Anthropomorphism

It is human to see human responses around us, and we have the ability for abstraction. So we apply human patterns to animals and objects. “An evil wind blows..”

Computers are “thinking”, when that little spinny beachball or hourglass pops up. I assure you, computers do not think, they compute. And crash. And they do not have malicious thoughts by themselves, try to trip you up or attempts to confuse you originating from any inherited intelligence. It may seem that way at times though; “it is doing it again” is a classic line often heard on computer support. It insinuates that the machinery have a mind of its own, and therefore the user does not have any influence, responsibility or impact. This is what supportpeople call pebkac. Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.

Most people would not see human traits in a cockroach, say, a frog or a shark. But we all do it, particularly to big-eyed, furry mammals. Large heads, big eyes and mammarian glands seems to be a prerequisite. Of course, primates tops the list. It seems we have to see our abilities in them to have empathy. It has been argued for many years that for example fish does not feel. A preposterous argument based on no evidence whatsoever. Just a convenient conclusion.

Sometimes the interpretation can be correct, but do not take it for granted. Sometimes it is wishful thinking. Let snoozing lion lie.

People read expressions in animals and get very very surprised when the animal does not react accordingly or do not understand that we are “the good guys”. There have been incidents where seemingly happy and domesticated animals have killed or mauled their owners. To much surprise, “Buster was such a happy, caring tiger”. Right.

This is the – at times – very misguided idea that animals understands us, and we them. The obvious examples would of course be people like TImothy Treadwell that lived with grizzly bears, played with their cubs, and argued that he “communicated” with them and protected them. Until they ate him. A Darwin Award for eco-warrior Mr. Treadwell. And various people who have kept wild animals, believe to have them under control, and then being killed by them. It is not because the cat is malicious. It is because we interpret the behavioural patterns as similar to ours.

Dressing up animals in human clothes we remove their species identity and apply our own. It is fun in myths and stories, and can work as metaphors, but it is not doing us or their species any favours.

Cats and dogs, in particular, of course, as they have been domesticated for many many years are usually victims of this. We “know” each other. And we give them  toys in multiple colours looking like human-baby toys. Many animals have poor colour vision, so this is not for their benefit, but for ours. It is cute. Funnily, animals often are in that respect like human children: often they prefer to play with the box the gift came in, an old sock, a post-it or a twig. Any old rubbish lying around, and the expensive “pet furniture” stands untouched.

I am not opposed to pet toys or brightly coloured things. But I am opposed to humans  applying our wishes and preferences on animals. Such as giving a cat a nightlight. I mean, really. Cats are predators, they hunt at night, their night vision and sense of smell and hearing leaves us in the dust. In fact, studies shows that cats see better at night than in daylight. Which means, that for the cats sake, turn the light off.

cat mummy, national museum of natural history, DC

For thousands of years, we kept cats to get rid of vermin. They had a job, to catch mice. Still there are famous mousers in the distilleries in Scotland that do a very important job. I love whisky, and I do not want any mouse poo in my barley, thankyou. I do not think those cats are cuddled much. I do not think they lie in front of a fire or on a lap (I have met a couple). Yet I do believe they are taken good care of (good mousers being hard to find), and I believe they have fine lives. A cat does not, from some mythical primordial state, natively belong in a human lap.

Now, cats are pets, and the catching of mice is a nuisance. Our expectations of cats have changed. Over time, the cats with less ability to drag headless rodents home and dump them on the carpet might be the ones that win out. Certainly, cats that get along with humans, fulfil our expectations and wishes, will have better lives and better chances of survival and possibly reproduction. There is no such thing as the primeval original, when there is constant adaptation. A good life for a cat does not mean spoonfeeding or a loopy lady calling herself “mammy”, nattering on with babytalk. Just because they have soft fur, does not mean they appreciate or need being petted all day long.

Our expectations of animals determine their quality of life and chances of survival. As these expectations change over time, so the animals will try to adapt as well as they can. Humans should not underestimate species other than our own, nor try to make them more like us. After all. A lot of us are not really all that nice.

Someone mailed the shelter, asking them to take a kitty back or have it put down, as it was catching mice.

A large portions of people suddenly develops allergies, particularly around holidays.

One guy had a kitty with a smashed paw around for six days, before calling. And then the reason for him calling was not the missing paw, but that the landlord would not let him have the cat anymore. He insisted the wee thing was fine. He said it was not his cat, but then in another sentence said he mentioned they thought he was a she when they got him. Just one of several contradictions. The poor thing came in with the untreated mangled paw, stinking, black and decaying flesh hanging in strips, and bone sticking out. Yea, he was fine.

I wish these people could at least lie a little more convincingly. It would prevent me from hating mankind. If the guy had kept the story simple, he could have been a hero, instead I now want to defecate in his mailbox. He could have just said he had found this poor thing outside, and thought of the shelter. End of story. He would have been a saviour. Now, he is the model of a disgusting human being.

Someone left their house for over four months. Just poured cat food over the floor and left. A caretaker or plumber found the cats. They had been drinking out of the loo, and there was cat poo everywhere. One of the cats darted out the door as helpers came in, and have not been seen since. One male, a mere kitten when abandoned, was scared and shy for a few days, and then turned out to be the most loveable creature.

A box with two rabbits was found in the parking garage of the local shopping centre. Another in a cardboard box among rubbish at a motorway rest stop. A kitten thrown out of the window of a car. Some people apparently throw kittens through the gate of the shelter. Which is at least not directly cruel, and has a mildly comical side, as there is no actual fence. Just forest. Try to shepherd cats.

see the homeless ones.

 “Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth..

Encyclopedia of life is an amazing, insane undertaking. E. O. Wilson did a delightful, rambling TED-talk, and things actually happened. A lot of people apparently got together, large sums of money was involved, an awful lot of meetings, I presume, and a website was born. With a whole bunch of impressive collaborators, they started building a page for every living thing. Every living named thing, I should say. We do not really know how may species there is on earth.

Personally, I thought the site was awful. Then – Hurrah! – they rebuilt and redesigned recently. It got much better, I certainly approve. It is made by scientists and the public; we can all contribute, and the information is moderated by scientists. I love the idea, I love the insane ambition of it, I love living things, and I think it is both scientifically and individually important. This is a good start for having a positive dander through a website. Through lifeforms, actually. I excitedly open the brand new EOL. Not unreasonably, I am met with a large search box.

And there I sat. What to search for? Pathetically, I typed in “cat”. I messed around with felidae. You and me can contribute to EOL, so I amused myself looking for pics of peoples pets. I imagine a lot of people would think it wonderous to have their tabby put in encyclopedic context for all the world to see. Then I did “elephant shrew”. Because they are the funniest little things. I fiddle about with the taxonomy for a bit, but my latin is not good enough, my understanding of taxonomy a little shaky, their tree a little unclear (Taxonomy, by the way, is a scary, scary thing, but that is a different chapter). So, as is so often the case, finding something specific, the known-item-search is wonderfully easy. It is the discovering that is a problem.

UI & UX. Unknown terms to many. It stands for usability and user interface; we all know when these things do not work. It is a bit like only noticing the surface you are driving on when it is full of potholes.

I have to say, EOL is not full of potholes. They are doing a lot of things right. But here is what I would have liked to play with, what I would like to discover. If I was the president of the universe, EOL would have these things for me to explore… find living things that have the colour green. All things with fur that lives in Marocco. What creatures are parasites, what have symbiotic relations? (The disturbing Cymothoa exigua, the tongue-eating louse springs to mind) Who eats who? What species overlap where? What is the food chain for a deepwater anglerfish, a bobcat, a tapir? What do humans make and eat of various species? Why are there no green mammals? What species have their closest relation on another contient? Show me all creatures with wings. How many species of dragonflies? What species are directly dependent on each other, and which species are mutually beneficial? I can go on and on and on. I am a little Napoleonic here maybe, EOL is a massive undertaking as it is.

And maybe it is a good thing they do not have this. If EOL ever get these things, I would never leave the site, and get nothing done.

Of course, making this would be either the nightmare of a lifetime, or the most fun you could possibly have. A million potholes, and a million things that can go wrong, I see piles of technical problems, itches and conundrums. But I mean; imagine… dream…

I do have a fondness for the museum of natural history though. It is one of the lesser decorated buildings. Maybe it is just because I have worked there, and seen the ramshackle insides. Endearing, chaotic, confusing, frustrating.

(I said bones. I didn’t lie.)

The lists in the elevators are rarely right. they may be right in one wing, and wrong in the other. They may be wrong in one lift, and right in the one two meters away. The anthropology department is worthy of anthropology studies itself. It is a maze of crates, drawers, boxes and shelves. You could very easily get lost here, and I suspect there could be cases of people that got lost and haven’t left the building for 24 years. The notes in the elevators are wondrously obscure. There are regular talks on various subjects, and sometimes I cannot understand a single word, never mind having the faintest idea of what the talk is about. It means I can make it up in my head, and create pictures of mad scientists doing wild field work. It is all natural history though. I am sure about that.

Downstairs is a zoo. Downstairs is the exhibitions. I dislike it more and more, and avoid it if I can. Turns out, you can probably live and work in this building for decades, without actually mingling with the drooling public or go near the exhibits. Some of them are definitely worth seeing though, so early morning is the only real option.

A friend of mine here, R, was attempted robbed of her mobile phone in the metro, the interesting tin-foil-hat-reaction of said friend was to run like the wind and catch the culprit. Basically thinking “my data! my information! my life!” rather than “my phone!” (I love her for that reaction, though it may not be wise to hunt feral kids) The culprit was duly caught, arrested and all, a tiny girl of 16. Kids sometimes roams the city centre in feral packs.

I took the metro home this evening, and walked home through the little town outside DC where I currently live. I passed two parked cars with their windows open. The town has a intellectual-hippy-feel, community-minded, responsible,  friendly and are delightfully slow-moving. This country has the best and the worst, and sometimes both on the same day.

DC photos

more pictures here

I hear myself do it at times, I hear fellow countrymen do it at times, and it bores me. Often, the person on the other end of this probably does not understand the relationship norwegians have with nature (why would they!?), and it seems excessive. In a way it is.

Then, four intrepid friends from USA came over, to play and explore with L and me, and I got to see parts of my country with their eyes, as well as with my own. It is, as R said; stupidly beautiful.

She asked if I felt proud being connected to all that.

Not proud, exactly. But a wordless sense of being connected.

Pictures from the mountainous lollygag that brought this on here

This one is for my friend AFH.

after 7000 pics of utter darkness, I got this… it is at night… picture below shows the same pic without lightening. Note the lampposts and lighted windows.