The rabbit and fox are processing and resolving their moral arguments the same way humans often do with each other. They don’t verbally argue, because they don’t speak. To determine their behaviors as meaningless because they don’t hold a human conversation is anthropomorphism.
As fish are an example of prototype vertebrates, we can reasonably infer that all animals that shared a common ancestor with fish retained similar biological hardware and share the similar social adaptations. This hardware does not exist in rocks or hot air “creatures”.
When humans observe fish behavior (or rabbits or foxes), it is incorrect to claim, “see how they behave like us,” because our biological machinery is additional complexity overlaid on their base systems.
Don’t assume human social sophistication is all that special just because we have it. Since humans are “merely animals” biologically it is a survival adaptation like any other and over the long term may prove to be an experimentally blip in the historical timeline. There is certainly a case to be made that our lofted intelligence and fictitious free will is superfluous to survival as evidenced by older and abundant animal species around us.
In chronological and evolutionary terms it is more logical to claim that core human social behavior is that of fish (or rabbits or foxes).
“Now, fish are regarded as steeped in social intelligence, pursuing Machiavellian strategies of manipulation, punishment and reconciliation, exhibiting stable cultural traditions, and cooperating to inspect predators and catch food.”
Recent research had shown that fish not only recognised individual “shoal mates” but monitored the social prestige of others, and tracked relationships.
They had also been observed using tools, building complex nests and bowers, and exhibiting impressive long-term memories.
Our inner fish extends beyond physicality. New research reveals that many fish display a wide range of surprisingly sophisticated social behaviors, pursuing interpersonal, interfishal relationships that seem almost embarrassingly familiar.
“Fish have some of the most complex social systems known,” Michael Taborsky, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, said. “You see fish helping each other. You see cooperation and forms of reciprocity.”
Regarding the broader theme (if I’m not too far off the mark). Unlike the rock and air and arguably the Pebblesorters (since I get the impression that they aren’t biological as we know it), the rabbit and fox are biological machines and as such even our rudimentary understanding of their organic systems lends to understanding their moral positions. They are determined to survive. They will seek food and shelter. They will seek fit mates to reproduce. They will nurse their young. They will do some of that complex fish behavior and add a few tricks of their own.
Belief in Artificial Intelligence in a box suffers from the human superstition of disembodied consciousness that we tend to attribute to our Gods and even ourselves in the form of souls (since we classicaly consider ourselves Gods on Earth). However, the meat in our heads and bodies, and the selective recorded experience of this meat in the environment, is us—along with our fishy programming and all sorts of other “leftover” genetic data.
An AI (or moral agent) needs a body to work in the way that people typically conceive of an artificial person attempting to experience emotions and creativity and all the other sentient and sapient behaviors. The AI needs senses and a means to respond to the environment and all the other trappings and limitations of a corporal form, probably best done with biological materials or approximate synthetics. Even so, without genetic heritage there is small chance that it would behave human or even animal-like unless great pains were taken to program in our survival tendencies starting with our “surprisingly sophisticated social” fish brains.
In other words, it’s not that easy to separate morality from biology. It’s software inherent to the hardware and the historical pressures that shaped them both.
The rabbit and fox are processing and resolving their moral arguments the same way humans often do with each other. They don’t verbally argue, because they don’t speak. To determine their behaviors as meaningless because they don’t hold a human conversation is anthropomorphism.
As fish are an example of prototype vertebrates, we can reasonably infer that all animals that shared a common ancestor with fish retained similar biological hardware and share the similar social adaptations. This hardware does not exist in rocks or hot air “creatures”.
When humans observe fish behavior (or rabbits or foxes), it is incorrect to claim, “see how they behave like us,” because our biological machinery is additional complexity overlaid on their base systems.
Don’t assume human social sophistication is all that special just because we have it. Since humans are “merely animals” biologically it is a survival adaptation like any other and over the long term may prove to be an experimentally blip in the historical timeline. There is certainly a case to be made that our lofted intelligence and fictitious free will is superfluous to survival as evidenced by older and abundant animal species around us.
In chronological and evolutionary terms it is more logical to claim that core human social behavior is that of fish (or rabbits or foxes).
A couple of articles to consider:
Thinkers of the deep
“Now, fish are regarded as steeped in social intelligence, pursuing Machiavellian strategies of manipulation, punishment and reconciliation, exhibiting stable cultural traditions, and cooperating to inspect predators and catch food.”
Recent research had shown that fish not only recognised individual “shoal mates” but monitored the social prestige of others, and tracked relationships.
They had also been observed using tools, building complex nests and bowers, and exhibiting impressive long-term memories.
What People Owe Fish: A Lot
Our inner fish extends beyond physicality. New research reveals that many fish display a wide range of surprisingly sophisticated social behaviors, pursuing interpersonal, interfishal relationships that seem almost embarrassingly familiar.
“Fish have some of the most complex social systems known,” Michael Taborsky, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, said. “You see fish helping each other. You see cooperation and forms of reciprocity.”
Regarding the broader theme (if I’m not too far off the mark). Unlike the rock and air and arguably the Pebblesorters (since I get the impression that they aren’t biological as we know it), the rabbit and fox are biological machines and as such even our rudimentary understanding of their organic systems lends to understanding their moral positions. They are determined to survive. They will seek food and shelter. They will seek fit mates to reproduce. They will nurse their young. They will do some of that complex fish behavior and add a few tricks of their own.
Belief in Artificial Intelligence in a box suffers from the human superstition of disembodied consciousness that we tend to attribute to our Gods and even ourselves in the form of souls (since we classicaly consider ourselves Gods on Earth). However, the meat in our heads and bodies, and the selective recorded experience of this meat in the environment, is us—along with our fishy programming and all sorts of other “leftover” genetic data.
An AI (or moral agent) needs a body to work in the way that people typically conceive of an artificial person attempting to experience emotions and creativity and all the other sentient and sapient behaviors. The AI needs senses and a means to respond to the environment and all the other trappings and limitations of a corporal form, probably best done with biological materials or approximate synthetics. Even so, without genetic heritage there is small chance that it would behave human or even animal-like unless great pains were taken to program in our survival tendencies starting with our “surprisingly sophisticated social” fish brains.
In other words, it’s not that easy to separate morality from biology. It’s software inherent to the hardware and the historical pressures that shaped them both.