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Asian elephants have different personality traits
- maxxxxx 9y agoAm I missing something or is this already known to anyone who has handled animals? I have dealt with dogs, cats, pigs, lizards and horses and they all had very distinguishable personalities.
- samplatt 9y agoInformed decisions require evidence-supported proof, if we're ever to move forward. "Everybody already knows this" is perfectly applicable but ultimately useless. Common sense is a myth.
- woodandsteel 9y agoThere is a difference between common myths and truths you have experienced directly, like the different personalities of animals you have dealt with. And for the great majority of the knowledge you need to make decisions in your life, there either is no scientific proof, or learning it all it would take many lifetimes to learn.
- deepsun 9y agoNot only animals, but insects (ants in particular) are in question too: "Personality in social insects: How does worker personality determine colony personality?" http://www.actazool.org/downloadpdf.asp?filetype=pdf&id=12073 http://www.actazool.org/downloadpdf.asp?filetype=pdf&id=1207...
- core-questions 9y agoLuckily, none of this stuff applies to humans, who are all completely the same.
- thinkpad20 9y agoI don’t think the novelty of the research is the fact that elephants have personalities, but instead the study of the personalities themselves and how they develop and are influenced by the environment and the species. If people stopped researching after determining that “yes, in fact, other animals have personalities too”, that would be pretty boring.
- maxxxxx 9y agoThat makes sense. I think the article didn't make that clear enough.
- ENGNR 9y agoYou're not wrong, sometimes it feels like they're as aware and present as us, exactly as 'human', just with less ability to solve complex problems It's surprising we haven't given them more rights yet, maybe this paper can pave the way toward legitimizing at least the larger animals as our sentient neighbours
- BartBoch 9y agoSo, I am actually interested in how would you handle that?
- ENGNR 9y agoFor social animals at least (ie not a spider, but an elephant/dog/orangutan), in some sense they're similar to children in that they're 'people' but not with quite the mental capabilities of the rest of us. Except they have arguably better physical and self care capabilities, so they're actually easier to manage than children What if we just gave them the ability to roam? Provide recognizable food and medical stations. Anecdotally, some of the dogs in Sri Lanka already do this (the locals feed them as they wander past), and even know to seek out vets if they're injured For bad behavior they get jail/separation or correctional facilities just like the rest of us. This would have an evolutionary pressure Population control would still be an issue, but easily resolved with surgeries and monitoring I wonder how deeply a free animal could embed itself into our society (or at the edges without effecting us) if we had enough machine learning to clearly communicate it's simple but valid wants to the environment around it
- cryptonector 9y agoThe problem with giving animals rights is that ultimately they'd have to be able to communicate in court, and it's not clear that assigning them a proxy is sufficient to represent the animal. But if ever we find a way to communicate well enough for an animal to understand the concept of "court", or even just "tell us how you feel about this", then such an animal must be accorded rights commensurate with its ability to communicate and self-control. (An animal that cannot keep from committing what to us are "crimes" can't be given all the rights that a human has. But supposing we figure out how to communicate such concepts to, say, orangutans, and they can handle them, then they must have rights equal to ours.) Merely having personality and feelings cannot enough, otherwise we'd be obligated to eat no vertebrates -- I'd not be pleased to go that far!
- exabrial 9y agoI mean, so do cats?