#anthropomorphising

A rework of my thread from earlier on #Bias in #Conservation. There are a few additions, other things I neglected earlier, a few examples etc.

When I was studying biology human-animal relationships (…no giggling at the back!) was something I really wished I’d had an opportunity to learn more about. A recent paper, ‘Understanding nuanced preferences for carnivore conservation: to know them is not always to love them’ by Macdonald et al. reminded me of quite why I found our human relationship with the natural world so…

I am seeing too much anthropomorphising of animals lately — not in an artistic sense, but in people’s interactions with their companions.

Yelling “no, you know not to do that” at your skittish, unaltered cat does nothing but scare him. Seriously: he does not understand what you’re doing other than making loud, intimidating noises.

Yelling “no, you know not to do that” at your bored, but intelligent dog who just ate a portion of your couch will do nothing but scare her. She too does not understand why you’re yelling, when all she did in that moment was greet you at the door.

Timing is essential when figuring out how to manage what is in reality a natural response to the animal; whether it is a cat marking his territory or a dog who has not been given enough to do. It frustrates me to see these animals be put to human standards of intelligence and emotional depth when they see a very different world from us.

To say that your dog “acts like he is king” or “thinks she is the leader” are poor ways of understanding behaviour. Your dog is not guilty about ripping the carpet up, nor is it angry that you wouldn’t bring it to the park one Saturday. They aren’t sitting at the calendar, marking away the days until the Big Event™.

So please, stop anthropomorphising your pets, in training as well as day to day interactions. Your bond will strengthen when you treat them less like a human, and more like the creature they are. You will have a better understanding of your lizard, ferret, or bird if you take away human qualities and replace them with realistic traits.

Talk about anthropomorphising!

Man takes his snake “swimming” (throws it repeatedly into deep water), with the snake showing how much it “loves him” (desperately wants some way to get out of the water) by returning to the man again and again...

A Little Paint Personifies The Mundane. The Charming Work of Gilbert Legrand.

Ever look at a paintbrush and see hair? Glance at a corkscrew and see a face? Toulouse-based Gilbert Legrand does. Both a digital artist and an illustrator, one of his talents is adding human and animal characteristics to the most mundane of household items. (more…)

This monster inhabits the swampiest corner of the uncanny valley. Did I think we'd get to anthropomorphising slime mold so soon? Honestly - no!

This chimera translates a slime molds responses to stimulus into facial motions and comes straight out of Andrew Adamatzky's centre for unconventional computing (link) which has previously demonstrated how to build computers from slime mold (link)