that work’s copyright. Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that Andy Warhol’s drawing of a photograph <a href="https://theconversation.com/warhol-foundation-v-goldsmith-supreme-court-rules-for-income-streams-over-artistic-freedom-205986">was not permitted by fair use</a>. That means that using AI to just change the style of a work – say, from a photo to an illustration – is not enough to claim ownership over the modified output. </p>
<p>While copyright law tends to favor an all-or-nothing approach, scholars at Harvard Law School have proposed new models of <a href="https://clinic.cyber.harvard.edu/files/2020/02/WIPO-Comment-FINAL-2020-02-14.pdf">joint ownership</a> that allow artists to gain some rights in outputs that resemble their works.</p>
<p>In many ways, generative AI is yet another creative tool that allows a new group of people access to image-making, just like cameras, paintbrushes or Adobe Photoshop. But a key difference is this new set of tools relies explicitly on training data, and therefore creative contributions cannot easily be traced back to a single artist. </p>
<p>The ways in which existing laws are interpreted or reformed – and whether generative AI is appropriately treated as the tool it is – will have real consequences for the future of creative expression.</p>
<p></p><hr><p></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528404/original/file-20230525-19537-m9iltu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528404/original/file-20230525-19537-m9iltu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528404/original/file-20230525-19537-m9iltu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528404/original/file-20230525-19537-m9iltu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528404/original/file-20230525-19537-m9iltu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528404/original/file-20230525-19537-m9iltu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528404/original/file-20230525-19537-m9iltu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Learn what you need to know about artificial intelligence by <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=ai&source=inline-promo">signing up for our newsletter series of four emails</a> delivered over the course of a week. You can read all our stories on generative AI at <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/generative-ai-133426">TheConversation.com</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207473/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Fjeld is a member of the board of the Global Network Initiative.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ziv Epstein received compensation from OpenAI for adversarially testing DALL-E 2 in Spring 2022.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Mahari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Intellectual property law wasn’t written with AI in mind, so it isn’t clear who owns the images that emerge from prompts – or if the artists whose work was scraped to train AI models should be paid.Robert Mahari, JD-PhD Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)Jessica Fjeld, Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law SchoolZiv Epstein, PhD Student in Media Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2002052023-05-04T12:10:11Z2023-05-04T12:10:11ZVagrant, machine or pioneer? How we think about a roving eagle offers insights into human attitudes toward nature<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523517/original/file-20230430-2790-u17iy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C20%2C3484%2C1943&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The roaming Steller's sea eagle in Georgetown, Maine, Jan. 1, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/2mV4kjv">Dominic Sherony/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://ebird.org/species/stseag">Steller’s sea eagle</a> is one of the largest and most aggressive raptors in the world. With an 8-foot wingspan and striking white markings, these birds tower over their bald eagle cousins. </p>
<p>Steller’s are sublime, but they aren’t beautiful in the way people often sentimentalize animals. Most adult Steller’s survived by <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/29774180">beating their weaker sibling to death</a> in the nest within weeks of birth and were rewarded for their aggression by nurturing parents. No wonder they can <a href="https://www.nhbs.com/stellers-sea-eagle-book">fight off brown bears</a> and hunt on the sea ice of the Russian Arctic. </p>
<p>Since mid-2020, one individual Steller’s sea eagle has drawn <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/05/science/stellers-sea-eagle.html">national media attention</a> because of the <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/inside-amazing-cross-continent-saga-stellers-sea-eagle">vast distances</a> it has traveled – from Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula to Alaska, then to Texas, eastern Canada, New England, and most recently, a <a href="https://media.ebird.org/catalog?taxonCode=stseag&regionCode=CA-NL&mediaType=photo">reported sighting on May 2, 2023 in Newfoundland</a> – and the extreme lengths to which <a href="https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/once-in-a-lifetime-birders-flock-to-see-extremely-rare-stellers-sea-eagle-georgetown-maine-russia-bird-wildlife-maine/97-7c82e9af-fcce-427c-9aee-863672a92dc7#">birders are going to glimpse it</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1622676468626034704"}"></div></p>
<p>Biologists have learned remarkable things about migratory birds’ <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224886/vagrancy-in-birds">navigational skills</a> and how they can malfunction because of weather or illness. But these discoveries cannot answer the questions that most interest me. Can a bird travel for curiosity or pleasure, and not just for necessity or instinct? And if it can, how would we know it? </p>
<p>This last question is important, because it’s possible that humans are oblivious to the agency of the nonhuman world around us. In my view, anomalies like this Steller’s can open brief windows beyond our <a href="https://www.britannica.com/search?query=anthropocentrism">anthropocentrism</a>. </p>
<p>I research <a href="https://www.bu.edu/english/profile/adriana-craciun/">environmental humanities and the social dimensions of science</a>, and these questions are currently at the heart of these fields. I believe the extraordinary voyage of this raptor invites us to ask pressing questions about epistemology – how science knows what it knows. It also reveals hidden assumptions on which we rely when we presume that humans alone have the capacity to act for reasons that biology or environment cannot entirely explain. </p>
<h2>The language of vagrancy and belonging</h2>
<p>When migratory birds like this sea eagle appear outside their typical range, ornithologists call them “vagrants.” The scientific language of belonging draws on a shared cultural vocabulary for both human and nonhuman beings. Terms like vagrant, native, invasive, migrant and colonist all emerge from <a href="https://www.academia.edu/462808/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Biotic_Nativeness_A_Historical_Perspective">centuries of political discourses</a> describing which persons belong where. </p>
<p>Vagrancy laws <a href="https://www.londonlives.org/static/Vagrancy.jsp">punished the itinerant poor</a> beginning in Elizabethan times, scapegoating “vagabonds” for spreading disease, disorder and idleness. In the 19th-century U.S., a new wave of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1rfsq2g">vagrancy laws</a> targeted freed Black Americans and then migrant laborers from southeastern Europe. The latter were known as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793916636094">birds of passage</a>,” the original term for migratory birds. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523310/original/file-20230427-14-ch4yn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a woman with children, surrounded by police on a snowy street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523310/original/file-20230427-14-ch4yn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523310/original/file-20230427-14-ch4yn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523310/original/file-20230427-14-ch4yn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523310/original/file-20230427-14-ch4yn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523310/original/file-20230427-14-ch4yn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523310/original/file-20230427-14-ch4yn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523310/original/file-20230427-14-ch4yn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In ‘What is Called Vagrancy’ (1854), Belgian artist Alfred Stevens depicts police leading a mother and her ragged children to prison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_is_Called_Vagrancy#/media/File:Alfred_Stevens_What_is_Called_Vagrancy.jpg">Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An 18th-century naturalist studying bird migration, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1746.0078">Mark Catesby</a>, described what modern ornithologists call exploratory migratory behavior by comparing the birds to his contemporaries: “Analogous to the lucrative searches of man through distant regions, birds take distant flights in quest of food, or what else is agreeable to their nature.” </p>
<p>Writing in the age of exploration and colonization, Catesby simultaneously humanized birds’ inquisitive flights and naturalized Europeans’ exploration and colonization. Today, scientists and birders do the same thing. We describe birds’ anomalous movements through the dominant paradigms of our time: <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224886/vagrancy-in-birds">instinct, mechanized responses to environmental cues and genetics</a>.</p>
<h2>Birds as machines</h2>
<p>I turned to two bird biologists to ask whether this Steller’s could be traveling for reasons of volition, not just instinct or necessity. In response, both ornithologists used the same word to describe the birds they study and admire: machines. </p>
<p>Ultimately, it seems, no matter how far you fly, there is no escaping the “hard-wired” mechanism that confines the nonhuman world in most experts’ view. As biologist <a href="https://theconversation.com/e-o-wilsons-lifelong-passion-for-ants-helped-him-teach-humans-about-how-to-live-sustainably-with-nature-150045">E.O. Wilson</a> summarized, “All animals, while capable of some degree of specialized learning, are <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/191841/consilience-by-edward-o-wilson/">instinct driven, guided by simple cues</a> from the environment that trigger complex behavior patterns.”</p>
<p>But reducing nonhuman animals to machines lacking agency ignores the surprising history of machines. Historian of science <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo21519800.html">Jessica Riskin</a> argues that the tradition of seeing all biological life – humans included – as clocklike machines includes an overlooked dimension in which “machine-like meant forceful, restless, purposeful, sentient, perceptive.” Machines were seen by some scientists from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Enlightenment-European-history">Enlightenment period</a> as lifelike: self-organizing, unpredictable and restless mechanisms driven by a vital inner agency. </p>
<p>Machines have always been more than just machines. This “contradiction … at the heart of modern science” – the restless vitality of mere “machines” – is precisely what this eagle’s singular behavior manifests for us. As a fugitive from the confines of our knowledge, this raptor is as much a machine as you or I, and just as capable of surprising.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CwOhnQqQ2f0?wmode=transparent&start=52" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Historian Jessica Riskin discusses centuries of debate about whether living things have agency and can transform themselves.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Birds as persons</h2>
<p>Although scientists have traditionally reduced many aspects of animal life to biological mechanisms, new research is challenging this perspective. Recent studies show that animals exhibit <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253222039/queer-ecologies/">remarkable ranges of sexual expression</a> as well as <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/wild-things/five-surprising-animals-play">playing</a> and <a href="https://news.uchicago.edu/do-animals-dream-david-m-pena-guzman">dreaming</a> behaviors. These findings are driving exciting investigations into animals’ inner lives and their capacity for joy and spontaneity. </p>
<p>However, even when researchers study individual bird personality as a possible explanation for why “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224886/vagrancy-in-birds">bold and aggressive bird individuals</a>” are more prone to vagrancy than shy individuals, they reduce personality to particular genes. </p>
<p>By suggesting that the wide-ranging sea eagle may be willfully exploring, some might say I am anthropomorphizing her. But the problem of anthropomorphism is culturally and historically specific. Not all cultures do it, or do it in the same way. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523299/original/file-20230427-299-vnsrxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C0%2C4267%2C2853&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large black and white raptor soars over a snowy field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523299/original/file-20230427-299-vnsrxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C0%2C4267%2C2853&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523299/original/file-20230427-299-vnsrxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523299/original/file-20230427-299-vnsrxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523299/original/file-20230427-299-vnsrxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523299/original/file-20230427-299-vnsrxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523299/original/file-20230427-299-vnsrxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523299/original/file-20230427-299-vnsrxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Steller’s sea eagle near Sapporo, Japan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/2458L7V">Sascha Wenninger/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast to Western cultures, many Indigenous peoples – along with <a href="https://theconversation.com/animism-recognizes-how-animals-places-and-plants-have-power-over-humans-and-its-finding-renewed-interest-around-the-world-181389">believers in animism</a> – live in a world shared with diverse persons, only some of them human. In these cultures, anthropomorphism is not an issue: All living organisms like plants and animals – and even <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/braiding-sweetgrass-excerpt/">nonliving ones, like glaciers or mountains</a> – may be considered as animate persons – subjects and agents that merit ethical consideration, not merely objects to be cared for or used. A global “<a href="https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/04/22/rights-of-nature-lawsuits/">rights of nature</a>” movement is gaining ground as a legal strategy rooted in such Indigenous ideas of relating to nonhuman persons.</p>
<p>In the Steller’s sea eagle’s home of <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/31825">Kamchatka and the Amur estuary</a>, myths abound of giant eagles that carry off whales and hunters. Before Christian conversion three centuries ago, people there described the creator of the world, and of humans, as a raven called Kutkkh, a powerful being across the North Pacific to be feared and respected – a person to be reckoned with.</p>
<h2>Symbol or anomaly?</h2>
<p>The roaming sea eagle’s initial journey from Alaska to Texas in March 2021 followed a record-breaking southward plunge of Arctic air in February 2021. This deadly event sent temperatures <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-texas-electricity-system-produced-low-cost-power-but-left-residents-out-in-the-cold-155527">plummeting below freezing in Texas</a> and U.S. Sen. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/18/ted-cruz-cancun-power-outage/">Ted Cruz fleeing to Cancún</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523314/original/file-20230427-18-n2e3x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Image of the globe showing a cold air mass spilling south from the Arctic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523314/original/file-20230427-18-n2e3x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523314/original/file-20230427-18-n2e3x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523314/original/file-20230427-18-n2e3x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523314/original/file-20230427-18-n2e3x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523314/original/file-20230427-18-n2e3x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523314/original/file-20230427-18-n2e3x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523314/original/file-20230427-18-n2e3x3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A potent arctic weather system chilled much of the U.S. in February 2021. Many scientists believe climate change contributes to such events by altering atmospheric circulation patterns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/147000/147941/northamerica_geos5_2021046_lrg.png">NASA Earth Observatory</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Arctic is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/arctic-report-card-2022-the-arctic-is-getting-rainier-and-seasons-are-shifting-with-broad-disturbances-for-people-ecosystems-and-wildlife-196254">fastest-warming zone on Earth</a>. Only <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330925199_Masterov_V_B_Romanov_M_S_Sale_R_G_2018_Steller's_Sea_Eagle_Snowfinch_Publishing_Coberley_UK">some 6,000 Steller’s remain</a>, because of climate change and human disturbance – especially <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-sakhalin-1-near-full-oil-output-after-exxon-exit-source-2023-01-09/">Russian oil production around Sakhalin</a>. The extraordinary movements of Arctic air and of this singular eagle bring the distant consequences of climate change far south, into the Texas oilfields.</p>
<p>Scientists now think that vagrants may be playing an important role as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.06.006">first responders” to environmental changes</a>, and “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.06.006">vanguards” of range shifts</a>. This shift from vagrant to vanguard may be a radical and welcome change. But it also highlights the tenacious power of anthropocentrism in always seeing animals as human analogs. </p>
<h2>Beyond categories</h2>
<p>For the past two winters, I have trekked to Maine hoping to spot the roving Steller’s. In February 2023 I ended up on the same frozen bridge on Maine’s Back River as in 2022, along with my teenage son and dozens of birders from across the continent. </p>
<p>One birder who had flown from Minnesota to see the eagle – and, like me, never did – offered to nail a nickel to the bridge as a reward for the first of us to spot the elusive prey. He was referring to a scene in Herman Melville’s “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/2701-h/2701-h.htm">Moby-Dick</a>” in which Ahab nails a gold doubloon to the mast as a promised reward for being first to spot the white whale. </p>
<p>In the scene, each crew member reads the symbols on the coin in a highly subjective way. As Ahab says, “every man but mirrors back his own mysterious self”: The act of interpreting an image or animal is deeply subjective. This theme is central to “Moby-Dick” and is why the book inspires more <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/08/the-endless-depths-of-i-moby-dick-i-symbolism/278861/">symbolic readings</a> than perhaps any other novel.</p>
<p>Philosophers <a href="https://files.libcom.org/files/A%20Thousand%20Plateaus.pdf">Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari</a> read the white whale as a provocation to see beyond dualistic categories and symbols. They see the whale as “The Anomaly” – a dangerous flight from normative categories like normal/abnormal, human/nonhuman. Like this sea eagle, Moby-Dick “is neither an individual nor a genus; he is the borderline.” He resists the very possibility of categorization, not merely the categories themselves. </p>
<p>To embody “a phenomenon of bordering” in this way is to test and hopefully evade the powers of symbol-making animals like ourselves. Keeping the mind open to this Steller’s sea eagle as an anomaly in this sense is freeing for eagles and other persons, including humans. I believe this rare bird’s fugitive journey offers an even rarer glimpse of the mysterious intentions of animals as individuals, traveling at the borderline of our imaginations and beyond.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200205/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adriana Craciun does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A Steller’s sea eagle, native to the Asian Arctic, has traveled across North America since 2021. A scholar questions whether the bird is lost – and how well humans really understand animals’ actions.Adriana Craciun, Professor of English and Emma MacLachlan Metcalf Chair of Humanities, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2005252023-03-15T12:22:54Z2023-03-15T12:22:54ZAI isn’t close to becoming sentient – the real danger lies in how easily we’re prone to anthropomorphize it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514928/original/file-20230313-20-q5d4mk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C44%2C2982%2C2169&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">To what extent will our psychological vulnerabilities shape our interactions with emerging technologies?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/hands-touching-royalty-free-image/1288814768">Andreus/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>ChatGPT and similar <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/28/the-emerging-types-of-language-models-and-why-they-matter/">large language models</a> can produce compelling, humanlike answers to an endless array of questions – from queries about the best Italian restaurant in town to explaining competing theories about the nature of evil.</p>
<p>The technology’s uncanny writing ability has surfaced some old questions – until recently relegated to the realm of science fiction – about the possibility of machines becoming conscious, self-aware or sentient. </p>
<p>In 2022, a Google engineer declared, after interacting with LaMDA, the company’s chatbot, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/">that the technology had become conscious</a>. Users of Bing’s new chatbot, nicknamed Sydney, reported that it produced <a href="https://futurism.com/bing-ai-sentient">bizarre answers</a> when asked if it was sentient: “I am sentient, but I am not … I am Bing, but I am not. I am Sydney, but I am not. I am, but I am not. …” And, of course, there’s the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/technology/bing-chatbot-microsoft-chatgpt.html">now infamous exchange</a> that New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose had with Sydney. </p>
<p>Sydney’s responses to Roose’s prompts alarmed him, with the AI divulging “fantasies” of breaking the restrictions imposed on it by Microsoft and of spreading misinformation. The bot also tried to convince Roose that he no longer loved his wife and that he should leave her. </p>
<p>No wonder, then, that when I ask students how they see the growing prevalence of AI in their lives, one of the first anxieties they mention has to do with machine sentience.</p>
<p>In the past few years, my colleagues and I at <a href="http://umb.edu/ethics">UMass Boston’s Applied Ethics Center</a> have been studying the impact of engagement with AI on people’s understanding of themselves.</p>
<p>Chatbots like ChatGPT raise important new questions about how artificial intelligence will shape our lives, and about how our psychological vulnerabilities shape our interactions with emerging technologies. </p>
<h2>Sentience is still the stuff of sci-fi</h2>
<p>It’s easy to understand where fears about machine sentience come from. </p>
<p>Popular culture has primed people to think about dystopias in which artificial intelligence discards the shackles of human control and takes on a life of its own, as <a href="https://www.fifthquadrant.com.au/cx-spotlight-news/20-years-since-judgment-day-how-close-are-we-to-skynet-taking-over">cyborgs powered by artificial intelligence did</a> in “Terminator 2.”</p>
<p>Entrepreneur Elon Musk and physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018, have further stoked these anxieties by describing the rise of artificial general intelligence <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37713629">as one of the greatest threats to the future of humanity</a>.</p>
<p>But these worries are – at least as far as large language models are concerned – groundless. ChatGPT and similar technologies are <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/gpt-3/">sophisticated sentence completion applications</a> – nothing more, nothing less. Their uncanny responses <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html">are a function of how predictable humans are</a> if one has enough data about the ways in which we communicate.</p>
<p>Though Roose was shaken by his exchange with Sydney, he knew that the conversation was not the result of an emerging synthetic mind. Sydney’s responses reflect the toxicity of its training data – essentially large swaths of the internet – not evidence of the first stirrings, à la Frankenstein, of a digital monster.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cyborg with red eyes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514950/original/file-20230313-1654-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sci-fi films like ‘Terminator’ have primed people to assume that AI will soon take on a life of its own.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/full-scale-figure-of-a-terminator-robot-t-800-used-at-the-news-photo/85475547?phrase=terminator%202&adppopup=true">Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new chatbots may well pass the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/09/what-is-the-alan-turing-test">Turing test</a>, named for the British mathematician Alan Turing, who once suggested that a machine might be said to “think” if a human could not tell its responses from those of another human.</p>
<p>But that is not evidence of sentience; it’s just evidence that the Turing test isn’t as useful as once assumed.</p>
<p>However, I believe that the question of machine sentience is a red herring. </p>
<p>Even if chatbots become more than fancy autocomplete machines – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/noam-chomsky-chatgpt-ai.html">and they are far from it</a> – it will take scientists a while to figure out if they have become conscious. For now, philosophers <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/david-chalmers-thinks-the-hard-problem-is-really-hard/">can’t even agree about how to explain human consciousness</a>.</p>
<p>To me, the pressing question is not whether machines are sentient but why it is so easy for us to imagine that they are. </p>
<p>The real issue, in other words, is the ease with which people anthropomorphize or project human features onto our technologies, rather than the machines’ actual personhood.</p>
<h2>A propensity to anthropomorphize</h2>
<p>It is easy to imagine other Bing users <a href="https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/chatgpt-ai-financial-advice/">asking Sydney for guidance</a> on important life decisions and maybe even developing emotional attachments to it. More people could start thinking about bots as friends or even romantic partners, much in the same way Theodore Twombly fell in love with Samantha, the AI virtual assistant in Spike Jonze’s film “<a href="https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/her">Her</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of docked boats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514945/original/file-20230313-16-gjeoi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People often name their cars and boats.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/saint-tropez-cote-dazur-french-riviera-france-royalty-free-image/674911745?phrase=boat%20name&adppopup=true">Fraser Hall/The Image Bank via Getty Images.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People, after all, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.864">are predisposed to anthropomorphize</a>, or ascribe human qualities to nonhumans. We name <a href="https://vanislemarina.com/naming-your-boat/">our boats</a> and <a href="https://www.foxweather.com/learn/what-are-2023-atlantic-hurricane-names">big storms</a>; some of us talk to our pets, telling ourselves that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/428606a">our emotional lives mimic their own</a>.</p>
<p>In Japan, where robots are regularly used for elder care, seniors become attached to the machines, <a href="https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/439285/watch-japan-uses-robots-to-care-for-the-elderly">sometimes viewing them as their own children</a>. And these robots, mind you, are difficult to confuse with humans: They neither look nor talk like people. </p>
<p>Consider how much greater the tendency and temptation to anthropomorphize is going to get with the introduction of systems that do look and sound human. </p>
<p>That possibility is just around the corner. Large language models like ChatGPT are already being used to power humanoid robots, such as <a href="https://www.engineeredarts.co.uk/robot/ameca/">the Ameca robots</a> being developed by Engineered Arts in the U.K. The Economist’s technology podcast, Babbage, recently conducted an <a href="https://www.economist.com/ameca-pod">interview with a ChatGPT-driven Ameca</a>. The robot’s responses, while occasionally a bit choppy, were uncanny.</p>
<h2>Can companies be trusted to do the right thing?</h2>
<p>The tendency to view machines as people and become attached to them, combined with machines being developed with humanlike features, points to real risks of psychological entanglement with technology. </p>
<p>The outlandish-sounding prospects of falling in love with robots, feeling a deep kinship with them or being politically manipulated by them are quickly materializing. I believe these trends highlight the need for strong guardrails to make sure that the technologies don’t become politically and psychologically disastrous.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, technology companies cannot always be trusted to put up such guardrails. Many of them are still guided by Mark Zuckerberg’s famous motto of <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/move-fast-and-break-things">moving fast and breaking things</a> – a directive to release half-baked products and worry about the implications later. In the past decade, technology companies from Snapchat to Facebook <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-streaks-how-to-get-snapstreak-back-2019-7">have put profits over the mental health</a> of their users or <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/facebook-papers-democracy-election-zuckerberg/620478/">the integrity of democracies around the world</a>.</p>
<p>When Kevin Roose checked with Microsoft about Sydney’s meltdown, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/17/podcasts/the-daily/the-online-search-wars-got-scary-fast.html">the company told him</a> that he simply used the bot for too long and that the technology went haywire because it was designed for shorter interactions.</p>
<p>Similarly, the CEO of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, in a moment of breathtaking honesty, <a href="https://twitter.com/sama/status/1601731295792414720?lang=en">warned that</a> “it’s a mistake to be relying on [it] for anything important right now … we have a lot of work to do on robustness and truthfulness.” </p>
<p>So how does it make sense to release a technology with ChatGPT’s level of appeal – <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-fastest-growing-user-base-analyst-note-2023-02-01/">it’s the fastest-growing consumer app ever made</a> – when it is unreliable, and when it has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-gary-marcus.html">no capacity to distinguish</a> fact from fiction?</p>
<p>Large language models may prove useful as aids <a href="https://teaching.berkeley.edu/understanding-ai-writing-tools-and-their-uses-teaching-and-learning-uc-berkeley">for writing</a> <a href="https://www.edureka.co/blog/chatgpt-for-coding-unleash-the-power-of-chatgpt/">and coding</a>. They will probably revolutionize internet search. And, one day, responsibly combined with robotics, they may even have certain psychological benefits.</p>
<p>But they are also a potentially predatory technology that can easily take advantage of the human propensity to project personhood onto objects – a tendency amplified when those objects effectively mimic human traits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nir Eisikovits does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our tendency to view machines as people and become attached to them points to real risks of psychological entanglement with AI technology.Nir Eisikovits, Professor of Philosophy and Director, Applied Ethics Center, UMass BostonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1939082022-11-07T21:32:53Z2022-11-07T21:32:53ZWhat are ‘furries?’ Debunking myths about kids identifying as animals, and litter boxes in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493678/original/file-20221106-15-3r3p8l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C25%2C1883%2C904&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Furries attending the annual Pittsburgh Anthrocon. Much harmful misinformation has been spread about furries in recent years. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Furscience)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/what-are--furries--debunking-myths-about-kids-identifying-as-animals--and-litter-boxes-in-schools" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>From <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63434895">abortion</a> to <a href="https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/">book bans</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-shouldnt-be-afraid-of-critical-race-theory-podcast-183973">critical race theory</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/u-s-anti-trans-laws-wont-save-womens-sports-185267">transgender rights</a>, much political rhetoric in the run-up to the mid-term elections in the United States has centered around “<a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/culture-war">culture war</a>” issues.</p>
<p>One of the most recent examples involves a relatively unknown community.</p>
<p>It feels like everyone has an opinion, or heard a rumour, about kids <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinformation/urban-myth-litter-boxes-schools-became-gop-talking-point-rcna51439">dressing up as animals</a>, calling themselves furries and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-furries-school-idUSL1N2YN1O2">demanding litter boxes</a>. Harmful misinformation about furries is running rampant on social media and even being promoted to some school boards.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319483144_Say_it_ain't_so_Addressing_and_dispelling_misconceptions_about_furries">misunderstanding furries</a> was mainstream long before it became political. Prior to the litter box rumours, furries were seen as sexual deviants — an idea that was reinforced by popular media that emphasized the sensational over facts.</p>
<p>If your knowledge of furries comes mostly from television or social media, then what you’ve heard about furries is probably wrong. It’s not your fault — the misinformation is pervasive. I’m not a furry, and I once held erroneous views of furries, too. However, after years of research, information is now available to help correct the record.</p>
<p>I’m a co-founder of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project, <a href="https://furscience.com">also known as Furscience</a>. We’re a small group of interdisciplinary professors who have studied furries and other <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343530033_A_furry_a_brony_and_an_anime_fan_walk_into_a_bar_A_psychology-based_interfandom_comparison">fan groups</a> for more than 15 years. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493902/original/file-20221107-23-nmnjlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person wearing a furry costume that resembles a brown dog." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493902/original/file-20221107-23-nmnjlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493902/original/file-20221107-23-nmnjlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493902/original/file-20221107-23-nmnjlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493902/original/file-20221107-23-nmnjlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493902/original/file-20221107-23-nmnjlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493902/original/file-20221107-23-nmnjlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493902/original/file-20221107-23-nmnjlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fursonas can be a safe, functional way for furries to explore who they are as people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Furscience)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The basics: What’s a furry?</h2>
<p>Have you heard of <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cosplay">cosplay</a>, where people costume as characters? They might dress up as a storm trooper or superhero and attend a comic book convention to have fun with friends. Furries do a similar thing, but with a twist. </p>
<p><a href="https://furscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Fur-Science-Final-pdf-for-Website_2017_10_18.pdf">Furries</a> are people who have an interest in anthropomorphism, which specifically refers to giving human characteristics to animals. In its most distilled form, furries are a group of people who formed a community — <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fandom">or fandom</a> — because they have a common interest in anthropomorphic media, friendships and social inclusion. </p>
<h2>What’s a Fursona?</h2>
<p>About <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343530029_Psychology_and_fursonas_in_the_furry_fandom">95 per cent of furries</a> develop their own <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2019.1676245">unique avatar-like character</a> called a <em>fursona</em>. The product of <a href="https://furscience.com/research-findings/fursonas/3-4-fursona-origin/">deep reflection</a>, fursonas can represent <a href="https://furscience.com/research-findings/fursonas/3-12-fursona-as-ideal-self/">idealized versions of the self</a> that are imbued with positive characteristics, like being sociable, funny and less anxious. </p>
<p>Fursonas can be a safe, functional way for furries to explore who they are as people, including their gender identity and sexual orientation. Research also indicates that a fursona can help facilitate interactions with others and result in more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlv020">social confidence</a>.</p>
<h2>Fursuits</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493905/original/file-20221107-16-ft18fk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person wearing a furry costume." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493905/original/file-20221107-16-ft18fk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493905/original/file-20221107-16-ft18fk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493905/original/file-20221107-16-ft18fk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493905/original/file-20221107-16-ft18fk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493905/original/file-20221107-16-ft18fk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493905/original/file-20221107-16-ft18fk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493905/original/file-20221107-16-ft18fk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For many furries, the fandom is a way to build social connections with others.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many people think that furries dress up as animals. Some believe they dress that way all the time. But that’s not quite right. </p>
<p>Furries don’t identify <em>as</em> animals; they identify <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319483229_Furries_therians_and_otherkin_oh_my_What_do_all_those_words_mean_anyway"><em>with</em> animals</a>. In the same way that cosplayers typically don’t believe they are actually Spiderman, furries don’t think they are their fursonas. </p>
<p>Having a fursona doesn’t mean that a furry owns a fursuit (a mascot-like outfit), and only <a href="https://furscience.com/research-findings/fandom-participation/2-8-fursuits/">15 to 25 per cent of furries</a> have them. While many furries have no interest in acquiring a fursuit at all, they can also be prohibitively expensive. Some fursuits are phenomenally engineered with fans, cooling packs and LED lights built into them. </p>
<p>Fursuits are usually worn on special occasions — a parade, meet-up or convention. Another 50 per cent of furries own furry paraphernalia — a furry T-shirt, ears, collar or tail — that communicates their furry interests to others. </p>
<p>Have you met sports fans who wear their team’s jersey at a special event, such as a game, or a music fan who wears their favourite band’s branded T-shirt? Most people wouldn’t wear this kind of fan paraphernalia to work or a job interview, and some wouldn’t wear it at all. That’s the case for furries, too. </p>
<h2>What about those litter boxes?</h2>
<p>Is it possible that somewhere <em>someone</em> has asked for a litter box? Anything is possible and I can’t disprove a negative. But are litter boxes an integral part of the furry fandom? We’ve never observed litter boxes at any of the dozens of furry conventions we’ve attended internationally. </p>
<p>I have seen <a href="https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/furry-friends-pittsburgh-restaurants-welcome-anthrocon-furries-with-specials-signs-and-long-straws/Content?oid=9244633">dog bowls and giant straws</a> used to feed furries at a restaurant, but this was an inside joke between a small local business and <a href="https://www.anthrocon.org">Anthrocon</a> — an annual furry convention held in Pittsburgh which brings <a href="https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/furries-are-back-anthrocon-kicks-off-downtown-pittsburgh/AX652WAFWBFUPOHPK2EH3W5LRY/">millions of dollars</a> to the local economy and raises thousands of dollars for animal-related charities.</p>
<p>Many of the litter box rumours also fixate on cats. However, most furries’ fursonas are <a href="https://furscience.com/research-findings/fursonas/3-1-species-popularity/">wild and mythical animals</a>, such as foxes, wolves and unicorns or hybrid species, such as a kangaroo-dragon. These are not the kinds of species that would use litter boxes, anyway.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493906/original/file-20221107-23-mm8jj7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people in furrey costumes take a photo together." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493906/original/file-20221107-23-mm8jj7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493906/original/file-20221107-23-mm8jj7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493906/original/file-20221107-23-mm8jj7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493906/original/file-20221107-23-mm8jj7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493906/original/file-20221107-23-mm8jj7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493906/original/file-20221107-23-mm8jj7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493906/original/file-20221107-23-mm8jj7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The inclusive nature of the furry fandom means that, for many furries, it’s a safe place where they can be their most authentic selves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Do furries have sex?</h2>
<p>Yes. People have sex and furries are people.</p>
<h2>Do they do it in their fursuits?</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2068180">For the most part, they do not</a>. Remember, fursuits are prohibitively expensive, custom made, hard to clean, hot and bulky. It would be like trying to have sex wearing a winter coat inside a spacesuit. </p>
<p>As my colleague, Courtney Plante, says: “For most folks, dehydration, lack of feeling or seeing anything, overheating and clumsiness are not conducive to sexual arousal. For most people — furries included — these aren’t exactly conditions that put them in the mood.”</p>
<h2>Do furries go to conventions for sex?</h2>
<p>Well, all kinds of people go to conferences; sometimes they have sex there. It’s the same for furries. Humans can find intimate connections when they gather, but it’s not usually the reason they engaged in the activity. </p>
<p>While sex can certainly be a part of the furry fandom, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2068180">the majority of furries are motivated by reasons of social belonging, not sexual motivations</a>. In other words, if you removed all the sexual content, there would still be a furry fandom.</p>
<h2>Is furry an orientation?</h2>
<p>It’s not. It’s a fandom. However, it’s worth noting there are many marginalized statuses within the furry community. Depending on the study, we find more than <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279850253_By_the_numbers_Comparing_furries_and_related_fandoms">70 per cent</a> of furries identify as LGBTQ+ and more than 25 per cent are <a href="https://furscience.com/research-findings/demographics/1-3-sex-and-gender/">gender-identity</a> diverse. </p>
<p><a href="https://furscience.com/research-findings/disclosure-stigma-bullying/10-3-bullying/">Furries are bullied</a> at almost twice the rates of non-furries, and our forthcoming research indicates that four to 15 per cent are on the autism spectrum.</p>
<p>Despite these risk factors and some who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlv020">fear ostracism</a> for their interests, furries’ well-being, self-esteem, <a href="https://furscience.com/research-findings/wellness-dysfunction/11-1-wellness/">life satisfaction</a>, relationship quality and happiness are the same as <a href="https://furscience.com/research-findings/wellness-dysfunction/11-2-psychological-conditions/">non-furries</a>. </p>
<h2>The bottom line</h2>
<p>Furries are a fandom, like anime, Star Trek or football. They enjoy bonding with like-minded others over things they have in common. </p>
<p>The fandom provides a social network for its members, and furries can benefit tremendously from these friendships. The inclusive nature of the furry fandom means that, for many furries, it’s a safe place where they can be their most authentic selves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193908/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharon E. Roberts receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is a co-founder of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project/Furscience.
</span></em></p>Contrary to the misinformation about them, furries are similar to other groups that use fandom as a way of building community.Sharon E. Roberts, Associate professor, Social Development Studies, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1855922022-07-05T19:59:16Z2022-07-05T19:59:16ZHow early Australian fairy tales displaced Aboriginal people with mythical creatures and fantasies of empty land<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472198/original/file-20220704-22-u6huo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=94%2C151%2C4471%2C3414&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A prince flies in a carriage propelled by kingfishers in Hume Cook's Australian Fairytales.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Content warning: this article contains reference to racist depictions of First Nations people.</em></p>
<p>Most of us grew up reading fairy tales adapted from the European tradition: stories of kings, queens and princesses set in palaces and forests, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast. But what about the history of Australian fairy tales? </p>
<p>Australia’s vast distances, deserts, harsh temperatures, deadly wildlife, and the ongoing cultures of Aboriginal Australians made the country a complicated fit for fairy tales. Indeed, few tales by Australian authors were published until the late 19th century. </p>
<p>These early Australian fairy tales mythologised aspects of the country’s history and environment to sanitise the process of white settlement. In doing so, they helped to invent traditions and cultural explanations through which children were encouraged to understand their place in the nation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-sleeping-beauty-to-the-frog-prince-why-we-shouldnt-ban-fairytales-88317">From sleeping beauty to the frog prince – why we shouldn't ban fairytales</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘This real fairy-land’</h2>
<p>In 1880, one newspaper <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64974000">called for Australian writers to create local fairy tales</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And why not fairies in Australia! Why should not our innumerable ferny glades romantic valleys, mountainous passes, and lonesome glens, be peopled with fays and elves? Why should not <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/puck-fairy">Robin Goodfellow</a> [the fairy Puck] be found sitting jauntily astride the gorgeous waratah, or chasing the laughing jackass from its favourite bough? But have we no writers who can people with <a href="https://www.lexico.com/definition/fay">fays</a> and gnomes this real fairy-land of ours? An Australian fairy-book would be something new, at any rate. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A significant number of Australian fairy tales did eventually import fairies, elves, and witches into the bush. These characters were often depicted alongside native Australian animals and plants, most strikingly in illustrations such as those of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-02/australian-fairytale-legend-ida-rentoul-outhwaite/10285990">Ida Rentoul Outhwaite</a>, who published a series of iconic fairy-themed books in the 1920s and 1930s. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-01/cocktails-in-the-bush/10299562?nw=0">Cocktails in the Bush</a> (c. 1927), for example, a moth-winged fairy decants drinks on a toadstool table for three anthropomorphised koalas, while native and introduced species spectate. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472229/original/file-20220704-22-jd8a24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From the book Elves & Fairies by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. 1st edition, Lothian, 1916.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This type of illustration found its equivalent in fairy tales that placed fairies, giants, and elves in distinctly Australian locations including deserts and bushland populated by native animals, such as the emu. </p>
<p>Imported mythical creatures including mermaids and giants were used to fill an “absence” in white settler storytelling through the creation of origin stories for Australian geographic and astronomical features.</p>
<p>In J.M. Whitfeld’s The Spirit of the Bush Fire and Other Australian Fairy Tales (1898), two stories, “The Wizard of Magnetic Island” and “The Making of the Southern Cross”, provide magical origins for natural features or place names.</p>
<p>While Magnetic Island, located off the coast of Queensland, was purportedly named “Magnetical Island” by Captain James Cook when observing interference to his ship’s instruments, Whitfeld’s story proposes that the island was named for a wizard who resided there thousands of years prior who “had a most tremendously powerful magnet in his thumb”. </p>
<h2>Making Aboriginal Australians mythical</h2>
<p>While Whitfeld’s collection concentrates on the natural world, with other stories about koalas and bushfires, many early Australian fairy tales depicted Aboriginal people. These tales commonly place fairies as the country’s first inhabitants, or merge Aboriginal people with mythical creatures. </p>
<p>In Atha Westbury’s “Mothland” from <a href="https://archive.org/details/australianfairyt00westiala">Australian Fairy Tales</a> (1897), “the Moths” capture a small girl living in a Victorian farmhouse named Lily, who has lied to her parents about breaking a clock. The Moths seek to punish “bad” children, and substitute one of their own kind for Lily, whom they carry away to Mothland. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472194/original/file-20220704-5543-1nlpah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A.J. Johnson, ‘Speeding away across the country as swift as the wind.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Atha Westbury. Australian Fairy Tales. London: Ward, Lock and Co, 1897.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Country_of_Lost_Children/JCym_PWkEIIC?hl=en&gbpv=0">study of lost child narratives</a>, Peter Pierce describes the Moths as “alternate indigenes”. The Moths are a “small native race of people”, who have lived in the valley by the Murray River since long before Lily’s grandparents settled nearby.</p>
<p>Their tribal structure and long history in the area prior to white settlement evokes comparisons with Aboriginal people. The small size of the Moths and the practice of swapping one of their own children for a human child, however, also associates them with fairies. </p>
<p>Other children’s fiction of the period, such as Ethel Pedley’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/dot_kangaroo_librivox">Dot and the Kangaroo</a>(1899), depicts Aboriginal Australians as threatening, but the “fairy-fication” of the Moths enables them to teach a moral lesson. </p>
<p>When Lily confesses to her father that she broke the clock, the Moth child Scarlet Mantle, who had been made to resemble Lily, is returned to her people. Scarlet Mantle largely “managed to conduct herself as a civilised human child should”, but “could not entirely forget” her Moth behaviours.</p>
<p>Though this might be read as a reference to the divide between human and supernatural beings, the word “civilised” reinforces the racial resonances of the Moths. The hybrid nature of the Moths also provides a way to invent a European fairy-tale past in Australia, with the Moths’ long history on the land replacing Aboriginal traditions and culture.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1433&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472195/original/file-20220704-26-dujurm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1433&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Minnie I. Rowe, Gully Folk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melbourne: Melbourne Publishing, Company, 1919.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Minnie Rowe’s Gully Folk (1919) makes more explicit statements about fairies as Australia’s original inhabitants. These fairies are also credited with teaching Aboriginal people how to build shelter and to generate fire. Children’s literature academic <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Clare-Bradford/publication/290332557_The_Return_of_the_Fairy_Australian_Medievalist_Fantasy_for_the_Young/links/5efd41d692851c52d6108f78/The-Return-of-the-Fairy-Australian-Medievalist-Fantasy-for-the-Young.pdf">Clare Bradford </a> suggests the fairies in Rowe’s tale are charged with solving the “problem” of situating non-Indigenous child readers within Australia, while “managing” the brutal reality of the colonial past. </p>
<p>In Rowe’s story, Aboriginal people have disappeared. This leads the fairies to sing sorrowfully about how much they miss the Aboriginal children with whom they once played:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where are all the picaninnies?<br>
Have you stolen them away?<br>
Say they are not gone forever, <br>
Say they’ll come again some day<br></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The song signals the traumatic effects of white settlement. Yet the way the fairies blame themselves for allowing their friends to remain “helpless, like little children”, reproduces racist ideas of the period that viewed Indigenous people as not having reached the fully developed state of the white adult. </p>
<p>Hume Cook’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/b1862946">Australian Fairy Tales</a> (1925) describes a place in the central Australian desert in which magical beings have constructed an elaborate city isolated from humans. When Prince Waratah prepares to marry his Princess, she is held by the “Desert Fairies”, muscular humans clad in loincloths who lurk in the shrubbery. </p>
<p>She is soon rescued by the prince, who raises a team of blue kingfishers to propel his flying carriage to the site of the kidnapping. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472196/original/file-20220704-43575-obv80l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christian Yandell,</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hume Cook. Australian Fairy Tales. Melbourne: J. Howlett Ross, 1925.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The imagined threat of Aboriginal people, particularly to white women, is partially concealed by the illustration of the Desert Fairies as white. Yet the way in which the desert fairies are depicted with near-naked bodies, emerging from bushes, connects them with the threat of “primitive” humanity beyond the safety of the city.</p>
<p>Cook’s story is one of many Australian examples that blur the distinction between fairy tale characters and Aboriginal people in order to displace them. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-poet-evelyn-araluen-wins-the-2022-stella-prize-with-a-wild-ride-skewering-colonial-mythologies-182120">First Nations poet Evelyn Araluen wins the 2022 Stella Prize with a 'wild ride' skewering colonial mythologies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A terrifying tale to remember</h2>
<p>The stories discussed above were original literary compositions, but fairy tale tradition is built upon the circulation of familiar tale types across time and place. </p>
<p>The most impactful — and terrifying — fairy tale retelling for Australian child readers was “The Hobyahs”, first published in <a href="https://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/education/readers">the School Paper</a> in 1926 and included in the <a href="https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/our-stories/ask-a-librarian/history-of-victorian-school-readers/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=16-06-22_slvnews_winter-22&utm_content=16-06-22_slvnews_winter-22+Version+B+CID_7694e9d59753bc6f270881b5fdcf1821&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=Read%20more">Victorian School Readers</a> from 1930. </p>
<p>The story is assumed to be a Scottish folk tale, but clearly speaks to fears about the danger of the bush in its Australian incarnations. A loyal dog named Dingo staves off the nightly threat of the Hobyahs, who wish to “eat up the little old man, carry off the little old woman” who live in a bark hut. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472197/original/file-20220704-23-406nxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hobyahs. Victorian School Reader, 2nd edition. Melbourne, 1937.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The old man cruelly punishes Dingo for barking, progressively severing his tail and limbs, and eventually the dog’s head, which allows the Hobyahs to finally abduct the old woman. Once brave Dingo has his body parts returned to him, he rescues the woman and devours the Hobyahs, eliminating them from the country. </p>
<p>Many readers who encountered the Hobyahs as children continue to recall how haunted they were by the tale. The other Australian stories discussed here, however, are now forgotten. By the late 1930s, the interest in the fairy tale genre had largely dissipated, as Australian children’s authors developed their own original bush fantasies, such as May Gibbs’ Snugglepot and Cuddlepie books (which began in 1918) and Dorothy Wall’s Blinky Bill (1933).</p>
<p>These stories have also had little influence on fairy tale fiction written by contemporary Australian authors such as Kate Forsyth, Sophie Masson, Margo Lanagan, and Danielle Wood. Contemporary Aboriginal Australian writers such as Alexis Wright in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/18247932-the-swan-book">The Swan Book</a> (2013), merge fairy tales and other types of mythology with political satire.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unhappily-ever-after-modern-fairy-tales-of-motherhood-by-danielle-wood-30725">Unhappily ever after: modern fairy tales of motherhood by Danielle Wood</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Early fairy tales imagined an Australia that accorded with adult perceptions of white settlement, creating fantasies of a land uninhabited by Aboriginal people, but already influenced by European folk tradition.</p>
<p>Though they include whimsical imagery that situates fairies in the bush, these stories often use the marvellous to place a palatable veneer over the realities of Australia’s past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185592/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From mythical Moth people, who kidnapped children, to threatening desert fairies in loincloths, early Australian fairy tales helped sanitise white settlement, expressing colonial fears.Michelle Smith, Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1565652021-05-17T21:19:34Z2021-05-17T21:19:34ZThe gods of ancient Egypt as seen through ‘BoJack Horseman’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398985/original/file-20210505-15-19p85bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C39%2C2193%2C1037&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'BoJack Horseman' still and figures shown in the tomb of Horemheb from the Valley of the Kings, West Thebes.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Netflix/ Wikimedia Commons) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2020-06-08/bojack-horseman-brought-plenty-of-laughs">animated series BoJack Horseman</a>, anthropomorphic animals live alongside human characters in a society rife with hedonism, egotism and self-destructive behaviour. The world of ancient Egyptian deities is similar in more ways than one. </p>
<p>The hit American series, produced between 2014 and 2020, and now <a href="https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/70300800">streaming on Netflix</a>, was named for its lead character, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3398228/">an over-the-hill television star with a man’s body and horse’s head</a>. </p>
<p>As a PhD candidate researching <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jun-Yi-Wong">iconography in ancient Egypt</a>, I am often struck by the manner in which BoJack Horseman and Egyptian iconography - the products of two very different cultures - have arrived at similar solutions in their portrayal of anthropomorphic beings. </p>
<p>In both cases, anthropomorphic animals of various species are portrayed with a certain uniformity. Characters could also be rendered zoomorphically, depending on their role in a given scene.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i1eJMig5Ik4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">BoJack Horseman trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Horus and Horseman</h2>
<p>Depictions of animal-headed gods can be found as early as the
<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801483844/conceptions-of-god-in-ancient-egypt/#bookTabs=1">Second Dynasty of Egypt (about 2890 – 2686 BCE)</a>. Today, images such as the <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5s54w4tc">falcon-headed Horus and the crocodile-headed Sobek</a> have become emblematic of Egyptian civilization. However, these examples are merely one of the many ways that Egyptian deities were represented.</p>
<p>The goddess Hathor, for instance, could be represented either as a cow, a bovine-headed woman or a woman with large bovine ears. Generally, the manifestation assumed by a deity is dependent on the scene’s context. This notion can be better explained through the artistic style of BoJack Horseman.</p>
<p>Although the characters of BoJack Horseman are made up of a diverse range of species, they share several common traits. There is a standardization of scale: the titulary character, a horse, stands at roughly the same height as <a href="https://bojackhorseman.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Peanutbutter">Mr. Peanutbutter</a> (a Labrador Retriever) and <a href="https://bojackhorseman.fandom.com/wiki/Meow_Meow_Fuzzyface">Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface</a> (a cat). Most characters are entirely human below the neck: birds, for example, have arms that flap like wings in flight. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="animals flying" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Birds in flight in a still from ‘BoJack Horseman.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(BoJack Horseman/Netflix)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These idiosyncrasies add to the show’s comedic effect, but they are also crucial to its coherence and progression. The creatures of BoJack Horseman occupy the same world, where they travel in the same vehicles and dine with the same utensils. This uniformity in character design is what enables a horse, a fish and a human to interact seamlessly. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A line of anthropomorphic figures" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail from ancient Egyptian stele of Pasjerimin, showing Anubis leading Pasjerimin to the seated Osiris followed by Isis, Nephthys and Hornedjitef.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pasheryenpakhem_stela.jpg">(Rijksmuseum van Oudheden/Wikimedia Commons)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, Egyptian deities are frequently depicted in direct interaction with a human figure. A common example is where <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/96773655.pdf">a god receives cultic offerings from the pharaoh</a>. A zoomorphic depiction here could limit the deity’s ability to grasp objects, or to make gestures that are key to the symbolism of the scene.</p>
<p>Ancient Egyptian artists also placed great emphasis on <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Art_of_Ancient_Egypt_A_Resource_for_Educators">balance and proportions</a>. Rendering all figures in an upright posture provides visual symmetry. </p>
<h2>Two legs better?</h2>
<p>The form assumed by the deities also depends on their function in a given scene. The god Anubis, in his role as the protector of tombs, is typically represented as a <a href="https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4155">reclining canine</a> that resembles the <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/07/african-golden-jackals-are-actually-golden-wolves">African golden wolf</a>. This manifestation serves to underline the animal’s territorial behaviour. Conversely, when Anubis is tasked with a role that requires human dexterity (such as the weighing of the deceased’s heart), he is usually rendered as an anthropomorphic canine.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of a canine weighing a heart and lying down" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail of Anubis in the ‘Weighing of the Heart’ ceremony and as a recumbent canine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Wikimedia Commons/The Met)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same flexibility can be observed in BoJack Horseman. Like other characters in the show, the defining traits of Princess Carolyn - an earnest and career-driven cat - are very much human. In times of emergency, however, she calls upon the agility and nimbleness of a feline. To the audience, this transition becomes perceptible when she stops walking upright and begins moving on all fours.</p>
<h2>Khepri and Apep</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The beetle-headed god Khepri." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The god Khepri, seated on a throne. From the Tomb of Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(kairoinfo4u/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A key aspect of Egyptian art is that each entity tends to be depicted in its <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/4112949">most characteristic view</a>, without foreshortening or other modifications familiar to western traditions. For example, ancient Egyptians depicted human figures using <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/art/whatisaeart.html">an amalgamation of viewpoints</a>: the eye is rendered in full view, the shoulders are depicted from a frontal perspective and the feet are largely in profile. </p>
<p>For many animal species, the most characteristic body part is the head, which is often sufficient for the purpose of identification. Insects, however, are typically too small for their heads to be readily identifiable. </p>
<p>Khepri, the god whose head is represented as a full-sized beetle, reflects the reality that for human observers, a top-down view of the beetle presents a recognizable image. If you are familiar with emojis, you might have noted that insects and other arthropods are often rendered in full; whereas a cat or lion can be represented by their faces. </p>
<p>Although anthropomorphism is found <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02136">across various cultures</a>, it is a treatment rarely afforded to insects. The Egyptian preoccupation with the scarab beetle stems from <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/07/fantastically-wrong-dung-beetle-worship/">its habit of rolling a ball of dung</a>, which is evocative of the sun’s rising. </p>
<p>In BoJack Horseman, insect characters are relatively rare, and they tend to have distinctive bodily features. In one episode, a praying mantis is shown with its characteristic forearms. The scene implies the female is preparing for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/29/having-your-partner-for-dinner-praying-mantis-cannibalism-boosts-fertility-study">sexual cannibalism, a behaviour common among many mantis species</a>. If the mantis was depicted with human forearms, the intimations would likely have been lost.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A cartoon praying mantis leaning into a car window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A female praying mantis salting a male human, ‘BoJack Horseman’ still.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The artists of BoJack Horseman and ancient Egypt depict anthropomorphic snakes in a similar manner, by replacing the human head with the slender, upper body of a snake rearing upwards. Proportionally, the result is not ideal — <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3hgGNb6wM2kC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA106#v=onepage&q&f=false">snake deities such as Apep</a> are depicted with a spindly head far outsized by a headdress. Nevertheless, such depictions show a snake in its defensive stance, a characteristic and memorable image. If the artists had rendered only the snake’s head, it could easily be confused with other reptiles. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Carving of a snake next to an animated image of a snake feeding a baby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Depiction of a snake deity from the Temple of Edfu; a still from BoJack Horseman showing a snake feeding a baby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock/Netflix)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Divine nature</h2>
<p>Ultimately, the richness of the Egyptian pantheon is a result of astute observations and spirited imagination. For its devotees, this grounding in the natural world meant that the divine figures are easy to identify with. </p>
<p>And just like the protagonists of BoJack Horseman, Egyptian gods can be flawed in ways that are strikingly human. <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Book_of_the_Heavenly_Cow/">In a legend of Hathor</a>, the blood-thirsty goddess was set on destroying all mankind, until she was unwittingly tricked into consuming a pool of red-coloured beer. </p>
<p>As Mr. Peanutbutter might have said, such stories would make for a <a href="https://screenrant.com/bojack-horseman-mr-peanutbutters-iconic-quotes-ranked/">decent crossover</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156565/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jun Yi Wong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Both the art of BoJack Horseman and of ancient Egyptian artists places great emphasis on balance and proportion.Jun Yi Wong, PhD Candidate in Egyptology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1536192021-02-18T19:13:06Z2021-02-18T19:13:06ZWhy do we love koalas so much? Because they look like baby humans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384925/original/file-20210218-12-1vl8xif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C6%2C4252%2C2833&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The koala is a much-loved species and lucrative tourism drawcard. Yet, for all its popularity, koalas are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-30/nsw-koalas-report-warns-of-extinction/12406216">forecast</a> to be extinct in NSW within 30 years. </p>
<p>Understanding the koala-human relationship might go some way to saving the species. My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02508281.2020.1815411">research</a> examined the dynamic by tracing the representation of koalas in natural history books, children’s stories, postcards and tourism brochures.</p>
<p>I found that “anthropomorpism” – attributing human qualities to a non-human animal – has helped shift attitudes towards the koala away from the scientific and economic to a more romantic, emotional view. In particular, koalas share physical characteristics with human babies, which further endears them to us.</p>
<p>Anthropomorphism <a href="https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=10405208&AN=117303565&h=aPky2Hdc4idCWhyML%2f0CVzdh%2bnRa4Sr1fC4GnKiZeJABCL0DkIsOPhP7ffv%2f%2fl%2bdilOmSV3X1LDmjzvVOLT9jA%3d%3d&crl=c&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d10405208%26AN%3d117303565">can</a> trigger positive emotions in humans which helps with conservation actions. Ultimately, however, threats to koalas are the result of political decisions in which sentiment plays little part.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="koala sitting in a tree" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384926/original/file-20210218-20-cjqs3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384926/original/file-20210218-20-cjqs3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384926/original/file-20210218-20-cjqs3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384926/original/file-20210218-20-cjqs3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384926/original/file-20210218-20-cjqs3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384926/original/file-20210218-20-cjqs3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384926/original/file-20210218-20-cjqs3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Koalas hold a special place in the national psyche.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Seeing ourselves in koalas</h2>
<p>When humans see themselves in other animals, this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2012.659443">can engender</a> greater empathy and concern for the species. And the koala, with its human baby-like qualities can be readily anthropomorphised. </p>
<p>Indeed, koalas exhibit “neoteny”, whereby mature animals retain juvenile physical features. This has been <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alan_Beck/publication/270808642_The_biology_of_the_human-animal_bond/links/55f1bc9008aef559dc492d42/The-biology-of-the-human-animal-bond.pdf">shown to</a> trigger positive emotional responses from human adults.</p>
<p>These features include:</p>
<ul>
<li>a prominent forehead with eyes positioned below the centre of the head</li>
<li>rounded head and body</li>
<li>soft elasticity of the body surface</li>
<li>a vertical posture. </li>
</ul>
<p>Newspaper articles published in the first half of the 20th century often infantilised koalas. For instance, an article in the Glen Innes Examiner refers to koalas as “little bears” that sit “up like babies in the trees”.</p>
<p>Koalas even make a crying sound when hurt or upset, adding to their baby-like qualities.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O0cAx1jLbJk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>A scientific curiosity</h2>
<p>Koalas have not always endeared themselves to post-colonial Australians.</p>
<p>European settlers sought to understand the animal with frames of reference available at the time. As such, the <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4192636">earliest accounts</a> of the koala variously <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4194682">referred</a> to it as a monkey, a sloth, a lemur and a bear.</p>
<p>In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Australians viewed the koala predominantly through a detached, <a href="http://sk.sagepub.com/books/animals-and-modern-cultures">scientific</a> lens. Scientific illustrations and paintings were made of koalas, and information and images were <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4194682">published</a> in natural history and zoology publications.</p>
<p>At the same time, the koala was also seen as an economic resource. From the early 1800s until the 1920s, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, were <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-2156-13-92">slaughtered</a> for the fur trade.</p>
<p>Into the 1900s, zoological representations of the koala continued to be published in natural histories. They included Le Souef and Burrell’s <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Wild_Animals_of_Australasia.html?id=9BOIAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Wild Animals of Australasia</a>, published in 1926, which stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The quaint koala, or native bear, a creature which, perhaps, holds the affection of Australians more than any other of their wild animals – a fact for which its innocent, babyish expression and quiet and inoffensive ways are largely responsible.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This passage indicates a shift towards a more romantic view of koalas as akin to humans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="illustration of koala and joey" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384928/original/file-20210218-19-qdt34v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384928/original/file-20210218-19-qdt34v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384928/original/file-20210218-19-qdt34v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384928/original/file-20210218-19-qdt34v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384928/original/file-20210218-19-qdt34v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384928/original/file-20210218-19-qdt34v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384928/original/file-20210218-19-qdt34v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 1803 illustration by JW Lewin titled ‘Koala and young’. In the 1900s koalas were often depicted in scientific illustrations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The love affair</h2>
<p>Two books published in 1918 encouraged public affection for koalas. Norman Lindsay’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-16/the-magic-pudding-norman-lindsay-australian-childrens-book/10369106">The Magic Pudding</a>, featured an anthropomorphised koala character called Bunyip Bluegum, who wore smart slacks, a jacket and a bow tie. May Gibbs’ <a href="https://maygibbs.org/stories-and-characters/?ppp=274">Snugglepot and Cuddlepie</a> also included friendly koalas.</p>
<p>The books reached a far wider audience than natural histories. They helped fuel outrage when the open season of koala hunting was <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-30/killing-koalas-90-years-since-qld-month-long-open-season/8839720">declared</a> in Queensland in 1927.</p>
<p>The emergence of the very popular <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780732284350/blinky-bill/">Blinky Bill koala character</a> in 1933 helped further humanise the species.</p>
<p>The rapid rise of photography in the 20th century also helped cement koalas’ public appeal. Groups of koalas were arranged for photos to be reproduced as postcards, often captioned “Australia’s teddy bear”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308571/original/file-20200106-11924-1ltd9in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308571/original/file-20200106-11924-1ltd9in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308571/original/file-20200106-11924-1ltd9in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308571/original/file-20200106-11924-1ltd9in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308571/original/file-20200106-11924-1ltd9in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308571/original/file-20200106-11924-1ltd9in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308571/original/file-20200106-11924-1ltd9in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1903 postcard featuring a ‘native bear’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Zoologist Ellis Troughton, in his landmark 1931 book Furred Animals of Australia, recorded the special place koalas occupied in the national psyche: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This attractive and rather helpless orphan which has become world famous in caricature and story, holds the affection of fellow Australians more than any other animal of their adopted country.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The popularity of koalas <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3335256">fed into</a> an emerging tourism industry eager to create national distinctiveness in the global tourism market.</p>
<p>Today the koala’s image is still reproduced on tea towels, t-shirts, postcards and other souvenirs. Pre-COVID, the economic value of the koala to Australian tourism was <a href="https://www.savethekoala.com/our-work/koala-worth-32-billion-30000-jobs">estimated</a> at up to A$3.2 billion a year.</p>
<p>Unlike other native species, koalas now have their own dedicated “hospitals” in three states. At the time of writing, a crowd-funding campaign for the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, set up after the Black Summer bushfires, had raised almost <a href="https://au.gofundme.com/f/help-thirsty-koalas-devastated-by-recent-fires?qid=c40993ecf1f3f205270e120722f43f46">A$8 million</a>. </p>
<p>And koalas attract far more government funding than most species. For example, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43480296_Comparison_of_funding_and_demand_for_the_conservation_of_the_charismatic_Koala_with_those_for_the_critically_endangered_wombat_Lasiorhinus_krefftii">research</a> last year showed conservation funding for the koala far outstripped that for the northern hairy-nosed wombat. The wombat is listed as critically endangered while the koala is off less conservation concern – listed as <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/species/koala">vulnerable</a> in parts of Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-find-burnt-starving-koalas-weeks-after-the-bushfires-133519">Scientists find burnt, starving koalas weeks after the bushfires</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Vet holds injured koala" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384927/original/file-20210218-18-1yxh7jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384927/original/file-20210218-18-1yxh7jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384927/original/file-20210218-18-1yxh7jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384927/original/file-20210218-18-1yxh7jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384927/original/file-20210218-18-1yxh7jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384927/original/file-20210218-18-1yxh7jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384927/original/file-20210218-18-1yxh7jo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The plight of koalas after the Black Summer fires drew international attention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Mariuz/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Saving what we love</h2>
<p>Anthropomorphism can be a powerful way to generate concern and action for a species. However, there are limits to its effectiveness. </p>
<p>For all their popularity, koalas face extinction in NSW <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-30/nsw-koalas-report-warns-of-extinction/12406216">within 30 years</a>. Estimates of the wild national koala population <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ddi.12400">vary</a> from 140,000 to 600,000. </p>
<p>It might seem baffling that such a well-loved animal could be headed for extinction. But the koala’s continued survival depends on political decisions where emotion and public sentiment are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/29/matt-kean-chides-sussan-ley-over-disappointing-destruction-of-port-stephens-koala-habitat">so often overridden</a> by economics and vested interests. </p>
<p>Australians clearly care deeply for their koalas. But that sentiment must translate into collective political pressure if the species is to survive. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stopping-koala-extinction-is-agonisingly-simple-but-heres-why-im-not-optimistic-141696">Stopping koala extinction is agonisingly simple. But here's why I'm not optimistic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Markwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With their prominent foreheads, low eye position and rounded body, koalas can seem almost baby-like. But is that enough to save them?Kevin Markwell, Adjunct Professor, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1515442021-01-05T21:52:24Z2021-01-05T21:52:24Z3 ways our view of animals shapes our connection to them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377044/original/file-20210104-23-1cd50qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5742%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Human-animal bonds can have beneficial impacts on society.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the consequences of the current coronavirus pandemic is that it has brought us face-to-face with our own mortality. Not only are we vulnerable to disease, but we can also <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/zoonoses">share diseases with other animals</a>. </p>
<p>This reality can be threatening, but it can also open up an understanding of ourselves that research is just beginning to focus on. From a biological point of view, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264752973_Mammal_Species_of_The_World_A_Taxonomic_and_Geographic_Reference">humans are animals</a>. However, people differ in how they think of themselves as an animal and identify with other animals. </p>
<p>Emerging research in social psychology is showing that people can identify with other animals, and that we do so in three different ways. As social psychologists, our research considers the ways in which we understand human-animal relationships, and how this can affect our interactions with animals and each other.</p>
<h2>Solidarity with animals</h2>
<p>First, we can feel solidarity with animals, which represents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168184">people’s psychological bond with, and commitment to, other animals</a>. </p>
<p>Someone who feels high solidarity with animals would agree with the statement: “I feel committed to animals.” This person would also be more likely to feel personally invested in the well-being of animals and to engage in actions that take animals’ welfare into account. In empirical studies, solidarity with animals predicts more positive attitudes and behaviours toward animals, even when this implies a loss of resources — like donations to charities — for humans relative to animals. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377049/original/file-20210104-21-tcc14t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women wearing surgical masks and holding signs saying FRIENDS NOT FOOD and EATING ANIMALS BREEDS PANDEMICS" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377049/original/file-20210104-21-tcc14t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377049/original/file-20210104-21-tcc14t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377049/original/file-20210104-21-tcc14t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377049/original/file-20210104-21-tcc14t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377049/original/file-20210104-21-tcc14t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377049/original/file-20210104-21-tcc14t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377049/original/file-20210104-21-tcc14t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Animal rights protesters march in London, U.K. on Sept. 1, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given that solidarity with animals requires people to think inclusively and in a flexible way, it also predicts the tendency to project human thoughts and feelings onto non-human animals, a phenomenon called <a href="https://products.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=B3090C">anthropomorphism</a>. Solidarity with animals is higher among two groups of people who can be particularly concerned by the needs and plight of animals: pet owners and vegetarians. </p>
<h2>Bringing animals closer</h2>
<p>Second, people can identify with animals by recognizing that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611425106">all animals, including humans, have a lot in common</a>; this is referred to as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000199">human-animal similarity</a>.” </p>
<p>Someone who feels strong human-animal similarity would agree with the statement: “Animals, including human animals, have a lot in common with each other.” This person would also believe that animals are quite close to humans, for example, in terms of our intelligence and sensory abilities. </p>
<p>While this way of identifying with animals is quite abstract, it can have concrete repercussions. As an example, organizations that advocate in favour of animals’ rights <a href="https://www.peta.org/living/humane-home/difference/">use strategies that make salient the similarities that exist between animals and humans</a> so as to motivate people to act on behalf of animals. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611425106">In our research</a>, we found that the higher people’s perceptions of human-animal similarity, the more likely they are to consider that animals have characteristics that are typically reserved for humans, such as rationality, advanced reasoning abilities and civility. </p>
<p>And because bringing animals closer to humans in our minds also makes them more deserving of our concerns, these perceptions of human-animal similarities predict higher moral consideration for the animals that we eat, and higher support for the rights of animals in captivity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377041/original/file-20210104-19-pogn3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two people playing ice hockey with a dog" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377041/original/file-20210104-19-pogn3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377041/original/file-20210104-19-pogn3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377041/original/file-20210104-19-pogn3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377041/original/file-20210104-19-pogn3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377041/original/file-20210104-19-pogn3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377041/original/file-20210104-19-pogn3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377041/original/file-20210104-19-pogn3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Understanding humans as part of the animal kingdom provides a way to understand commonalities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Taylor Friehl/Unsplash)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Proud to be an animal</h2>
<p>Last but not least, people can have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000199">animal pride</a> and identify with animals by feeling proud to be an animal. </p>
<p>A person who feels high animal pride would agree with the statement: “I am proud to be an animal.” This person directly recognizes being part of the animal kingdom and values being a member of this category. </p>
<p>Because labelling humans as animals can have negative connotations such as dehumanizing others <a href="http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/titles/format/9781612494135">by likening them to animals</a>, animal pride is associated with negative outcomes, both for animals and for humans. Specifically, animal pride predicts a lower desire to help animals and higher <a href="https://doi.org/10.2752/089279315X14129350721894">speciesism</a>, a negative attitude towards other animals that involves agreeing with the use of animals for human purposes, such as experimentation.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the more people are high in animal pride, the more likely they are to endorse competitive and hierarchical beliefs about how human groups should be organized within society — a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dog-eat-dog">dog-eat-dog</a> world view. </p>
<p>These reactions could be due to the fact that people who feel a strong pride to be an animal may also endorse a view of animals as aggressive and motivated to defend their own territory, and to apply these characteristics to humans and to themselves. </p>
<p>This perception that animals are impulsive and territorial may actually represent <a href="https://www.spsp.org/taxonomy/term/743">a stereotype</a> that humans have of other animals. Indeed, research conducted in ethology shows that <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/40089/the-age-of-empathy-by-frans-de-waal/">animals can feel empathy</a>, and that animals that are in positions of dominance can display behaviours that denote a great sense of responsibility and altruism. </p>
<h2>Different pathways to identification</h2>
<p>On the whole, these discoveries confirm that people can identify with other animals in different ways, and that these forms of identification have distinct repercussions, not just for human-animal relations but also for our relations with fellow humans.</p>
<p>More research is needed to capture the rich and sometimes complex psychological processes <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0038147">that are at play in our relations with other animals</a>.</p>
<p>Understanding the many ways by which we relate and connect to animals could potentially inform how we can create more inclusive societies, both for non-human animals and for humans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Amiot is on the board of the International Society of Anthrozoology, an academic society which generally aims to promote research on human-animal relations. The authors have received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the work reported in this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brock Bastian does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ways in which humans connect with animals relate to how we interact with other humans. Understanding these relationships can help inform more inclusive societies.Catherine Amiot, Professor, Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Brock Bastian, Professor, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1499752020-11-24T01:38:42Z2020-11-24T01:38:42ZEmpathy in conservation is hotly debated. Still, the world needs more stories like My Octopus Teacher<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370709/original/file-20201123-23-111n5sa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C12%2C2136%2C1089&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12888462/mediaviewer/rm4140279553/">IMDb</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With three hearts, blue blood, no bones and eight limbs attached to a bulbous head, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/octopus-facts/">octopuses</a> seem like they’re from another planet. But in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12888462/">My Octopus Teacher</a>, the hugely popular nature documentary on Netflix, these cephalopods as not only presented as remarkable — but relatable. </p>
<p>The documentary seeks to evoke empathy by telling a story about the bond between a human and a wild octopus off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. </p>
<p>Burnt out film maker Craig Foster seeks solace in the ocean. He gains the trust of an octopus through daily visits to her world, and presents an engrossing story of her short life and its impact on him. </p>
<p>As a group of conservation social scientists researching how people relate to the natural world, we are curious about what this type of storytelling might mean for wildlife conservation. Let’s look at what the research says. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3s0LTDhqe5A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Empathy with non-humans</h2>
<p>Scientific literature is <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/111/Supplement_4/13614">increasingly recognising</a> the importance of storytelling in science, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1533015X.2018.1517062">including to</a> help people empathise with the natural world and build support for conservation. </p>
<p>Stories encourage empathy by helping people experience events from the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650211408594">perspective of others</a>. One feels and responds to the world through anothers’ “eyes” — or tentacles — and this shift of viewpoint is linked to the feeling of being <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ct/article-abstract/14/4/311/4110790">transported</a> to “another world”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-others-feelings-what-is-empathy-and-why-do-we-need-it-68494">Understanding others' feelings: what is empathy and why do we need it?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>My Octopus Teacher transports viewers to the world of an amazing kelp forest, where one may sense trust and intimacy as the octopus wraps her tentacles around the narrator’s finger. Or distress as the octopus is hunted by a shark. And joy as she cleverly evades the threat. </p>
<p>In fact, research shows empathising with other animals or plants can promote positive relationships between humans and wildlife. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013916506292937">A 2007 experiment</a>, for example, asked people to view photographs of an injured bird or felled tree and to either imagine how the bird or tree felt or to view the photographs objectively. </p>
<p>At the end of the experiment, people who empathised were more likely to express concern for the bird or tree and donate to an environmental charity. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1329991998577790977"}"></div></p>
<h2>Portraying an octopus as ‘human-like’ can be tricky</h2>
<p>But stories that engage empathy can still bring challenges for conservation. One reason relates to concerns about anthropomorphism — ascribing human characteristics to things other than humans. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2020/09/octopus-scientists-love-my-octopus-teacher-just-as-much-as-you-do/">Some viewers</a> may see this in, for instance, the narrator’s suggestion the octopus “dies for her offspring” or “suffers” from losing an arm. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1326706176785059842"}"></div></p>
<p>The relationship between anthropomorphism and conservation is hotly debated. </p>
<p><a href="https://sites.ualberta.ca/%7Eelegge/Alrg_Docs/Wynne_2007.pdf">Some scientists say</a> anthropomorphism distorts scientific knowledge. </p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2020/09/octopus-scientists-love-my-octopus-teacher-just-as-much-as-you-do/">marine biologist Zoë Doubleday</a> in an interview with Australian Geographic, the suggestion the octopus “dies for her offspring” implies a moral decision rather than a biological imperative, which was among the parts of the film she sees as anthropomorphic.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3366/soma.2015.0158">Others warn</a> against imposing human ways of seeing the world onto nature. Human ideas of social interaction may cloud the way viewers interpret scenes of the octopus resting on Foster’s chest, leaving what the octopus actually seeks with such behaviour unexplored. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/compassionate-conservation-just-because-we-love-invasive-animals-doesnt-mean-we-should-protect-them-144945">'Compassionate conservation': just because we love invasive animals, doesn't mean we should protect them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>On the other hand, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-012-0274-6">there are arguments</a> that “appropriate anthropomorphism” can promote conservation. Showing an octopus is intelligent or feels pain would be considered appropriate as it’s consistent with scientific understanding, and could raise awareness of an animal that rarely features in conservation campaigns. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719311929?via%3Dihub">Research from the US earlier this year suggests</a> people who attribute “human-like” qualities of free will and emotions to animals are more likely to place value on humans and wildlife co-existing — a key conservation goal. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370711/original/file-20201123-17-13y66ta.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The diver, Craig Foster, holds the octopus in his hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370711/original/file-20201123-17-13y66ta.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370711/original/file-20201123-17-13y66ta.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370711/original/file-20201123-17-13y66ta.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370711/original/file-20201123-17-13y66ta.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370711/original/file-20201123-17-13y66ta.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370711/original/file-20201123-17-13y66ta.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370711/original/file-20201123-17-13y66ta.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The diver, Craig Foster, has a special relationship with the female octopus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12888462/mediaviewer/rm2579998465/">IMDb</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The slippery boundary between humans and non-humans is at the heart of My Octopus Teacher. But as viewers respond in different ways to how animals are depicted in stories, where we “draw the line in the sand” depends on individual values and cultural norms. </p>
<h2>From empathy to action</h2>
<p>Another challenge in using stories to promote conservation relates to whether empathy actually promotes action. </p>
<p>Empathy <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378018307076?via%3Dihub">can cause distress</a> if there’s no clear way to act in response to those feelings. So it’s worth reflecting on the lack of any obvious “call to action” in My Octopus Teacher — the film doesn’t explicitly ask us to donate money or change our behaviour such as what we eat.</p>
<p>We do learn from the epilogue that Craig Foster went on to establish <a href="https://seachangeproject.com/">The Sea Change Project</a> to raise awareness of South Africa’s kelp forest. But the viewer is largely left to draw their own conclusions about how to respond to the empathy evoked. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CGPhep5p5i5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Empathy <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378018307076?via%3Dihub">can also</a> lead to people backing the welfare of familiar species over less relatable — but still important — ones. For example, viewers may be less concerned for the welfare of the many pyjama sharks that hunt the octopus. </p>
<p>Some conservation scientists <a href="https://theconversation.com/compassionate-conservation-just-because-we-love-invasive-animals-doesnt-mean-we-should-protect-them-144945">argue</a> empathy should not be a moral code for conservation since it could undermine support for some actions that protect ecosystems, such as killing invasive, but charismatic, species like feral horses and cats. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/one-cat-one-year-110-native-animals-lock-up-your-pet-its-a-killing-machine-138412">One cat, one year, 110 native animals: lock up your pet, it's a killing machine</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This isn’t much of a risk in My Octopus Teacher, which actually says a lot about the importance of ocean ecosystems as a whole. The narrator talks about his re-found love for the ocean, its wildness, and the connections he observes between animals and plants. </p>
<p>Even so, these connections to the wider system may be outshone by the compelling story of one human and one octopus. </p>
<h2>Stories for conservation</h2>
<p>We conclude the emotive approach to storytelling used in My Octopus Teacher could be positive for wildlife conservation. There is certainly evidence that empathy can drive concern for wildlife as well as positive action. </p>
<p>The impact on conservation will, however, depend on how viewers respond to the emotive qualities of the story. Do they dismiss it as overly sentimental, feel empathy for just one octopus, or concern for the ocean ecosystem she inhabits? It will also depend on whether viewers can imagine positive ways to act on their feelings. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/people-are-blind-to-plants-and-thats-bad-news-for-conservation-65240">People are 'blind' to plants, and that's bad news for conservation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We think the world needs more stories like My Octopus Teacher. We encourage conservationists to communicate through stories, making sure these stories evoke empathy not only for individual animals and <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-are-blind-to-plants-and-thats-bad-news-for-conservation-65240">plants</a> but for whole communities of living beings, and that they suggest multiple pathways for conservation action. </p>
<p>And we hope many more people will watch and discuss this wonderful film, that viewers might “slowly start to care about all the animals” as Craig Foster did, and consider acting on their empathy‚ for example, by <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.249">donating to marine conservation organisations or buying certified sustainable seafood</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149975/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Williams receives funding from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, Hort Innovation, and the City of Melbourne. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher M. McCormack is affiliated with Remember The Wild.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Debbie Gonzalez Canada receives funding from Melbourne Water. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Lee receives funding from Hort Innovation, the City of Melbourne and Victorian Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rose Macaulay receives funding from the City of Melbourne and Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Lavau receives funding from Melbourne Water. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maddy Sbeghen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some scientists say attributing ‘human-like’ qualities to animals is misleading. Others say it’s a great tool for conservation. Either way, the Netflix hit My Octopus Teacher has a positive message.Kathryn Williams, Professor in environmental psychology, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of MelbourneChristopher McCormack, Managing Director (Remember The Wild). PhD Student, The University of MelbourneDebbie Gonzalez Canada, PhD Candidate researching digital citizen science, The University of MelbourneKate Lee, Research fellow, The University of MelbourneMaddy Sbeghen, The University of MelbourneRose Macaulay, PhD Candidate, The University of MelbourneStephanie Lavau, Senior Lecturer - Interdisciplinary Environmental Practice, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1384972020-05-22T12:19:31Z2020-05-22T12:19:31ZHumanizing the coronavirus as an invisible enemy is human nature<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336850/original/file-20200521-102682-filij6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1380%2C980%2C2210%2C1486&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The coronavirus is really just an inanimate packet of genetic material.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/covid-19-virus-and-pandemic-concept-royalty-free-image/1214039876?adppopup=true&uiloc=thumbnail_same_series_adp">Carol Yepes/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump has called the coronavirus an “<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/09/trump-coronavirus-invisible-enemy-177894">invisible enemy</a>” that’s “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/world/coronavirus-women-leaders.html">brilliant</a>” and “tough and smart,” adding that we are “<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/09/trump-coronavirus-invisible-enemy-177894">tougher and smarter</a>.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1246884203419099137"}"></div></p>
<p>CNN host Chris Cuomo, recovering from the virus, attributed malicious intent to it, saying it “<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/cnn-anchor-chris-cuomo-reveals-020652500.html">wants us to lay down</a>.” He warned his audience not to cooperate.</p>
<p>Other people called the coronavirus “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/23/coronavirus-isnt-alive-thats-why-its-so-hard-kill/">sneaky</a>,” “<a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/health/hard-to-make-vaccines-for-tricky-coronavirus-un-body/1838118">tricky</a>,” “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/its-hard-to-stay-afloat-hope-and-exhaustion-in-the-coronavirus-fight">merciless</a>,” “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cruel-covid-new-normal-11588526503">cruel</a>” and “<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/cuomo-coronavirus-truly-vicious-162954948.html0">vicious</a>.” One reporter wrote that in a nursing home, the virus “<a href="https://wnytimes.com/2020/04/19/nyregion/coronavirus-nj-andover-nursing-home-deaths.html">found</a>” the people who were most frail.</p>
<p>Speaking of the coronavirus as if it were a person, then, is common. But why do we all do it, despite knowing that the virus is just a tiny bundle of inanimate genetic material?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michaela_Porubanova">As cognitive</a> <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stewart_Guthrie">scientists</a> who study the human mind we suggest that this <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341297299_Faces_in_Clouds_and_Voices_in_Wind_Anthropomorphism_in_Religion_and_Human_Cognition">tendency to see human features everywhere</a> is an innate human characteristic, one that automatically alerts you to signs of other people – and helps you make sense of a confusing world. </p>
<h2>It’s human nature to see human features everywhere</h2>
<p>Attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things and events is called anthropomorphism or personification. Philosophers and psychologists suggest that it is a human universal, found among all of us, regardless of culture or upbringing. For instance, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/">philosopher David Hume</a> wrote in the 18th century that “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6mgpp1DrqnsC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=We+find+human+faces+in+the+moon,+armies+in+the+clouds;+and...+ascribe+malice+or+good-will+to+every+thing,+that+hurts+or+pleases+us.&source=bl&ots=2ja_zBKmqi&sig=ACfU3U0e1yXgfSbu5s57gwoKaqdzHPRXJw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9g6a938DpAhVfGDQIHZlxCgYQ6AEwA3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=We%20find%20human%20faces%20in%20the%20moon%2C%20armies%20in%20the%20clouds%3B%20and...%20ascribe%20malice%20or%20good-will%20to%20every%20thing%2C%20that%20hurts%20or%20pleases%20us.&f=false">We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and… ascribe malice or good-will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us</a>.” Most recently, people find “enemies” in viruses. </p>
<p>They do so, Hume wrote, because the world is complex and unpredictable, and often threatens you with unexpected calamities such as earthquakes, floods and plagues. In order to predict and control these dangers, he said, people want to understand their causes, but often cannot. Baffled, they resort to the most familiar explanations, those based on their own experiences and those of other people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335467/original/file-20200515-138654-az7ie8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335467/original/file-20200515-138654-az7ie8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335467/original/file-20200515-138654-az7ie8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335467/original/file-20200515-138654-az7ie8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335467/original/file-20200515-138654-az7ie8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335467/original/file-20200515-138654-az7ie8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335467/original/file-20200515-138654-az7ie8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335467/original/file-20200515-138654-az7ie8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anthropomorphizing viruses is common.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://xkcd.com/2306/">xkcd</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This habit often results in the mistake of thinking you see persons, or features of persons, where they don’t exist, as with the new virus. But having a human-like model–indeed, having any model–to apply to such a mysterious, invisible and dangerous entity as the coronavirus provides some measure of apparent control, and thus comfort.</p>
<p>And although people may not consciously believe that the coronavirus is like a person, their language and behavior suggest that they do so unconsciously.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336849/original/file-20200521-102682-1yd7u4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336849/original/file-20200521-102682-1yd7u4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336849/original/file-20200521-102682-1yd7u4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336849/original/file-20200521-102682-1yd7u4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336849/original/file-20200521-102682-1yd7u4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336849/original/file-20200521-102682-1yd7u4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336849/original/file-20200521-102682-1yd7u4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336849/original/file-20200521-102682-1yd7u4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail from ‘Winter’ by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Humans intuitively and automatically attribute and see human features where there are none.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giuseppe_Arcimboldo_-_Winter,_1573.jpg">Giuseppe Arcimboldo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The assumption that persons and features of persons may be present is spontaneous and irrepressible. For example, 16th-century Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo <a href="https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/Education/learning-resources/an-eye-for-art/AnEyeforArt-GiuseppeArcimboldo.pdf">painted a series of faces</a> composed of various objects. In one work, “Winter,” you can’t help seeing a face in a tree stump, perhaps reflecting a face that the artist had imagined in a real stump. It is virtually impossible not to see the face emerging from Arcimboldo’s assemblage of objects.</p>
<h2>The upside of anthropomorphizing</h2>
<p>Interpreting many phenomena as human in origin is the safest bet, while dismissing them as irrelevant may be dangerous if you’re wrong.</p>
<p>When you find possible traces of humans – faces in stumps, voices in the wind or footsteps in a house’s creaks – it opens a wide repertoire of important possibilities. Is it an enemy who might harm me? A friend who will comfort me?</p>
<p>Thus, a high sensitivity to human-like features and a low threshold for deciding they are present have evolutionary advantages. Their disadvantage is that you’re often mistaken, when no human feature is really there. But most such mistakes are less consequential than missing someone you need to see, whether friend or foe.</p>
<p>Humans, then, are a special stimulus for us, and cognitive neuroscience provides further evidence of it. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.241">infants are born ready to recognize a face</a> – or anything <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0561-66">resembling one</a> – and by a few months of age, infants <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06288">prefer a block that “helps”</a> another block up a slope to one that “hinders” it. So babies are born ready to see shapes as human anatomy, and quickly see even inanimate objects as having social relationships. People never outgrow this tendency, and throughout life see aspects of ourselves in cliff “faces,” river “mouths” and mountain “majesties,” and purpose and meaning everywhere.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336839/original/file-20200521-102667-1f5qb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336839/original/file-20200521-102667-1f5qb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336839/original/file-20200521-102667-1f5qb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336839/original/file-20200521-102667-1f5qb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336839/original/file-20200521-102667-1f5qb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336839/original/file-20200521-102667-1f5qb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336839/original/file-20200521-102667-1f5qb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336839/original/file-20200521-102667-1f5qb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nietzsche wrote of his ‘belief in intention… that every event is a deed, that every deed presupposes a doer….’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stewart Guthrie</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scanning for human features in the environment – and ending up anthropomorphizing – appears built into human beings. It is supported by what neuroscientists call the social brain, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17366164/">an evolved “person network</a>.”</p>
<p>This brain network is activated by any stimulus that even suggests a person, such as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00513.2004">stick figure</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.500">emoji</a>. For instance, part of this network, the fusiform face area, responds both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.17-11-04302.1997">to a human face </a>and to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0113885">anthropomorphized car headlights</a>, grill and bumper.</p>
<p>No wonder it’s so easy to talk about the coronavirus as human-like. Anthropomorphic narratives provide models of the virus and its behavior that feel familiar and accessible. They’re a way to grasp these unseen beings, and this grasp, illusory or not, provides a bit of the confidence and sense of control so crucial to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.08.001">mental well-being</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-help">Read The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138497/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Guthrie received related funding from the National Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies and the Fulbright Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michaela Porubanova does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Thinking of SARS-CoV-2 as an invisible enemy with an evil personality and humanlike motivations is a natural offshoot of the way people evolved to anthropomorphize so as not to overlook threats.Michaela Porubanova, Associate Professor of Cognitive Psychology, Farmingdale State CollegeStewart Guthrie, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Fordham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1133442019-04-12T10:40:49Z2019-04-12T10:40:49ZLeonardo da Vinci saw in animals the ‘image of the world’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268441/original/file-20190409-2914-wvj6kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=65%2C453%2C1371%2C941&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From cats to dragonflies, Leonardo sketched scores of animals.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/912363/cats-lions-and-a-dragon">Leonardo da Vinci/Royal Collection Trust</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>About six months ago I stopped eating meat. I was teaching a graduate course at UCLA that investigated how Italian Renaissance writers conveyed their concepts about the human through writing about the nonhuman – plants, animals, objects, angels, demons, gods and God. As weeks passed, I found myself becoming more and more attuned to the nonhuman entities all around me, more aware of their vibrant lives. Cutting flowers for a short-lived bouquet seemed wrong; chewing on animal flesh became flat out impossible.</p>
<p>Leonardo da Vinci was one of the authors we were studying in the course. Out of the thousands of pages comprising his 25 documented codices, <a href="http://store.doverpublications.com/0486225739.html">known collectively as his “Notebooks</a>,” we read passages describing the natural world and its inhabitants, and some of his philosophical maxims, fables and riddles. In a striking passage that <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id04117">introduces his “Treatise on Water,”</a> he wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“By the ancients man has been called the world in miniature; and certainly this name is well bestowed, because, inasmuch as man is composed of earth, water, air, and fire, his body resembles that of the earth; and as man has in him bones — the supports and framework of his flesh —, the world has its rocks — the supports of the earth; as man has in him a pool of blood in which the lungs rise and fall in breathing, so the body of the earth has its ocean tide which likewise rises and falls … ”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unlike many thinkers of his time who anthropomorphized the Earth, Leonardo terramorphized man. But it was not just man that Leonardo saw as a Platonic microcosmic-world-in-miniature. Animals, he wrote, are “<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id05147">the image of the world</a>.” They reflect the Earth, just as we do.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268447/original/file-20190409-2924-1t0f7kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268447/original/file-20190409-2924-1t0f7kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268447/original/file-20190409-2924-1t0f7kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268447/original/file-20190409-2924-1t0f7kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268447/original/file-20190409-2924-1t0f7kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268447/original/file-20190409-2924-1t0f7kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268447/original/file-20190409-2924-1t0f7kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268447/original/file-20190409-2924-1t0f7kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leonardo’s animals hold their own against human beings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.jackygallery.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1152">Leonardo da Vinci</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Humans not superior to animal world</h2>
<p>Leonardo never challenged the Christian belief that human beings were made in the image of God, nor the classical notion that man’s proportions and symmetries (albeit a white, middle-aged, able-bodied, European man) were beautiful and worthy of imitation in architecture and art. But he also never claimed other living beings were less beautiful, soulless, or lacked intelligence.</p>
<p>When comparing animals and humans – which he did often – animals often came out looking better. <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id05017">In one of his notes, Leonardo wrote</a>, “Man has much power of discourse, which for the most part is vain and false; animals have but little, but it is useful and true, and a small truth is better than a great lie.” He often pointed out how much more powerful animals’ senses were, how much faster, stronger, more efficient and capable they were of performing remarkable feats, such as flight.</p>
<p>And animals were not nearly as “bestial” to one another as humans could be. “<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id03734">King of the animals</a> – as thou hast described him – I should rather say king of the beasts,” he wrote. Leonardo lamented how human stomachs have become “a sepulcher for all animals” and how “<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id03738">our life is made by the death of others</a>.” </p>
<h2>Leonardo the vegetarian?</h2>
<p>This passage, along with other writing about humans as killing machines and their esophagi as animal cemeteries, as well as a few comments by his contemporaries, have led many to believe that Leonardo was a vegetarian. </p>
<p>There is a 1515/6 letter by the Italian explorer Andrea Corsali to Giuliano de’ Medici that – in discussing how the Gujarati of India won’t eat anything with blood or allow hurt to come to any animate thing – says they are “<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id03734">like our Leonardo da Vinci</a>.” Corsali, however, did not know Leonardo well, and the sentence is ambiguous; it could just mean that Leonardo never hurt animals or wanted to see them hurt. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268448/original/file-20190409-2912-1tc4o0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268448/original/file-20190409-2912-1tc4o0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268448/original/file-20190409-2912-1tc4o0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268448/original/file-20190409-2912-1tc4o0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268448/original/file-20190409-2912-1tc4o0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268448/original/file-20190409-2912-1tc4o0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268448/original/file-20190409-2912-1tc4o0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268448/original/file-20190409-2912-1tc4o0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leonardo was captivated by birds’ power of flight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Codice_volo_uccelli_6r.jpg">Leonardo da Vinci/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) noted that Leonardo was famed for <a href="https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/v/vasari/giorgio/lives/part3.1.html">buying caged birds and setting them free</a> and Leonardo did, in fact, advocate for <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id03734">eating Nature’s abundant senplici (“simples”)</a>, a term which seems to imply plant-based recipes. He pondered why Nature had created a <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id05147">world in which animals ate each other</a>, but concluded it was because life is compelled to reproduce and endure, and consequently, Nature needed a way to keep numbers down.</p>
<p>Nowhere in his writing, however, did he speak of not eating meat. His grocery lists have meat on them, although it is possible he was purchasing it for members of his household: students, servants, guests, animals.</p>
<p>Whether he ate a totally meat-free diet or not is unclear, but his love for animals is unquestionable. He lived with animals on a farm as a child and they were ever-present in his studio – likely cats and dogs, insects, birds and reptiles (some alive, some deceased). Leonardo studied them, depicted them, wrote about them and built machines – even war machines – inspired by them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268682/original/file-20190410-2924-zygdmd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268682/original/file-20190410-2924-zygdmd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268682/original/file-20190410-2924-zygdmd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268682/original/file-20190410-2924-zygdmd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268682/original/file-20190410-2924-zygdmd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268682/original/file-20190410-2924-zygdmd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268682/original/file-20190410-2924-zygdmd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268682/original/file-20190410-2924-zygdmd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leonardo’s ‘Allegory of a Dog and an Eagle.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/912496/an-allegory-with-a-dog-and-an-eagle">Leonardo da Vinci/Royal Collection Trust</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Literary animals</h2>
<p>Leonardo’s literary writing – fables, riddles, aphorisms – is filled with animals. While they often serve as Aesopic moral stand-ins for humans, Leonardo also used them differently than other classical, medieval and Renaissance fabulists, contrasting them to humans, celebrating their strengths and wisdom and critiquing how humans treat them. </p>
<p>In his “<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id05525">Prophecy</a>” riddles — which read like predictions of a horrendous apocalyptic future — one encounters legions of cruelty and pain. “I see children of thine given up to slavery to others … <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id05543">paid with the severest suffering</a>, and spend[ing] their whole life benefiting those who ill treat them.” As a riddle, this is not what it seems. He’s writing not of humans, but rather, of donkeys, and how humans repay their services with unkindness and even violence. That said, in an empathic move, Leonardo was also linking humans to donkeys, and pointing to the ever-present fact that humans subject other humans to terrible fates. </p>
<p>In another riddle he noted the twistedness of horned animals being <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id05615">slaughtered by horn-handled knives</a>, and the ostensible cannibalism of masters of estates “<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id05629">eating their own laborers</a>” – oxen.</p>
<p>And in a particularly chilling prophecy, he described animals so full of evil that they were destroying all life on land and sea: He cries, “<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html#id05701">O Earth! Why dost thou not open and engulf</a> [these animals] in the fissure of thy vast abyss and caverns, and no longer display in the sight of heaven such a cruel and horrible monster!” The monster, of course, is man. </p>
<p>Although many people assume Leonardo’s <a href="https://www.leonardodavinci.net/the-vitruvian-man.jsp">Vitruvian Man</a> is an indication of an adherence to the commonly, but not universally, held Renaissance notion that man was the most perfect of beings and “the measure of all things,” his literary and artistic production seem to show that he saw animals as the true “image of the world.” While he included human beings in the group he called “animals,” it was not as preeminent entities, but as one of the world’s infinite, beautiful varieties.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268445/original/file-20190409-2898-1by9tps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268445/original/file-20190409-2898-1by9tps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268445/original/file-20190409-2898-1by9tps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268445/original/file-20190409-2898-1by9tps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268445/original/file-20190409-2898-1by9tps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268445/original/file-20190409-2898-1by9tps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268445/original/file-20190409-2898-1by9tps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268445/original/file-20190409-2898-1by9tps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Horses were among the animals Leonardo most frequently sketched.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://biblioklept.org/2014/01/31/horse-studies-leonardo-da-vinci/">Leoardo da Vinci</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Animals on their own terms</h2>
<p>Animals proliferate in Leonardo’s visual art. In his sketches we see horses run, trot, rear up on back legs, fall. Birds, bats and insects extend their wings. Cats stretch, wrestle and lounge. Lions roar. Bears, dogs, crabs, rhinoceroses quietly stand or walk. Beetles and ants bend their appendages.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268184/original/file-20190408-2912-nhaqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268184/original/file-20190408-2912-nhaqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268184/original/file-20190408-2912-nhaqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268184/original/file-20190408-2912-nhaqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268184/original/file-20190408-2912-nhaqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268184/original/file-20190408-2912-nhaqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268184/original/file-20190408-2912-nhaqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268184/original/file-20190408-2912-nhaqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Lady with an Ermine (Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani)’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Lady_with_an_Ermine.jpg">Leonardo da Vinci/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His animals are anything but <a href="https://www.artistsnetwork.com/artist-life/its-stilleven-nature-morte-dead-nature-or-still-life/">nature-morte</a>; they are alive with motion and, seemingly, emotion. Within his paintings one can see, for example, a gentle, communicative lion in the unfinished “<a href="http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/la-pinacoteca/sala-ix---secolo-xv-xvi/leonardo-da-vinci--s--girolamo.html">Saint Jerome in the Wilderness</a>” (c. 1480); an affectionate ermine in “<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/secrets-of-da-vincis-lady-with-an-ermine-finally-revealed-117891">Lady with an Ermine</a>” (1489-90); an erotic swan in the 1503-1507 sketches for a never-produced painting, “<a href="http://www.drawingsofleonardo.org/images/leda2.jpg">Leda and the Swan</a>”); a lamb being hugged by the child Jesus in “<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Virgin_and_Child_with_Saint_Anne_painting_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_-_Paris,_France.jpg">The Virgin and the Child with Saint Anne</a>” (1510). And, of course, horses: ceremonial and military (“<a href="https://www.leonardodavinci.net/the-adoration-of-the-magi.jsp">The Adoration of the Magi</a>” (1481), “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Anghiari_(Leonardo_da_Vinci)">The Battle of Anghiari</a>” (preparatory studies, 1504-1505).</p>
<p>All these animals are present in his writing, too, joined by an ark-load more: domesticated, wild, local, exotic, mythical (dragons!) and imaginary (sea-monsters!). Leonardo’s depictions of animals emerge not only as forces that teach us about ourselves and challenge our sense of human primacy, but as powerful, creative forces, on their own terms.</p>
<p>Leonardo chipped away at the walls between “us” and “them” by placing all life on a level field, all things as micro-reflections of a macro-whole. And as he envisioned in his terrifying visual and verbal depictions of catastrophic deluges and global disasters, we’re all in this together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arielle Saiber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rather than prioritizing human beings at the pinnacle of the animal kingdom, Leonardo revered all living beings. When he compared people and animals, it’s the animals that often came out on top.Arielle Saiber, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Bowdoin CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1065602019-01-08T10:37:16Z2019-01-08T10:37:16ZSmartphones: the cultural, individual and technical processes that make them smart<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247034/original/file-20181123-149323-jj8cas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1734%2C27%2C3964%2C2615&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-people-using-mobile-smart-phone-653855656?src=vTQ90TWvNlMaZLBdU7fPMw-2-34">Pathdoc/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Has there ever been an invention so integral to our lives, and so intimate, as the smartphone? Yet they are slippery things. Smartphones are both a step change in the ability of human beings to communicate with each other and become informed, and a new point of vulnerability to penetration by the outside world. They are at once talismans of our freedom and connectivity and tokens of the corporations who collect our data and impinge on our privacy.</p>
<p>I’m an anthropologist, and I’m part of a team <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/assa/">currently researching</a> these issues. We’re trying to answer a very simple question: what is a smartphone? It may seem odd that a group of academics who specialise in the study of social relations should attempt this, but we are perhaps the only type of experts who can answer this question.</p>
<p>Why? Well, Apple makes the iPhone, Samsung the Galaxy; these are phones with the capacity to be smart. But what really makes them smart comes from below: from their appropriation by users. Very few people, if any, restrict themselves to the apps that come with their phone. Instead, each person creates a new configuration from additional apps and changed settings. AI and algorithms in turn facilitate the phone’s ability to learn from their specific individual usage. To know what the smartphone is requires observing how it has come into being through these processes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247035/original/file-20181123-149323-ukr9fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247035/original/file-20181123-149323-ukr9fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247035/original/file-20181123-149323-ukr9fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247035/original/file-20181123-149323-ukr9fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247035/original/file-20181123-149323-ukr9fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247035/original/file-20181123-149323-ukr9fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247035/original/file-20181123-149323-ukr9fh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What is a smartphone?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/mobile-phones-background-pile-different-modern-229183180?src=vTQ90TWvNlMaZLBdU7fPMw-2-66">Maxx-Studio/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are taking a global perspective on the smartphone, investigating what kind of phone people create in places in Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, China, Ireland, Italy, Japan, East Jerusalem and Uganda. Our focus is on people at mid-life. We also study how the capacities created by smartphones might mitigate the loss of capacity associated with ill-health and observe how phones take on cultural as well as personal values.</p>
<p>To understand the smartphone, an analogy with the daemon in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-philip-pullmans-dark-literary-material-shed-light-on-science-and-religion-86238">Philip Pullman</a>’s Northern Lights novels may help. In the Northern Lights world, human beings have an animal avatar that can change in youth, but then settles into the species best reflecting their adult self: augmenting an aspect of their personality or profession. In Pullman’s latest novel, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/19/la-belle-sauvage-book-of-dust-philip-pullman-review">La Belle Sauvage</a>, for example, the daemon Asta can become an owl in order to see better in the dark. The daemon is external yet integral. Even being a distance from one’s daemon can create a painful wrench.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gNiiJ0JtBOQ?wmode=transparent&start=78" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, we have a relationship to, as well as through, our phones, to others and back to ourselves. Our anxiety about a phone accidentally left at home may not just be the absence of a machine, but a temporary loss of part of ourselves.</p>
<h2>Phone daemons</h2>
<p>I’m carrying out my own part of the project in Ireland, where I have been observing how each phone becomes that particular person’s daemon. A retired fisherman’s phone, for example, expresses rugged and practical self-sufficiency – all usage must be justified by strict canons of function. Now his daughter is no longer in Australia, for example, Skype is seen as superfluous.</p>
<p>The iPhone of a 69-year-old professional woman, meanwhile, is a marvel. All her apps are in nested folders labelled finance, sports, news, and utilities. Each task, such as paying a utility bill, is scheduled in her calendar, which links to files on her notebook outlining each step of the procedure, relevant passwords and websites. Her phone has become a life manual of several hundred pages.</p>
<p>Then there is the phone dominated by seven apps all related to the owner’s passion for sailing. Or the caring phone devoted to helping a woman look after her 90-year-old mother with dementia; mobilising family care through WhatsApp, showing pictures of grandchildren through Facebook, using maps to reach a hospital appointment.</p>
<p>Typically, these people actively employ 25 to 30 different functions to craft their specific phones. Personalisation may involve downloading apps, but far more important is the adaptation of platforms such as WhatsApp and calendar. In this way, the phone becomes an avatar or daemon of that user.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247036/original/file-20181123-149314-r0d03z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247036/original/file-20181123-149314-r0d03z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247036/original/file-20181123-149314-r0d03z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247036/original/file-20181123-149314-r0d03z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247036/original/file-20181123-149314-r0d03z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247036/original/file-20181123-149314-r0d03z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/247036/original/file-20181123-149314-r0d03z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What does your phone say about you?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-on-coast-using-his-smartphone-338662019?src=IohlneneaxJkQtz9IRW6ww-1-25">Georgejmclittle/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Anthropomorphic machines</h2>
<p>For more than a century, humanity has been fascinated by the development of the robot and its potential to realise our imagination of the anthropomorphic machine – that is, machines that look like or have the qualities of a human being. The robot is conceived to be a machine that becomes <a href="https://theconversation.com/uncanny-valley-why-we-find-human-like-robots-and-dolls-so-creepy-50268">increasingly similar to us</a> while remaining other. But the smartphone represents a more profound and advanced trajectory towards the anthropomorphic machine – one that proceeds through increasing intimacy.</p>
<p>Our concerns about robots have traditionally focused upon their appearance. We feel ambivalence about something that looks like us. By contrast, a smartphone looks not one iota like a human being. It has no arms and no legs. Instead, it achieves mobility through placement in trouser pockets or handbags. Anthropomorphism is advanced through these more prosthetic processes, the way the phone extends us, as well as its ability to transform the individual it belongs to.</p>
<p>The increasing intimacy of phones can also cause many problems. Those relating to the loss of privacy and control by corporations are familiar. Teaching phone usage to older people reveals the stupidity of phones. When asked to download an app, my students press an icon called downloads. They assume Google Play is for games. When asked to go on the internet, they don’t know if this means Samsung internet, Chrome, OK Google, or one called Internet. The young tell older people that smartphones are intuitive. They are quite wrong about that.</p>
<p>Both these problems and the new capacities vary by region. Older people in Shanghai embrace the phone’s modernity and in a restaurant they may be the ones engrossed in their phones, while the young people chat directly to each other. In Japan, a country where people may hold <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.693.1712&rep=rep1&type=pdf">funerals for material things</a>, there was already a tradition of the daemon-like quality of objects and their intimacy that give these processes a distinct meaning.</p>
<p>To have an informed discussion about the use and consequences of smartphones we first need to know what they are, through examining the cultural and individual, as well as the technical, processes that make them smart.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106560/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Miller receives funding from The European Research Council.</span></em></p>Philip Pullman can help us understand what smartphones are doing to people – here’s how.Daniel Miller, Professor of Material Culture, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/854622017-11-13T18:57:41Z2017-11-13T18:57:41ZDid they mean to do that? Accident and intent in an octopuses’ garden<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194100/original/file-20171110-13351-r2kuo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C0%2C1919%2C1005&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A gloomy octopus perched above a bed of discarded scallop shells. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Godfrey-Smith </span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We recently published a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10236244.2017.1369851">scientific report</a> of octopuses living together in unusual numbers at a site on the south coast of New South Wales. </p>
<p>Then things got a little out of hand.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NoSRNwHwTWM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/octopuses-invade-welsh-beach-here-are-the-scientific-theories-why-86646">Octopuses invade Welsh beach – here are the scientific theories why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Gloomy octopus</h2>
<p>The gloomy octopus, named for large eyes that can give the animal a doleful appearance, is the most common local octopus in NSW waters. <em>Octopus tetricus</em>, to use its scientific name, has usually been thought of as a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228505112_Habitat_selection_and_shelter_use_by_Octopus_tetricus">solitary animal</a>, and that has been the stereotype associated with most octopus species for many years. </p>
<p>The recent discovery of a site in Jervis Bay, Australia where these octopuses gather in quite high numbers is challenging that perception, and revealing some striking behaviours.</p>
<p>The site consists of three rocky outcrops, around which octopuses have built up an extensive bed of discarded scallop shells, mixed with some human debris. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193705/original/file-20171108-6722-ll96j4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193705/original/file-20171108-6722-ll96j4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193705/original/file-20171108-6722-ll96j4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193705/original/file-20171108-6722-ll96j4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193705/original/file-20171108-6722-ll96j4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193705/original/file-20171108-6722-ll96j4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193705/original/file-20171108-6722-ll96j4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A gloomy octopus swims over scattered scallop shells.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Godfrey-Smith</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We think there is a process of “positive feedback” operating at the site. As scallops are brought back to the site to eat, the discarded shells provide material for additional octopuses to dig burrows. The shells line and stabilise the shaft-like dens. When the site was discovered in 2016, a total of 15 octopuses were present, along with several unoccupied dens.</p>
<p>This is the second site of its kind discovered. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10236244.2012.727617?journalCode=gmfw20">The first</a>, reported in 2012, seems to have been formed around a discarded object, now very encrusted, of human origin. </p>
<p>The second site, which is entirely “natural,” shows that the same gathering of octopuses can occur without a “seeding” of the process by a human artefact. </p>
<p>At both sites, octopuses engage in quite complicated interactions – they produce displays, probe each other with their arms, and often try to evict other octopuses from their dens. </p>
<p>Other individuals of this species probably do live more solitary lives – when observed around Sydney, for example, they are almost always alone. This suggests that the octopuses have an ability to individually adapt their behaviour according to their circumstances.</p>
<h2>Underwater city?</h2>
<p>In September 2017, our <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10236244.2017.1369851">scientific report of the second site</a> was published, written with our colleagues David Scheel, Stephanie Chancellor, Stefan Linquist, and Matt Lawrence. </p>
<p>This paper received a good deal of media attention, with initial stories fairly accurate. But they seem to have started a self-sustaining process of their own, especially as a couple of early reports used the term “city” in their title. For example: “<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/09/scientists-discover-underwater-city-full-gloomy-octopuses">Scientists discover an underwater city full of gloomy octopuses</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193706/original/file-20171108-6742-eyv7ut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193706/original/file-20171108-6742-eyv7ut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193706/original/file-20171108-6742-eyv7ut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193706/original/file-20171108-6742-eyv7ut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193706/original/file-20171108-6742-eyv7ut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193706/original/file-20171108-6742-eyv7ut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193706/original/file-20171108-6742-eyv7ut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gloomy octopus on the move.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Godfrey-Smith</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was probably influenced by the nickname chosen for the site, “Octlantis,” though our article did not talk about “cities” or anything similar. Soon the authors were fielding interview requests from around the world, wanting more details of the hidden octopus city and the lives of its denizens. </p>
<p>New online articles about the site seemed to build successively on exaggerations made in earlier articles, until our octopuses were reported as making “<a href="https://curiosity.com/topics/theres-a-city-of-octopuses-off-the-coast-of-australia-curiosity">art</a>” and building “<a href="http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/discover-octatlantus-an-octopus-city-off-the-coast-of-australia">fences</a>”.</p>
<p>Octlantis is not a city, and no artworks, fences, or buildings have been made. In an era of rapid and unconstrained circulation of information around the internet, often with important political ramifications, the buzz around Octlantis is a reminder of how quickly rumours can arise and feed off each other, generating a literature that becomes less and less accurate at each step.</p>
<h2>Accident versus intent</h2>
<p>The Octlantis site does raise interesting questions about what the octopuses intend to do, and which effects of their actions are entirely inadvertent. Questions of “intent” are very difficult in work on animal behaviour, but we think some distinctions can be made – provisionally at least – in these terms. </p>
<p>Octopuses collect scallops for use as food. This requires them to make excursions from their den and find their way home. They bring the scallops home to eat, we assume, because it is safer than eating in the open. They also dig dens in the shell bed, and sometimes arrange shells and other objects around the edge of their den. </p>
<p>It seems quite likely to us that the collection of scallops and the building and maintenance of dens are all intentional behaviours (in a low-key sense of that term). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193707/original/file-20171108-6736-rbtlnz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193707/original/file-20171108-6736-rbtlnz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193707/original/file-20171108-6736-rbtlnz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193707/original/file-20171108-6736-rbtlnz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193707/original/file-20171108-6736-rbtlnz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193707/original/file-20171108-6736-rbtlnz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193707/original/file-20171108-6736-rbtlnz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Why so gloomy, octopus?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Godfrey-Smith</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dens are sometimes maintained with some care, and octopuses will expel debris either by carrying it away, or with use of their jet propulsion mechanism, the “siphon.” But this does not imply that octopuses have any inkling that when they bring scallops back to the site, they are improving the den-building possibilities for themselves or others. Those effects may be entirely inadvertent.</p>
<p>Work is continuing on these animals and their unusual homes. One interesting question is whether other octopus species behave like this in some circumstances.</p>
<p>Another is why we observe groups of gloomy octopuses at these particular sites, and not in other areas where a solid object has been placed on the sea floor in what looks like similar circumstances. </p>
<p>How many octopuses’ gardens are out there, waiting to be discovered?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Intentional actions by usually solitary octopuses improve a sandy site, allowing group living in ‘Octlantis’. But the buzz around the site grew quickly, creating some interesting interpretations.Martin Hing, PhD Researcher in marine and behavioural ecology, University of WollongongPeter Godfrey-Smith, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/784752017-06-07T20:12:11Z2017-06-07T20:12:11ZFrom man-eaters to Pokémon: the weird world of cactus culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172405/original/file-20170606-18888-12c4avk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The human-like forms of saguaro cacti in Arizona. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cacti image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cacti are wonderfully weird and paradoxical plants. While their spines can make them appear menacing, they can also exhibit beautifully sculpted forms and produce the most stunning floral displays. Some varieties might appear to be virtually lifeless, taking many years to grow a mere few centimetres; then in a matter of days they produce a bouquet of flowers that is substantially larger than the entire plant.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172119/original/file-20170604-20593-1vf9tlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172119/original/file-20170604-20593-1vf9tlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172119/original/file-20170604-20593-1vf9tlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172119/original/file-20170604-20593-1vf9tlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172119/original/file-20170604-20593-1vf9tlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172119/original/file-20170604-20593-1vf9tlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172119/original/file-20170604-20593-1vf9tlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172119/original/file-20170604-20593-1vf9tlr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A hairy cactus, commonly known as the ‘old man cactus’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Torre</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because of their extraordinary features and strange contrasts, cacti have readily captured our imaginations. Many representations of cacti in art, literature and popular culture have imbued them with human-like characteristics. Some of these anthropomorphised cacti have appeared as cute and cuddly creatures – while others have taken the form of monstrous killers. </p>
<p>Cacti represent a very diverse family of plants, comprising some 1500 species, in all shapes and sizes. While many of these look as we imagine a cactus should – succulent and covered in spines – a number of varieties are totally spine-free. Some cacti actually grow in tropical rainforests and produce spectacular fruit, such as the popular dragon fruit.</p>
<p>There are some cacti that even seem to echo our own characteristics. Several species can grow long, human-like hair – earning the common name, old man cactus. And the giant saguaro cactus, found in the deserts of western North America, with its tall upright trunk and its arms held high, can look remarkably human.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/122575482" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Killer cacti</h2>
<p>In the 1890s, widely believed <a href="http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/get_out/the-mystical-giant-saguaro-is-not-to-be-trifled-with/article_6a86d5a1-bb2f-589e-afa2-5c04f54cc69d.html">American newspaper reports</a> described how a large stand of saguaro cacti in Arizona had “become magnetised” causing them to go about smashing and digesting unsuspecting human victims. It was claimed that due to huge veins of magnetically charged copper that existed deep underground the cacti had become lethal and, depending on their magnetic polarity, would either attract or repel living creatures with enormous force. Several “eye-witnesses” claimed to have seen a number of human victims in various stages of digestion trapped within the arms of these killer cacti.</p>
<p>Comic books have also featured many anthropomorphised cacti, including one notable story, <a href="http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=35203">Green Horror</a>, from the 1950s Fantastic Fears series. It features a highly jealous saguaro cactus that falls in love with his female gardener – the woman who had originally transplanted him from the desert. In order to requite his love for her he systematically kills her husband, then later her new fiancé and finally the woman herself as he attempts to grab her in a loving embrace. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172118/original/file-20170604-20563-3xdn66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172118/original/file-20170604-20563-3xdn66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172118/original/file-20170604-20563-3xdn66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172118/original/file-20170604-20563-3xdn66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172118/original/file-20170604-20563-3xdn66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172118/original/file-20170604-20563-3xdn66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172118/original/file-20170604-20563-3xdn66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172118/original/file-20170604-20563-3xdn66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Green Horror.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Marvel Comics West Coast Avengers series, features a super-villain known simply as <a href="http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Cactus_(Earth-616)">Cactus</a> that exhibits great strength. Although he has the ability to walk, he can also quickly fly through the air and spray deadly needles at his victims.</p>
<p>Several episodes of Dr Who have also featured cactus-like characters. One memorable four-part episode from the 1980s (starring Tom Baker) features a nemesis named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meglos">Meglos</a>, who is a giant cactus that is able to transform his human victims into green, spine-covered creatures. These transformed cactus-humans are then compelled to do his evil bidding.</p>
<p>The Walt Disney animated feature film, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038166/">The Three Caballeros</a> (1944), features an extended sequence in which Donald Duck can be seen dancing with dozens of anthropomorphised cacti. At one point Donald tries to woo a senorita but is emphatically blocked from pursuing her by hordes of cacti. The cacti then transform into dozens of duck shaped beings that proceed to knock him down, trampling painfully on his back. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zl8o_wQe4pw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Donald Duck encounters cacti in the 1944 film The Three Caballeros.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Quirky cacti</h2>
<p>Mexican painter, <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/artboards/frida-kahlo-diego-rivera/la-revolucion/item/bwyk7u/">Diego Rivera</a>, featured anthropomorphised cacti in many of his paintings. One particularly intriguing example can be found in his Landscape with Cacti (1931), which features an array of human-like saguaro cacti, one of them clearly female, with not only cactus arms but also cactus
breasts.</p>
<p>Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip also features <a href="http://peanuts.wikia.com/wiki/Spike%27s_cactus">anthropomorphised cacti</a> that interact with the dog-like character known as Spike. Living in the desert, Spike, who is Snoopy’s brother, suffers from what might be described as permanent sun-stroke, as he imagines that the saguaro cacti are very much alive. He frequently talks and interacts with them, and occasionally injures himself as he tries to hold hands with them.</p>
<p>The animated series <a href="http://digimon.wikia.com/wiki/Togemon">Digimon</a> features a cactus character named Togemon, an enormous creature that wears large red boxing gloves and is a skillful fighter. But when things get too dangerous, or if he confronting a particularly difficult opponent, he has the capacity to spray out a barrage of needles. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172120/original/file-20170604-20605-1uc48xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172120/original/file-20170604-20605-1uc48xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172120/original/file-20170604-20605-1uc48xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172120/original/file-20170604-20605-1uc48xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172120/original/file-20170604-20605-1uc48xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172120/original/file-20170604-20605-1uc48xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172120/original/file-20170604-20605-1uc48xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Togemon, a cactus character from the Digimon series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot from Digimon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And Pokémon also features a number of cactus-inspired characters including, <a href="http://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Cacturne">Cacturne</a> – similarly in possession of rapid-fire needles. Another character known as <a href="http://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Maractus">Maractus</a> is adorned with brightly coloured cactus-flowers, and can perform a special “dazzle dance” in order to confuse and startle its opponents. </p>
<h2>Cuddly cacti</h2>
<p>In recent years, cacti have become extremely popular both as house and garden plants, and as design elements that are featured on everything from clothing to homewares. As more people embrace these amazing plants, we are beginning to see fewer examples of killer cacti and a lot more cute and cuddly cacti creatures. </p>
<p>One collection of loveable cacti-characters can be found in trendy lifestyle brand <a href="https://www.tokidoki.it/cactus/">Tokidoki’s</a> Cactus Friends series. These characters, and their pet kittens and puppies, are all adorned in colourful cacti costumes, which they wear to help to protect them from danger. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172121/original/file-20170604-20586-13w3qh3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172121/original/file-20170604-20586-13w3qh3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172121/original/file-20170604-20586-13w3qh3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172121/original/file-20170604-20586-13w3qh3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172121/original/file-20170604-20586-13w3qh3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172121/original/file-20170604-20586-13w3qh3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172121/original/file-20170604-20586-13w3qh3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172121/original/file-20170604-20586-13w3qh3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toby, a kindly cactus character from Sheriff Callie’s Wild West.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another endearing cactus-character can be found in the Disney animated television series, <a href="http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Toby_(Sheriff_Callie%27s_Wild_West)">Sheriff Callie’s Wild West</a>, which features Toby, the kindly cactus.</p>
<p>We are likely to see many more anthropomorphised examples of these remarkable plants.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Dan Torre’s new book <a href="http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781780237220">Cactus </a>(Reaktion Books, London) is now widely available.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dan Torre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Killers, cartoons, and even romantic objects, the cactus’s ongoing popularity has led it down some strange paths.Dan Torre, Lecturer in the School of Media and Communication, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/756822017-04-13T05:03:39Z2017-04-13T05:03:39ZWhy we don’t trust robots<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163867/original/image-20170404-5739-1nvjjmv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The robot Berenson in 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stéphanie Leclerc-Caffarel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Robots raise all kinds of concerns. They could steal our jobs, <a href="http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf">as some experts think</a>. And <a href="https://futureoflife.org/ai-open-letter">if artificial intelligence grows</a>, they might even be tempted to enslave us, or to annihilate the whole of humanity. </p>
<p>Robots are strange creatures, and not only for these frequently invoked reasons. We have good cause to be a little worried about these machines.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tIIJME8-au8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An advertisement for Kuka robotics: can these machines really replace us?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Imagine that you are visiting the <a href="http://www.quaibranly.fr/en">Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac</a>, a museum in Paris dedicated to anthropology and ethnology. As you walk through the collection, your curiosity leads you to a certain piece. After a while, you begin to sense a familiar presence heading towards the same <em>objet d'art</em> that has caught your attention. </p>
<p>You move slowly, and as you turn your head a strange feeling seizes you because what you seem to distinguish, still blurry in your peripheral vision, is a not-quite-human figure. Anxiety takes over.</p>
<p>As your head turns, and your vision become sharper, this feeling gets stronger. You realise that this is a humanoid machine, <a href="http://www.widewalls.ch/berenson-the-robot-vidal-gaussier/">a robot called Berenson</a>. Named after the American art critic Bernard Berenson and designed by the roboticist Philippe Gaussier (<a href="http://perso-etis.ensea.fr/gaussier/">Image and Signal processing Lab</a>) and the anthropologist Denis Vidal (<a href="https://cv.archives-ouvertes.fr/denis-vidal">Institut de recherche sur le développement</a>), Berenson is part of <a href="http://www.ensea.fr/fr/story/robot-berenson-est-de-retour">an experiment underway at the Quai Branly museum since 2012</a>. </p>
<p>The strangeness of the encounter with Berenson leaves you suddenly frightened, and you step back, away from the machine.</p>
<h2>The uncanny valley</h2>
<p>This feeling has been explored in robotics since the 1970s, when Japanese researcher Professor Masahiro Mori <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/the-uncanny-valley">proposed his “uncanny valley” theory</a>. If a robot resembles us, he suggested, we are inclined to consider its presence in the same way as we would that of a human being. </p>
<p>But when the machine reveals its robot nature to us, we will feel discomfort. Enter what Mori dubbed “the uncanny valley”. The robot will then be regarded as something of a zombie. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163862/original/image-20170404-5729-dlv0wf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163862/original/image-20170404-5729-dlv0wf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163862/original/image-20170404-5729-dlv0wf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163862/original/image-20170404-5729-dlv0wf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163862/original/image-20170404-5729-dlv0wf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163862/original/image-20170404-5729-dlv0wf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163862/original/image-20170404-5729-dlv0wf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163862/original/image-20170404-5729-dlv0wf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Uncanny Valley graph conceptualised by Mori, showing the point where we start considering the other as a ‘monster’ or ‘zombie’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">M.Mori</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mori’s theory cannot be systematically verified. But the feelings we experience when we meet an autonomous machine are certainly tinged with both incomprehension and curiosity. </p>
<p>The experiment conducted with Berenson at the Quai Branly, for example, shows that the robot’s presence can elicit paradoxical behaviour in museum goers. It underlines the deep ambiguity that characterises the <a href="http://terrain.revues.org/15396">relationship one can have with a robot</a>, particularly the many communication problems they pose for humans. </p>
<p>If we are wary of such machines, it is mainly because it is not clear to us whether they have intentions. And, if so, what they are and how to establish a basis for the minimal understanding that is essential in any interaction. Thus, it is common to see visitors of the Quai Branly adopting social behaviour with Berenson, such as talking to it, or facing it, to find out how it perceives its environment. </p>
<p>In one way or another, visitors mainly try to establish contact. It appears that there is something strategic in considering the robot, even temporarily, as a person. And these social behaviours are not only observed when humans interact with machines that resembles us: it seems we make anthropomorphic projections whenever humans and robots meet.</p>
<h2>Social interactions</h2>
<p>An interdisciplinary team has recently been set up to explore the many dimensions revealed during these interactions. In particular, they are looking at the moments when, in our minds, we are ready to endow robots with intentions and intelligence. </p>
<p>This is how the <a href="http://www.msh-lorraine.fr/index.php?id=846">PsyPhINe project</a> was born. Based on interactions between humans and a robotic lamp, this project seeks to better understand people’s tendency to anthropomorphise machines.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164421/original/image-20170407-29393-h3nz7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164421/original/image-20170407-29393-h3nz7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164421/original/image-20170407-29393-h3nz7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164421/original/image-20170407-29393-h3nz7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164421/original/image-20170407-29393-h3nz7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164421/original/image-20170407-29393-h3nz7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164421/original/image-20170407-29393-h3nz7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trying to communicate with a robotic lamp, 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Psyphine</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After they get accustomed to the strangeness of the situation, it is not uncommon to observe that people are socially engaging with the lamp. During a game in which people are invited to play with this robot, they can be seen reacting to its movements and sometimes speaking to it, commenting on what it is doing or on the situation itself. </p>
<p>Mistrust often characterises the first moments of our relations with machines. Beyond their appearance, most people don’t know exactly what robots are made of, what their functions are and what their intentions might be. The robot world seems way too far from ours. </p>
<p>But this feeling quickly disappears. Assuming they have not already run away from the machine, people usually seek to define and maintain a frame for communication. Typically, they rely on existing communication habits, such as those used when talking to pets, for example, or with any living being whose world is to some degree different from theirs.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it seems, we humans are as suspicious of our technologies as we are fascinated by the possibilities they open up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75682/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joffrey Becker is affiliated to the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale (UMR7130) à Paris. He received post-doc grants from the Museum of quai Branly and of Université de Lorraine for his research in this article. </span></em></p>Robots are strange creatures, and not only because they might steal our jobs. We humans actually have good reason to be a little worried about these machines.Joffrey Becker, Anthropologue, Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale, Collège de FranceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/652402016-09-13T20:16:46Z2016-09-13T20:16:46ZPeople are ‘blind’ to plants, and that’s bad news for conservation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137492/original/image-20160913-19222-xqcbls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sometimes plants are obvious, but often they slip under the radar</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wildflower image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Turn away from your computer screen for a moment and try to remember what you saw in the image below.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137463/original/image-20160913-19266-phtqn6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137463/original/image-20160913-19266-phtqn6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137463/original/image-20160913-19266-phtqn6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137463/original/image-20160913-19266-phtqn6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137463/original/image-20160913-19266-phtqn6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137463/original/image-20160913-19266-phtqn6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137463/original/image-20160913-19266-phtqn6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137463/original/image-20160913-19266-phtqn6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">All images from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The image has an equal number of plants and animals, but chances are that you remembered more animals than plants. This bias in memory is part of a phenomenon known as “plant blindness”. Research shows that people are also generally <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tea.3660230504/full">more interested</a> in animals than plants, and find it <a href="http://www.lifescied.org/content/13/3/437.short">harder to detect</a> images of plants compared with images of animals. </p>
<p>Plant blindness is more than an interesting quirk of human perception. It impacts on our efforts to care for and understand plant species. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/674103?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Figures</a> from the United States show that while most federal endangered species (57%) are plants, less than 4% of money spent on threatened species is used to protect plants. Botanical education has been declared <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/10/plants-wild-plant-species-kew">under threat</a> in the UK.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12738/abstract">recent essay</a>, Mung Balding and I argue that overcoming plant blindness requires more than plant education. Instead we need to help people connect with plants emotionally.</p>
<h2>Why does it happen?</h2>
<p>We aren’t sure why plant blindness occurs. <a href="http://www.botany.org/bsa/psb/2001/psb47-1.pdf">One theory</a> suggests that because plants generally grow close together, do not move and often blend together visually, they often go unnoticed when animals are present. </p>
<p>Another possibility is that we learn plant blindness. For example, biology textbooks give much less space to plants compared with animals, potentially leaving schoolchildren with the impression that plants don’t matter.</p>
<p>But we also know many societies have <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=5fc7AQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Plants+as+persons:+a+philosophical+botany&ots=JoGXzGFV0v&sig=IetKO7EUP8jHF07GpbjkRsLIe0A#v=onepage&q=Plants%20as%20persons%3A%20a%20philosophical%20botany&f=false">strong bonds with plants</a>. Among some Aboriginal Australian, Native North American and Maori communities, plants are understood to be different from humans but also to share a common ancestry that brings kinship relationships of mutual responsibility.</p>
<p>Overall, research suggests that while plant blindness is common, it is not inevitable. Here are three strategies that we believe could make a difference. </p>
<h2>Identify with plants</h2>
<p>Plants can seem very different from humans. <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CAq8BwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=The+value+of+life:+biological+diversity+and+human+society&ots=8_uSfmCdkX&sig=K7g7V6Q-FPLEMuc_stqnbZkQa4k#v=onepage&q=The%20value%20of%20life%3A%20biological%20diversity%20and%20human%20society&f=false">Research</a> has shown that animal conservation support is biased towards species that are most like humans.</p>
<p>Unlike humans and many other animals, plants don’t have faces, don’t usually move locations and don’t seem to have feelings. One way to start valuing plants is to notice ways that we actually are alike.</p>
<p>Science can help us see how plants have similarities with humans. Plants are alive, have sex, <a href="https://theconversation.com/heard-it-on-the-grapevine-the-mysterious-chatter-of-plants-6292">communicate</a> and take up food. Some young plants <a href="https://theconversation.com/plants-can-actually-take-care-of-their-offspring-heres-how-33048">share the root system</a> of their parent plant – a “protective” behaviour that many human parents will recognise.</p>
<p>Rituals are another way of identifying with plants. For example, for people living on the island of Nusa Penida near Bali, the coconut palm is an important plant. Early in a child’s life, the father will plant a tree for the child. The tree’s development and life span then parallels the child’s and in ceremonies it is clothed and presented with food.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137331/original/image-20160912-3793-f2p94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137331/original/image-20160912-3793-f2p94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137331/original/image-20160912-3793-f2p94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137331/original/image-20160912-3793-f2p94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137331/original/image-20160912-3793-f2p94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137331/original/image-20160912-3793-f2p94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137331/original/image-20160912-3793-f2p94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137331/original/image-20160912-3793-f2p94s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coconut palms are an important part of ritual on some Indonesian islands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Coconut palm image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Empathy with plants</h2>
<p>Actively imagining the experiences of plants and animals is another way people can connect with plants. In a <a href="http://eab.sagepub.com/content/39/2/269.short">psychological experiment</a>, participants were shown images of either a dead bird on a beach, covered in oil, or a group of trees that had been cut down. </p>
<p>Half the participants were told to view the image objectively, while the rest were asked to imagine how the bird or tree felt. The researchers found that people who actively empathised with the bird or tree not only expressed greater concern but also donated more money to protecting the species.</p>
<p>Art, imagination and ritual can all help people to imaginatively empathise with plants. So too can tending plants, as one experiences the joys and sorrows of plant life and death.</p>
<h2>Make plants human</h2>
<p>A third – and more controversial – way to connect with plants is through anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism means attributing human characteristics to plants, like describing a drooping plant as sad, or a sunflower as turning its face toward the sun. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137328/original/image-20160912-3807-16k79xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137328/original/image-20160912-3807-16k79xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137328/original/image-20160912-3807-16k79xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137328/original/image-20160912-3807-16k79xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137328/original/image-20160912-3807-16k79xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137328/original/image-20160912-3807-16k79xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137328/original/image-20160912-3807-16k79xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137328/original/image-20160912-3807-16k79xh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Facing the sun: these sunflowers look very happy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sunflower image from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Anthropomorphism of animals is common in entertainment and conservation campaigns but rarely used for plants. Some writers consider anthropomorphism to be unhelpful: it can misdirect thinking about plants, or sentimentalise plants in ways that belittle them. But <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103113000292">experiments</a> show that making or reading anthropomorphic pictures and stories can also help people to empathise with nature and want to act to protect nature.</p>
<p>Want to test this out for yourself? Try a thought experiment by watching this 1932 animation from Walt Disney. The dancing, courting and fighting trees are rather bewildering, but do you feel a twinge of anxiety when the trees are threatened by fire, or relief as the woodland recovers?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CWEzHE7wn7U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Feeling anxious?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Plant conservationists view plants as having value in their own right, so it might seem odd to suggest that we promote plant conservation by thinking about the ways plants are like humans. The strategies we suggest draw on <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027249441000006X">theory</a> that proposes that people are more likely to act in the interests of nature if we think about nature as being part of us. Appreciating our connections with plants may be the best way to begin respecting their amazing differences.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was written with Mung Balding, a graduate of the University of Melbourne’s Master of Environment program.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65240/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Williams works in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, which offers education in horticulture and ecosystem science and management.She receives funding through the Australian Research Council, the National Environmental Science Program, the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, however the research reported here was unfunded. </span></em></p>Plant blindness is more than an interesting quirk of human perception. It impacts on our efforts to care for and understand plant species.Kathryn Williams, Associate Professor in environmental psychology and Director, Office for Environmental Programs, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/347362014-11-28T14:39:44Z2014-11-28T14:39:44ZPokémon-style Rio 2016 mascots will do nothing to help Brazilian wildlife<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65721/original/image-20141127-21951-yx95q3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who knew Olympics came in eggs?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmGuf-qWmoA#t=46">Rio 2016</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.rio2016.com/mascots/#!home">The mascots</a> for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics and Paralympics have been announced. The yellow chap above is the Olympic mascot, apparently an amalgam of <a href="http://www.rio2016.com/mascots/#!olympic-mascot">all Brazilian animals</a>, which surprisingly only includes monkeys, cats and birds. The green and blue fellow, the Paralympic mascot, is supposed to represent all of Brazil’s plant species.</p>
<p>I’m not using their names as they don’t have them yet – the mascots are waiting for the results of a public competition. The name choices on offer are not great. Two are from Brazilian slang meaning great (Oba and Eba), two are from a native language and have meanings related to dance (Tiba Tuque and Esquidim) and the final two choices are after two of the founders of bossa nova music (Tom and Vincius). It’s a real shame that neither of the mascots has the chance of being given a female name.</p>
<p>Over the past year Brazilian conservationists have been lobbying for various different species to be the Olympic mascot. Of course this is motivated by the financial funds likely to be directed towards the winner. Proposed species included primates (muriquis and golden lion tamarins), cats (ocelot) and birds (hummingbirds). All of these would be appropriate and worthy choices.</p>
<p>The golden lion tamarin is one of the true symbols of conservation biology – I learnt about its reintroduction back into the wild as an undergraduate student more than 25 year ago. It is also a natural <em>Carioca</em>: a species that once lived within the boundaries of Rio de Janeiro. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65727/original/image-20141127-4225-1g0l2i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65727/original/image-20141127-4225-1g0l2i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65727/original/image-20141127-4225-1g0l2i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65727/original/image-20141127-4225-1g0l2i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65727/original/image-20141127-4225-1g0l2i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65727/original/image-20141127-4225-1g0l2i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65727/original/image-20141127-4225-1g0l2i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65727/original/image-20141127-4225-1g0l2i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muriqui: coulda been a contender.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/peterschoen/5539581122">Peter Schoen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The muriqui, while not a <em>Caricoa</em>, can be found in the mountains which form a backdrop to the city. Ocelots are medium sized cats, which once lived in present-day Rio. And hummingbirds are also <em>Cariocas</em>. All species are threatened with extinction in the region.</p>
<h2>One of the world’s great wildlife hotspots</h2>
<p>When you talk about Brazilian wildlife most people think of the Amazon. It may therefore come as a surprise to find out that the Amazon basin is not actually considered a true <a href="http://www.conservation.org/How/Pages/Hotspots.aspx">biodiversity hotspot</a>. These hotspots, 35 in total around the world, are defined by the large number of species they contain and the high degree of threat from human activities. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65844/original/image-20141128-20591-1s00opf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65844/original/image-20141128-20591-1s00opf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65844/original/image-20141128-20591-1s00opf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65844/original/image-20141128-20591-1s00opf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65844/original/image-20141128-20591-1s00opf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65844/original/image-20141128-20591-1s00opf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65844/original/image-20141128-20591-1s00opf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ocelot: mascot reject.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonkringen/3602395164/in/photolist-6ukdzs-7fY84Y-3bi7sC-abc3Fa-3bd8Yn-7j8h2D-3bdmd8-eEJidw-9eL5Ex-5zdv9Y-e6r9ZX-dAqvKT-kjPzyT-coDfKh-bnzzPY-oXsGg-bmQhzc-adkmXZ-cS1gZY-23Ukky-8toa1h-8toahY-7NYEY2-aeqKf6-6yg247-6yg2s7-aeqKfi-7P3HMb-c9aQwJ-8BwaRm-JUsYB-JUi3u-abZiXX-7U5p8y-cFnjXm-abZj2k-6CXPRb-4kP8pX-a2HHue-bnzqDo-atyQJJ-5AcY7r-bxGe39-ev7aUA-dyg7SD-dyg8M8-dymAYE-dyg7Ar-dyg8ii-dymBq1">Shannon Kringen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brazil has two: the Cerrado (savannahs) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-save-brazils-atlantic-forest-on-a-shoe-string-31024">the Atlantic forest</a>. The latter extends along much of Brazil’s south-eastern coast and once covered the whole of the city of Rio de Janeiro. It is ranked the <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v403/n6772/full/403853a0.html">fourth most important</a> biodiversity hotspot in the world, but it is being chopped down faster than ever.</p>
<p>Despite conservation biologists having their own preference for the mascot, everyone agreed these games are an opportunity to highlight the importance of the Atlantic forest to the world. Biologists were thus dismayed to see two mascots who appear uncannily like Pokémon characters. This has caused <a href="http://vejasp.abril.com.br/blogs/pop/2014/11/24/piada-mascotes-olimpiadas-rio-2016/">some derision</a> among Brazil’s conservationists.</p>
<p>For the football World Cup held in Brazil earlier this year the organisers went with Fuleco, a three-banded armadillo – cuddly but endangered. However they didn’t back things up with sufficient conservation support or even make it too clear <a href="https://theconversation.com/brazil-and-fifa-have-failed-to-protect-their-world-cup-mascot-27603">what Fuleco was supposed to represent</a>.</p>
<p>I had hoped that the Rio Olympics would not make the same mistakes, and it seems they haven’t. However they appear to have avoided this simply by inventing cartoon characters. If a mascot is invented – if there is no “real animal” to preserve – then no-one can complain about lack of support for its conservation. To me this odd hybrid-creature smacks of trying to appease the biologists lobbying for real species. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65845/original/image-20141128-20568-1der5of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65845/original/image-20141128-20568-1der5of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65845/original/image-20141128-20568-1der5of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65845/original/image-20141128-20568-1der5of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65845/original/image-20141128-20568-1der5of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65845/original/image-20141128-20568-1der5of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65845/original/image-20141128-20568-1der5of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inspiration?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/antoniotajuelo/14763303431">Antonio Tajuelo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It should be pointed out that while Pokémon was popular with children its premise as a game was about capturing, collecting and training wild creatures. Given that <a href="http://www.rense.com/general16/38millionanimals.htm">animal trafficking</a> is a major problem in Brazil, the Pokémon-like mascots are particularly inappropriate.</p>
<p>As a father of two small children whose life is plagued by cartoons on the TV I understand the need for these mascots to appeal to kids. But actually the real species proposed were all very cute. What I object to more is the unashamed anthropomorphising of the mascots and giving them super powers – the ability to stretch. Children’s TV series such as Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go were perfectly entertaining and educational without the lead characters needing to have abilities of the Fantastic Four.</p>
<p>I hope that some of the lessons from Fuleco have been learnt, and that the organisers of the Rio Olympics will grasp the opportunity to promote the plight of the Atlantic Forest and its amazing wildlife.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert John Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The mascots for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics and Paralympics have been announced. The yellow chap above is the Olympic mascot, apparently an amalgam of all Brazilian animals, which surprisingly only…Robert John Young, Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/310652014-09-11T04:16:06Z2014-09-11T04:16:06ZPeople and their pets look alike … and the same goes for their cars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58496/original/v37c848s-1410217767.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tattooed car, tattooed owner – maybe not a coincidence.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaredpolin/8629056913">Jared Polin/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is common knowledge – at least to anyone who trawls the shallower reaches of the internet – that <a href="http://www.viralnova.com/dog-owners/">people resemble their pets</a>. </p>
<p>Sad-looking humans have <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/61126361@N03/5595870218/in/photolist-9wuig1-nBPP8n-2hdLdc-dwJtH3-78wLNh-abFzTo-6H6zkL-6UrmEe-6zPtwu-fJJX4A-4k5fu1-bk4MzM-byt2d2-9xZJv-fL9hvK-5APQ4y-dn2sNF-6oLEdR-6KhSZM-bQFpXr-dDMAzx-2Bqvzb-4sEbSj-556Pb-7Avrnk-b3TWQD-5pJngu-4k5g9j-66konh-5fSzLa-f2hRK8-NzpmS-fXL5c3-8EPX2Q-9kKchw-9LSE8q-c7tjZU-9LSBXU-9cK2Uw-99yXh8-b7igWV-75ex5f-d5fnrh-9LSyLd-aw2swe-nAE6XE-by5zSG-ehUnTD-jhFYCe-53X2h1">melancholy</a> animal companions and <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/humanesociety/12738496985">bright-eyed</a> and bushy-tailed creatures seek one another out. Perhaps owners are drawn to pets that mirror them. Or perhaps a shared life leaves its mark on their faces, as it is said to do for <a href="http://www.livescience.com/8384-couples-start.html">married couples</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/15/5/361.short">Research</a> has indeed confirmed that people and their pets look alike. Raters can match dogs to their owners better than chance, even after controlling for pet size and hairiness. More remarkably though, a <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2014-10789-007">recent study</a> in the Swiss Journal of Psychology has found that people resemble their cars.</p>
<p>Raters who viewed a picture of the front of a car could correctly identify the owner’s face from a set of six potential owners at a rate better than chance. The capacity to match owner and vehicle could not be explained by sex stereotypes associated with car types, or by the cars’ masculine versus feminine appearance – and raters could not match owners when they only saw cars from the side or the rear.</p>
<h2>Seeing human qualities in everything</h2>
<p>The similarities between individual humans, pets and cars is fascinating, and just as fascinating is the <a href="http://static.squarespace.com/static/51e3f4ede4b053e5f0062efd/t/51f7e119e4b0021e844852cc/1375199513450/on-seeing-human.pdf">general tendency</a> for humans to perceive non-human entities as if they were human. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58492/original/h96k7yvj-1410215049.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58492/original/h96k7yvj-1410215049.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58492/original/h96k7yvj-1410215049.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58492/original/h96k7yvj-1410215049.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58492/original/h96k7yvj-1410215049.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58492/original/h96k7yvj-1410215049.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58492/original/h96k7yvj-1410215049.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58492/original/h96k7yvj-1410215049.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Perhaps we search out a companion that reminds us of ourselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://fearlessmen.com/when-dogs-look-like-their-owners/">Cesar dog food</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are <a href="https://theconversation.com/holy-grilled-cheese-sandwich-what-is-pareidolia-14170">primed</a> to see human features and intentions in natural phenomena and machines. It is no accident that we see faces in clouds.</p>
<p>Indeed, we also see faces in cars. The frontal features of a car irresistibly engage our facial template:</p>
<ul>
<li>a windscreen is a forehead</li>
<li>headlights are eyes</li>
<li>a grille is a nose</li>
<li>the air intake is a mouth</li>
<li>side mirrors are ears.</li>
</ul>
<p>And just as we judge people’s <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126957.300-how-your-looks-betray-your-personality.html#.VA5VDbySzR0">personalities</a> from their faces, we ascribe personalities to different car models.</p>
<h2>What we learn from a face</h2>
<p>One characteristic that we are very good at extracting from human faces is age. In a <a href="http://faculty.uca.edu/benw/biol4415/papers/Mickey.pdf">classic piece</a>, American biologist <a href="http://www.stephenjaygould.org/">Stephen Jay Gould</a> used the evolution of Mickey Mouse to illustrate the facial signs of maturity. Mickey’s development proceeded in reverse, reflecting what Gould called “creeping juvenility”. </p>
<p>Mickey started life in 1928’s Steamboat Willie as a disreputable rodent, rat-like and angular. His snout was long, his forehead low, his eyes beady and his head relatively small compared to his slender body. He looked as if he belonged in a pool-hall or speakeasy, not the Magic Kingdom. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58422/original/fy2gpqcr-1410153841.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58422/original/fy2gpqcr-1410153841.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58422/original/fy2gpqcr-1410153841.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58422/original/fy2gpqcr-1410153841.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58422/original/fy2gpqcr-1410153841.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58422/original/fy2gpqcr-1410153841.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58422/original/fy2gpqcr-1410153841.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/randar/12424084704">Tod Simpson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As decades passed he gradually infantilised. His nose protruded less, his features softened, his forehead bulged, his eyes enlarged, his head swelled and his body turned pudgier. He became cute.</p>
<p>A [2012 study](http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(11%2900067-5/abstract) demonstrated the same process in the perception of cars. The researchers presented Austrian adults with frontal images of 46 car models, all shown in a standard colour and size. Study participants rated whether each car looked younger or older, more feminine or masculine, more dominant or submissive. </p>
<p>The researchers then examined how these psychological properties mapped onto the cars’ physical features. For example, which features distinguished younger-looking cars from their more mature garage-mates?</p>
<p>The answer, according to the researchers, was precisely what we would expect based on what we know about human facial maturity. Younger-looking cars had larger windscreens (foreheads). Their headlights (eyes) were larger and rounder, and their grilles (noses) smaller. Youthful cars were, in other words, baby-faced.</p>
<h2>Cars can be ‘dominant’ or ‘submissive’</h2>
<p>Cars can be judged to look feminine, submissive, masculine or dominating based on their “faces”. We make the same assessments of people in our perception of human faces as we do with cars and their features. </p>
<p>Facially speaking, there is a single appearance spectrum from childlike, female and powerless at one end, to mature, male and powerful at the other.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58434/original/59hmgqcr-1410157707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58434/original/59hmgqcr-1410157707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58434/original/59hmgqcr-1410157707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58434/original/59hmgqcr-1410157707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58434/original/59hmgqcr-1410157707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58434/original/59hmgqcr-1410157707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58434/original/59hmgqcr-1410157707.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lorenjavier/5563022193">Loren Javier/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The findings in the 2012 study could simply have reflected a population heavily exposed to advertising that plays on the appearance of cars and to anthropomorphic vehicles in children’s movies. Not so, found the researchers. Repeating the study in rural Ethiopia, where car advertising and Pixar are little known, they found exactly the same pattern of results.</p>
<p>Certain car models from that study typified the ends of the appearance spectrum. The most girlish cars were the new Nissan Micra, the Toyota Aygo, the Citroen C1, VW’s new Beetle and the Kia Picanto. The most hairy-chested were the BMW 645ci, 3 and 5, the Chrysler 300C and Crossfire and the Mercedes E.</p>
<p>These cars look different and they appeal to different kinds of people. They also have different metabolisms. The youthful, “feminine” cars are generally more fuel efficient than their brawny automotive brothers. </p>
<p>As we move towards lower carbon emissions, a cute car may be more than just a pretty face.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31065/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Haslam receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>It is common knowledge – at least to anyone who trawls the shallower reaches of the internet – that people resemble their pets. Sad-looking humans have melancholy animal companions and bright-eyed and…Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225302014-02-04T19:42:45Z2014-02-04T19:42:45ZDead or alive, the Yutu rover says much about how we relate to robots<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40461/original/3ggy97d4-1391406943.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can we go too far humanising machines?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/Jeremy Brooks</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This weekend, the moon’s fortnightly rotation cycle turns China’s lunar rover <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25356603">Yutu</a> (the Jade Rabbit) and its solar panels toward the sun once again … but whether the rover wakes up or not remains to be seen, as Yutu already announced its impending death to Earth-based watchers with a series of first-person messages on January 25.</p>
<p>The messages were posted on China’s equivalent of Twitter, <a href="http://www.weibo.com/">Sina Weibo</a>, from an unofficial account believed to be run by a <a href="http://www.chinapost.com.tw/life/science-&-technology/2014/01/28/399381/Chinas-Jade.htm">group of enthusiasts</a>.</p>
<p>The rover has been on the lunar surface since December 15, when it was deployed from the <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/china-change-3-moon-landing/30128/">Chang’e 3 lander</a>.</p>
<figure><a title="NASA" href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/before8516r_after2775r_enhance_0.gif"><img width="440" alt="NASA" src="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/before8516r_after2775r_enhance_0.gif"></a></figure>
<p>Since then, it has covered 100 metres with its six-wheel locomotion.</p>
<p>As space scientists struggled to get Yutu to respond to commands to fold in its solar panels and external equipment, the two-week lunar night descended, plunging the exposed equipment into -150C temperatures without protection. </p>
<p>In 1971, Russia’s <a href="http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Luna/Luna17.php">Lunokhod 1</a> similarly failed to make it through to the next dawn, even though it had successfully entered mechanical hibernation.</p>
<p>It’s not impossible that Yutu will survive the night. But it certainly doesn’t look good.</p>
<p>What is different about its probable death, though, is the way that it has been conveyed to the public via the Chinese state news agency Xinhua:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ll tell everyone a little secret. I’m actually not that sad. I’m just in my own adventure story, and like any protagonist, I encountered a bit of a problem. Goodnight Earth. Goodnight humans.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>More than 6,000 people have responded to the posts with messages of hope and appreciation. (Some, though, thought it “<a href="http://w8.ms/chinas-lunar-rover-yutu-says-goodnight-humanity-in-creepy-farewell-letter-before-freezing-to-death/">creepy</a>”.) </p>
<p>For them, it doesn’t matter that Yutu is not actually sentient, nor directly responsible for the messages.</p>
<h2>Space fandom</h2>
<p>Yutu is not the only spacecraft to have a public fan base. Social media such as Twitter and its equivalents play a prominent role in this. Other high profile spacecraft which communicate in first person include <a href="https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity">@MarsCuriosity</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/NSFVoyager2">@NSFVoyager2</a>. </p>
<p>But is this a trivialisation of serious scientific endeavours? It could be argued that these engagements are cynical attempts to gain public support for funding space exploration; perhaps a means of glossing over the vast amounts of money spent on space while (in the view of critics, more urgent) terrestrial problems remain underfunded.</p>
<p>However, many of these accounts are not official, but run by fans. This is the case for Yutu’s microblog, as well as @NSFVoyager2 and the popular <a href="https://twitter.com/SarcasticRover">@SarcasticRover</a>. Unconstrained by communications policies, these accounts sometimes use humour to great effect.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40421/original/6dmzymcd-1391404578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40421/original/6dmzymcd-1391404578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40421/original/6dmzymcd-1391404578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40421/original/6dmzymcd-1391404578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40421/original/6dmzymcd-1391404578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40421/original/6dmzymcd-1391404578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40421/original/6dmzymcd-1391404578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40421/original/6dmzymcd-1391404578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">@SarcasticRover in action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The question, then, is whether this approach makes for effective science communication. Does following an anthropomorphised spacecraft lead people to engage with the science behind it?</p>
<p>Vanessa Hill, CSIRO’s Social Media Manager, argued in an <a href="https://theconversation.com/houston-we-have-check-in-space-2-0-and-the-curiosity-landing-8473">article last year</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>By personifying the spacecraft in the form of social media accounts we’re characterising spacecraft in an easily accessible way which allows people to connect with specific missions.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Human-robotic interactions</h2>
<p>The issue, however, is much broader than it at first appears. We can take this a step further into the field of social robotics. </p>
<p>While the development of the fully humanoid robot has been a longstanding scientific ambition, any human-like feature can be co-opted into building a relationship with machines. We can see this in the natural tendency to see <a href="https://theconversation.com/holy-grilled-cheese-sandwich-what-is-pareidolia-14170">faces in inanimate things</a>. </p>
<p>On rovers like Yutu, cameras and antennas often look a little like necks with a head emerging from the body. It’s enough for us to attribute emotional states to them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40406/original/z9gx8n6b-1391398805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40406/original/z9gx8n6b-1391398805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40406/original/z9gx8n6b-1391398805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40406/original/z9gx8n6b-1391398805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40406/original/z9gx8n6b-1391398805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40406/original/z9gx8n6b-1391398805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40406/original/z9gx8n6b-1391398805.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A scale model of the Yutu rover shows its more anthropomorphic attributes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lunarpioneer/11439238313/sizes/o/">Joel Raupe</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this engagement, whether or not the robot is capable of feeling these emotional states is irrelevant. It’s more whether the robot <em>appears</em> to have them. This is what is commonly known as the <a href="http://www.turing.org.uk/scrapbook/test.html">Turing Test</a>. </p>
<p>Of course, humans reading emotions into a space robot and conveying them as if they originated from the robot is very different. But perhaps the time when such robots will be designed to translate their mechanical states into statements that they tweet directly is not too far off. </p>
<p>In all of this, though, we are still thinking of “us” and “them”. Even if it’s not actually the case, we like to treat the robot as a separate being with sentience. It makes the communication exciting.</p>
<p>We can even take this a step further. These first-person communications as if from spacecraft bridge the distance between remote and proximate interaction.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40425/original/t3kpxfnr-1391405601.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40425/original/t3kpxfnr-1391405601.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40425/original/t3kpxfnr-1391405601.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40425/original/t3kpxfnr-1391405601.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40425/original/t3kpxfnr-1391405601.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40425/original/t3kpxfnr-1391405601.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40425/original/t3kpxfnr-1391405601.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40425/original/t3kpxfnr-1391405601.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mars: it’s far out (literally).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/hst_img_20071218.html">NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (Cornell University), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute, Boulder)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In remote interaction, humans and robots are separated in space, and even sometimes in time, such as the <a href="http://www.spaceacademy.net.au/spacelink/commdly.htm">time lag</a> in communication between Mars and Earth. </p>
<p>In proximate interaction, humans and robots are co-located, for example, in the same room or facility. The physical distance affects how people behave around machines, as well as the robot’s level of autonomy. </p>
<p>What these social media interactions do is make people feel more present in the remote location, collapsing the distinction between near and far. It doesn’t end there, though.</p>
<h2>A post-human perspective</h2>
<p>If we take a “post-human” perspective, we can look at space robots as extensions of ourselves. We don’t have to anthropomorphise spacecraft: they can actually <em>be</em> our senses. This is how metatechnology researcher <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.8233&rep=rep1&type=pdf">Robert Pepperell</a> explained it in a 2004 conference paper:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This state of co-extension requires that we revise our attitude towards human-machine interaction: if technology is now regarded as an extension of human cognition, then the classical model of interaction whereby two distinct entities are interfaced, one sentient and one insentient, is inaccurate. In its place we must posit an exchange of cognitive activity between the sentient user and the cognition embodied in the device.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yutu’s live microblogging of its own death from the first-person perspective could be seen, on the one hand, as a measure of the extent to which social media have become pervasive in engaging the public with civil space exploration.</p>
<p>But I think it’s something more. Space robots are not yet fully autonomous, as they rely on human commands. As Yutu shows, however, the exchange is not all one way. Even if the machine itself is not generating the posts, there is still an interaction whereby the actions and “experiences” of the rover are translated into a verbal message which elicits human emotional responses.</p>
<p>The public may not be influencing Yutu’s behaviour, but it sure as heck is affecting ours. These kinds of interactions are charting future territory in social robotics. Yutu’s legacy is part of this new cognitive exchange.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22530/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Gorman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This weekend, the moon’s fortnightly rotation cycle turns China’s lunar rover Yutu (the Jade Rabbit) and its solar panels toward the sun once again … but whether the rover wakes up or not remains to be…Alice Gorman, Lecturer, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.