Swarm Mentality from Scienceline on Vimeo.

Seriously, though, a dolphin named Merlin is learning to speak using the iPad, so says Michael Leddy of Orange Crate Art:

[Jack] Kassewitz [of SpeakDolphin.com] explained the requirements of the technology. “Waterproofing, processor speed, touch-sensitivity, anti-glare screens, and dolphin-friendly programs are essential. As this database of [...]]]> Aaaaaaaaah! couldn’t resist the alliteration. Sorry.

Seriously, though, a dolphin named Merlin is learning to speak using the iPad, so says Michael Leddy of Orange Crate Art:

[Jack] Kassewitz [of SpeakDolphin.com] explained the requirements of the technology. “Waterproofing, processor speed, touch-sensitivity, anti-glare screens, and dolphin-friendly programs are essential. As this database of dolphin symbols grows — we’ll need fast technology to help us respond appropriately and quickly to the dolphins.”

The research was being conducted at Dolphin Discovery’s dolphin swim facility in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, along the picturesque coast now referred to as the Riviera Maya. The dolphin, Merlin, is a juvenile, born at the facility only two years ago. “Merlin is quite curious, like most dolphins, and he showed complete willingness to examine the iPad,” said Kassewitz.

But a small organism doesn’t have so many cells to control and can fit some very elaborate mental circuitry in a pinhead-sized brain.

Several hundred neurons give the ability to count. A few thousand create sentient, and perhaps even sapient, thought. If that’s really the [...]]]> Discovery News has two interesting articles. First, insect AI:

But a small organism doesn’t have so many cells to control and can fit some very elaborate mental circuitry in a pinhead-sized brain.

Several hundred neurons give the ability to count. A few thousand create sentient, and perhaps even sapient, thought. If that’s really the case, then it seems that we’re barking up the wrong tree with cognitive computing concepts and AI projects.

Instead of trying to simulate huge numbers of neurons, then bragging about it as a step towards emulating real brainpower, we should focus on those individual circuits and model the brains of insects rather than mammals.

Second, cyborg astronauts. The pros are interesting, but the hearing the cons aired are a breath of fresh air:

Of course there’s a catch. Each of the procedures that would make all this possible would be a) incredibly invasive, b) exorbitantly expensive and c) require decades of highly focused research projects to make it all possible. While the benefits to those who suffered serious trauma to the brain, limbs and spine, or suffering from organ failure would be immense, there may be some serious pause about healthy individuals undergoing this sort of modification for the sake of traveling to other worlds. People who may never walk again without a prosthetic spine or mechanical legs would certainly volunteer for such procedures because being confined to a bed or a wheelchair for the rest of their lives is a far higher cost than the risks involved with the surgery.

The first reason I love Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign is that it [...]]]> Diesel’s new ad campaign, “Be Stupid,” is plastered all over the West 4th street stop in NYC. I really like this campaign. I’m analyzing this campaign in two parts. The first is its perspective on gender, the second its perspective on human nature.

The first reason I love Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign is that it treats both genders surprisingly equally, especially for a trendy, sexed-up company like Diesel. Sociological Images, a site normally quite good at picking out the really offensive stuff from the mundane, somehow reversed this message to make the campaign out to be sexist. Before getting into what’s so great about the campaign, I wanted to defend it from charges of being “Men: Be Stupid.” The message I got was, in fact, the reverse. My rebuttal:

Above is the first image that shows up on Diesel’s website when you click “view the campaign.” On the site, the only reference to the campaign that is gendered before this image is the like “Smart has brain, stupid has balls” that occurs in the opening (all text) flash video. In the video, that line is written in pink, as it is in on the poster ad in the West 4th street station. Not exactly a stereotypically manly color. In the picture ad campaign, the line “stupid has balls” almost only occurs with women (there is one exception). In fact, the two most dangerous (thereby brave/manly) adds feature a lone woman and a big cat. In the picture above, a panther. Below, well, a picture that one-ups The Hangover.

This picture is actually in the West 4th street ad campaign. Notice, the girl isn’t scantily clad, she isn’t scared, and she doesn’t have a boy egging her on. In the narrative of both ads, these girls got to be just as stupid as the men and, in fact, in the narrative of the whole campaign, women have “the balls.” Through out the campaign, men and women are depicted being stupid together with other women, with men, independently, sexually, non-sexually, and in no way are the women seen as drags or ancillary to the fun. In fact, in several cases, the guys seem almost along for the ride, with the girl initiating and dominating the action. And finally, the ads are far from heteronormative, with two dudes goofing around? On a date?

And a few girls coming home? Taking each other home?

The guys are being silly and cozy, the girls coming back from a rager in the wee hours of the morning. Are they gay/lesbian? The story is mostly in your head, the pictures let you make it up. Straight and queer narratives work in both images and a ton of the pictures are actually desexualized, save the fact that everyone in the campaign is really, really, really, ridiculously good looking.

The result is a campaign that is shockingly not sexist. About the only argument one could make is that there are perhaps a few (and I mean a few, like three) more pictures of women in just swim suits/underwear than men. In several of the more sexually charged images the woman is either in charge or equal to the man: in one the woman is pulling a man half out of a bus, in another, she is pulling off his shorts while he goes for her top in the pool, and another she is leaping onto the bed while he half-cowers beneath her. Furthermore, the fact that the campaign centers on recklessness, danger, stories, adventure, humor, and breaking the mold, makes the generally equal involvement of women and men all the more important. The message is that both men and women get to be “stupid” as Diesel defines it and that stupidity isn’t shameful for men or women. And in Diesel’s world, being stupid, funny, and brave, even having the balls, doesn’t mean you don’t get to look like a fierce, hot, chick.

via Cute Overload

To justify the above posting, here is a video about how seals, sea lions, and walruses are also much, much smarter than we previously thought.

[B]eggar dogs have evolved the most specialized behavior. Relying on scraps of food from commuters, the beggar dogs can not only recognize which humans are most likely to give them something to eat, but have evolved to ride the subway. Using scents, and the ability [...]]]> And Moscow’s wild dogs and beggar dogs are proving it:

[B]eggar dogs have evolved the most specialized behavior. Relying on scraps of food from commuters, the beggar dogs can not only recognize which humans are most likely to give them something to eat, but have evolved to ride the subway. Using scents, and the ability to recognize the train conductor’s names for different stops, they incorporate many stations into their territories.

Could uplift happen by virtue of environmental shift alone?

["Moscow's Stray Dogs Evolving Greater Intelligence, Including Mastery of the Subway" - Pop Sci]

I have been lucky enough to swim with dolphins twice in my life. Once it was as a “swim with dolphins” experience in Mexico where I was pushed around by the dolphins in an awesome little display of power and warned not to “pet them on the tummy, or they might get horny, and, [...]]]>

I have been lucky enough to swim with dolphins twice in my life. Once it was as a “swim with dolphins” experience in Mexico where I was pushed around by the dolphins in an awesome little display of power and warned not to “pet them on the tummy, or they might get horny, and, by extension, violent.” It is a strange thing to be cautious not to arouse a cetacean. The second time was snorkeling, when a pod of dolphins came out of the deep and decided to investigate my dad and me for a few minutes before getting on their way. In both cases, the dolphins were visibly intelligent. It was like the uncanny valley in reverse – instead of a lifelike body with dead eyes, I was confronted with unsettlingly intelligent eyes within an inhuman body.

Because the environment of humans and dolphins so rarely intersects, it is much harder for us to observe and casually appreciate dolphin intelligence the way we do with chimps and parrots. Furthermore, dolphin faces are not as familiarly emotive. Thus, the news in The Times about a scientific consensus is developing around the rights of dolphins as non-human persons is fantastic. Here comes a huge chunk of the article summarizing all the reasons why:

Dolphins have long been recognised as among the most intelligent of animals but many researchers had placed them below chimps, which some studies have found can reach the intelligence levels of three-year-old children. Recently, however, a series of behavioural studies has suggested that dolphins, especially species such as the bottlenose, could be the brighter of the two. The studies show how dolphins have distinct personalities, a strong sense of self and can think about the future.

It has also become clear that they are “cultural” animals, meaning that new types of behaviour can quickly be picked up by one dolphin from another.

In one study, Diana Reiss, professor of psychology at Hunter College, City University of New York, showed that bottlenose dolphins could recognise themselves in a mirror and use it to inspect various parts of their bodies, an ability that had been thought limited to humans and great apes.

In another, she found that captive animals also had the ability to learn a rudimentary symbol-based language.

Other research has shown dolphins can solve difficult problems, while those living in the wild co-operate in ways that imply complex social structures and a high level of emotional sophistication.

What makes the assertion of dolphin personhood so important is that the first recognition of personhood rights in a non-human, even if limited, will have tremendous, spectacular ripple effects. If we accept dolphins are non-human persons, say, with limited rights akin to that of a human child then here are some logical conclusions one might be able make:

1. Dolphins could have limited sovereignty rights, making the oceans they patrol effectively their territory. The ocean might become a UN protectorate.

2. Dolphins would no longer be in zoos and aquariums. It would be tantamount to imprisonment.

3. Alternatively, state funding for the study of dolphins would skyrocket. To ensure the law is accurate and neither a farce nor insufficient, a very accurate, very clear understanding of dolphin intelligence would be needed.

4. Dolphin deaths would become literal murders and deaths resulting from fishing would become genocide.

Without a near global consensus on the issue, it will be nearly impossible to recognize dolphin personhood. Can you imagine the equivalent of the COP15 dealing with international animal rights?