Denyse O'Leary

Fresh uncut octopus on the market. Seafood counter in Sri Lanka.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 13, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Law, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animals as food (cultural issues), Erin Anderssen, History of the World in 100 Animals (book 2022), Jennifer Jacquet, My Octopus Teacher (film), Octoculture, Octopus farming, Octopuses (intelligence), Octopuses (legal protection from cruelty), Simon Barnes}

If Octopuses Are Really Smart, Should We Eat Them?

_{Proposals to farm octopuses are meeting with opposition on grounds of animal cruelty} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 13, 2022

7

Ethics, Law, Natural Intelligence}

Extraordinary recent science discoveries re octopus intelligence have created an ethical dilemma: Octopus arms (tentacles) are gourmet delicacies in Korea, Japan, and the Mediterranean countries and many poor people make a living providing them. Factory farming is of octopuses is slowly becoming practical. But should we do to them what we wouldn’t do to dogs? Octopuses present something of a puzzle. As Canadian investigative journalist Erin Anderssen pointed out earlier this month, “The octopus has already challenged our theories on evolution, intelligence and consciousness.” Evolution? We have tended to assume that intelligence rose with the development of a spinal cord and brain (vertebrates), and warmbloodedness (mammals and birds). So invertebrates like octopuses were expected to be “naturally” less intelligent than, Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 3, 2022

Categorized
Philosophy, Science

Tagged
Biological role (proposed new term for function), Emmanuel Ratti, Function (concept in biology), Pierre-Luc Germain, Purpose in life forms}

Can We Eliminate the Idea of Function From the Study of Life?

_{The question is, can biology journals take away what they did not give, without harming their own enterprise?} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 3, 2022

3

Philosophy, Science}

We tend to assume that our values come in part from the careers we follow. Often, that’s true. If a given mindset works well at work, we may try it at home. But that process can work in reverse. We can start with a mindset and try to graft it onto our work. With mixed results. That seems to have happened in some quarters in biology. For example, the term “function” in life forms is linked historically with the idea that life forms show evidence of design. Therefore, philosopher Emmanuel Ratti and molecular biologist Pierre-Luc Germain argue, biologists shouldn’t use it: The notion of biological function is fraught with difficulties — intrinsically and irremediably so, we argue. The physiological practice Read More ›

Found this little guy munching away in Washington Square Park, NY

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 27, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Law, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Animals (communication with animals), Animals and emotional contagion, Anthropomorphism (and squirrels), Anthropomorphism and social justice, James Bridle, Ways of Being (book), World Economic Forum (WEF) on animal social inequality}

Can Squirrels Really Be Socially Unjust? Check Their Privilege?

_{A recent paper suggests that the animal world, untroubled for aeons by any notion of conscience, has a lot to answer for} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 27, 2022

7

Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Law, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

The idea that humans are not really much different from other animals has resulted in an interesting reversal: Writing about non-human animals as if they were humans. A recent essay in Behavioral Ecology, for example, interpreted “wealth inequality” among animals as if the animals were people: “Squirrel privilege is real.” “Checking Privilege in the Animal Kingdom.” “Even Hermit Crabs Have Wealth Inequality.” These headlines hail from Salon and New York Times, respectively, and represent a growing trend among scholars and the media to tackle animal “inequality” — and also argue humans can learn important lessons about income inequality and privilege from such studies. Daniel Nuccio, “‘Checking privilege in the animal kingdom’: Biologists investigate animal ‘inequality’” at The College Fix (June Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 24, 2022

Categorized
Media

Tagged
Bothsidesism, David Mastio, Gannett newspaper chain, Joe Concha, journalism, Journalists vs public on journalism 2022, Pew Research Center on journalists vs. public, USA Today and David Mastio}

This Isn’t Fake News: Mainstream Media Are Very Out of Touch

_{Massively so, if recent survey research is any guide. But how did they get SO far out of touch?} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 24, 2022

6

Media}

From media and culture analyst Joe Concha at The Hill, which reports on the doings of Congress, we learn about a new in-depth survey by the non-politically affiliated Pew Research Center: Per Pew, 65 percent of the nearly 12,000 journalists surveyed say the media do a solid job of “covering the most important stories of the day” and reporting news accurately. But a solid majority of the American public at large has the opposite view, with just 35 percent feeling the same way. That’s a 30-point perception gap. Joe Concha, “The media bubble is real: Study shows massive disconnect between journalists, public” at The Hill (June 22, 2022) Some other contrasts: ● “serving as a watchdog over elected leaders” Journalists: Read More ›

Working Data Center Full of Rack Servers and Supercomputers, Modern Telecommunications, Artificial Intelligence, Supercomputer Technology Concept.3d rendering,conceptual image.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 21, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Law, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Blake Lemoine and LaMDA, Corporations as legal persons, Happy the elephant, Hydrocarbon bigotry claim, LaMDA and Blake Lemoine, Species-ism, Steven Levy, Wesley J. Smith on Happy the elephant}

Engineer: Failing To See His AI Program as a Person Is “Bigotry”

_{It’s not different, Lemoine implies, from the historical injustice of denying civil rights to human groups} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 21, 2022

5

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Law, Natural Intelligence}

Earlier this month, just in time for the release of Robert J. Marks’s book Non-Computable You, the story broke that, after investigation, Google dismissed a software engineer’s claim that the LaMDA AI chatbot really talked to him. Engineer Blake Lemoine, currently on leave, is now accusing Google of “bigotry” against the program. He has also accused Wired of misrepresenting the story. Wired reported that he had found an attorney for LaMDA but he claims that LaMDA itself asked him to find an attorney. He went on to say, I think every person is entitled to representation. And I’d like to highlight something. The entire argument that goes, “It sounds like a person but it’s not a real person” has been Read More ›

Female politician talking on media press conference, public relations, event

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 20, 2022

Categorized
Media, Philosophy, Religion, Science

Tagged
Carl Sagan, David Klinghoffer, Nicholas Wade on COVID origin, Nicholas Wade on science writing, Population bomb claims, Sabine Hossenfelder, Science writers, Science writers and credulity, Steven Novella on science writing}

Why Science News Sucks — A Response to a Disgusted Physicist

_{There are reasons why science journalists can't usually be skeptical in the way that other journalists can. Here are some of them} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 20, 2022

7

Media, Philosophy, Religion, Science}

In her usual forthright manner, theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder asks, by blog post and Youtube video, “Why does science news suck so much? It’s hardly an original question but among her suggested answers are some thoughtful reflections, including 9. Don’t forget that science is fallible A lot of media coverage on science policy remembers that science is fallible only when it’s convenient for them. When they’ve proclaimed something as fact that later turns out to be wrong, then they’ll blame science. Because science is fallible. Facemasks? Yeah, well, we lacked the data. Alright. But that’d be more convincing if science news acknowledged that their information might be wrong in the first place. The population bomb? Peak oil? The new ice Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 16, 2022

Categorized
Media, Social Media

Tagged
Amy Coney Barrett, Bill Maher, Brett Kavanaugh, Joe Kahn, Marvin Olasky, media bias, Print media as obsolete, Twitterati}

Have Newspapers Simply Lost Touch With the Mainstream Public?

_{The depressing stats tell a tale that’s a bit more complex: Readers tolerate out-of-touch media less now because they we need them so much less} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 16, 2022

5

Media, Social Media}

Earlier this week we looked at the way a flailing newspaper chain decided to cut back on editorial and opinion pages. The decision should not be a surprise in an age when so much opinion is available for free — and by no means is all of it foolish. One familiar response has been to say, well, media are too “liberal” (or “leftist” or “progressive”) for the readers — and that’s why newspaper are losing them. It’s a factor but there is more to the story. First, we are dealing with a fact: Pious disclaimers notwithstanding, as a group, media personnel are generally more likely to support progressive causes than average Americans. A variety of explanations is offered, including this Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 10, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Media, Social Media

Tagged
Alejandro Mayorkas, Chuck Grassley, COVID-19 vaccines, Disinformation Governance Board, Face masks against COVID-19, Josh Hawley, Lab leak theory (COVID-19), Whistleblowers, Yoel Roth}

Dox Show Disinformation Board Was For Use Against Americans Too

_{A whistleblower leaked a cache of documents to two U.S. senators who have put them online} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 10, 2022

6

Censorship, Media, Social Media}

On Tuesday, Senators Chuck Grassley (R – Iowa) and Senator Josh Hawley (R – Missouri) publicized whistleblower documents that make clear that the Disinformation Governance Board, currently on hold, had much greater ambitions than we have been led to believe. Here are some highlights from the documents publicized June 7, 2022: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas explicitly told CNN that the new Governance Board was not intended to spy on U.S.citizens: Mayorkas: Ministry of Truth won’t “monitor American citizens … the board does not have any operational capability. What it’ill do is gather together best practices … & disseminate those best practices to the operators that have been executing & addressing this threat for years” pic.twitter.com/VbHF6Wek2Y — Tom Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 6, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Bill Gates and Musk's Twitter bid, Chinese Communist Party and Musk's Twitter bid, Elon Musk (and Twitter), Elon Musk and Twitter bid opponents, Elon Musk on media and Jeffrey Epstein, Twitter (and Elon Musk), Twitterbots and Twitter's influence}

Will Musk’s Twitter Bid — Win or Lose — Damage Twitter’s Power?

_{Stirring the pot, Musk recently slammed current media’s marked disinterest in who teen sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s prominent clients were …} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 6, 2022

7

Censorship, Social Media}

Just in: “Musk threatens to walk away from Twitter deal:” DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk is threatening to walk away from his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, accusing the company of refusing to give him information about its spam bot and fake accounts. Lawyers for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the threat in a letter to Twitter dated Monday, and Twitter disclosed it in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The letter says Musk has repeatedly asked for the information since May 9, about a month after his offer to buy the company, so he could evaluate how many of the company’s 229 million accounts are fake. Tom Krisher and Matt O’Brien , “Musk threatens Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 3, 2022

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animal Algorithms (book), Ants, Elva Robinson, Eric Cassell (on ant algorithms), Hive mind (and intelligence), Leafcutter ants, Stephen Pratt}

The Hive Mind: Leafcutter Ants Behave Like Farmhands But…

_{But they are actually following a colony algorithm rather than making individual decisions} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 3, 2022

6

Natural Intelligence}

Eric Cassell, author of Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts (2021), tells us that his favorite type of ant (p. 97) is the leafcutter (Attini). Its complex fungus farming provides insight into the “hive mind,” in which a natural version of a computer algorithm enables highly complex decision-making. There are 39 known species of leafcutters in the American tropics, easily recognized as the long trails (up to 30 metres) of ants, all carrying pieces of leaves they have stripped from trees. They bring them into underground nests featuring perhaps a thousand chambers housing millions of ants. There they chew up the leaves and cultivate the fungus that feeds their larvae and themselves (along with plant sap). Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 31, 2022

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Cephalopods (emotions), Crustaceans (sentience), Deborah M. Gordon, Eric Cassell, Frans de Waal (on cephalopods), Frans de Waal (on crustaceans), Insects (sentience), invertebrates (and pain), Invertebrates (intelligence), Invertebrates (sentience), Kristin Andrews (on cephalopods), Kristin Andrews (on crustaceans), Natalia Mesa}

Asked at “The Scientist”: Do Invertebrates Have Feelings?

_{Just as vertebrates differ greatly in intelligence and sentience, invertebrates may differ greatly too. The seafood industry is taking heed.} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 31, 2022

5

Natural Intelligence}

People did not ask this question about invertebrates like bees and snails fifty years ago: Decades ago, scientists and lawmakers had all but reached a consensus that invertebrates could not feel pain, let alone other emotions like joy or fear. Recently, however, evidence is mounting that invertebrates are more than just reflexive beings. Experiments in bees, crabs, and octopuses show that some invertebrate animals can learn from painful experiences, have positive and negative emotion-like states, and might even experience a range of other emotions beyond pain and pleasure. But not all scientists agree that invertebrates feel anything analogous to vertebrate—much less human—emotion. Natalie Mesa, “Do Invertebrates Have Emotions?” at The Scientist (May 26, 2022) Assessing the evidence is tricky. In Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 30, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Programming

Tagged
Animal Algorithms (book), Ant algorithms, Anternet, Ants (neurons), Bert Hölldobler, Deborah M. Gordon (on ant algorithms), E. O. Wilson (on ants), Eric Cassell (on ant algorithms), Leafcutter ants, Naked mole rat, Neurons (various species), Pheromones, Programming (and ant algorithms), Superorganism concept}

Do Ants Think? Yes, They Do — But They Think Like Computers

_{Computer programmers have adapted some ant problem-solving methods to software programs (but without the need for complex chemical scents)} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 30, 2022

6

Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Programming}

Navigation expert Eric Cassell, author of Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts (2021), offers some insights in the book into how ants organize themselves using what amount to algorithms, without any central command: Ants are remarkably consistent in their lifestyle: All of the roughly 11,000 species of ants live in groups, large or small. There are no known solitary ants. Living in groups, they have developed a social lifestyle that includes “agriculture, territorial wars, slavery, division of labor, castes, consensus building, cities, and a symbolic language.” (p. 85) How is this managed by ants with very small brains (200,000 to 250,000 neurons) and very limited individuality? For comparison, among mammals, the agouti has roughly 857 million Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 27, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Christof Koch (on prenatal consciousness), Fetus (mind and brain development), Unborn child (behavior)}

What Is the Human Mind Like Before Birth?

_{Researchers stress that the unborn child’s brain is in a rapid, ongoing, and little understood state of development} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 27, 2022

6

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

Some have addressed the question of the prenatal mind by trying to determine when various parts of the brain develop. The difficulty with that, as neuroscientist Mark Solms and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor have noted, is that it’s not clear that there is a “seat” of consciousness in the brain. If it is a human brain at all, it is developing human consciousness, in the same way that a kitten brain is developing cat consciousness. At any rate, human consciousness is a “Hard Problem with no special location in the brain. Unborn babies, like very young born ones, spend most of their time asleep, as neuroscientist Christof Koch has pointed out: Invasive experiments in rat and lamb pups and observational studies Read More ›

dolphin underwater on reef close up look

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 24, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Butterflies (self-medicating), Cats (self-medicating), Chimpanzees (self-medicating), Dogs (self-medicating), Dolphins (self-medicating), Elephants (self-medicating), Fruit flies (self-medicating), Zoopharmacognosy}

The Remarkable Medicines Wild Animals Find in Nature

_{The “animals’ pharmacy” mainly aims at treating parasites and wounds using plants and insects} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 24, 2022

7

Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence}

It turns out that many animals know how to alleviate some of their common health problems and we are only beginning to (officially) learn about it. Dolphins, for example: Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins get skin conditions, too, but they come about their medication by queuing up nose-to-tail to rub themselves against corals. In the journal iScience on May 19, researchers show that these corals have medicinal properties, suggesting that the dolphins are using the marine invertebrates to medicate skin conditions. Thirteen years ago, co-lead author Angela Ziltener (@DWAORG), a wildlife biologist at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, first observed dolphins rubbing against coral in the Northern Red Sea, off the coast of Egypt. She and her team noticed that the dolphins Read More ›

multiracial group with black african American Caucasian and Asian hands holding each other wrist in tolerance unity love and anti racism concept

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 22, 2022

Categorized
Environment, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Human exceptionalism (opposition), Human rights and human exceptionalism, Jeff Sebo, Wesley J. Smith (on human exceptionalism)}

Prof: We Shouldn’t Necessarily Value Humans Over Other Animals

_{New York University environmentalism prof Jeff Sebo argues that humans are not always rational and that some animals display mental qualities so we aren’t exceptional} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 22, 2022

5

Environment, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

New York University environmentalism prof Jeff Sebo, co-author of Chimpanzee Rights (2018), sees human exceptionalism (the idea that there is something unique about human beings) as a danger to humans and other life forms. He does not think that we should necessarily prioritize humans over animals: Most humans take this idea of human exceptionalism for granted. And it makes sense that we do, since we benefit from the notion that we matter more than other animals. But this statement is still worth critically assessing. Can we really justify the idea that some lives carry more ethical weight than others in general, and that human lives carry more ethical weight than nonhuman lives in particular? And even if so, does it Read More ›

Young woman sitting on the floor, lights candles, enjoy meditation, do yoga exercise at home. Mental health, self care, No stress, healthy habit, mindfulness lifestyle, anxiety relief concept

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 22, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Mindfulness brain changes, Mindfulness health benefits, Mindfulness research, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (course), neuroplasticity, Richard Davidson, Tibetan Buddhist monks (meditation)}

Study: Eight-week Mindfulness Courses Do Not Change the Brain

_{Earlier studies may have been hampered by a small, self-selected, particularly needy participant base and by the fact that any intervention can succeed at first} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 22, 2022

5

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

In recent years, as mindfulness meditation began to catch on, research, including this open-access paper, claimed that eight weeks of mindfulness could change the structure of the brain. The neuroplasticity on which such studies relied is real enough. But a just-released study has found no evidence that eight-week courses like “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction” make so radical a difference: In new research, a team from the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led by Richard J. Davidson, found no evidence of structural brain changes with short-term mindfulness training. Published May 20 in Science Advances, the team’s study is the largest and most rigorously controlled to date. In two novel trials, over 200 healthy participants with no meditation experience Read More ›