Do cats play with electric ants?
Last night my daughter and I decided to test out a computer game on a willing subject: our cat. It made me think that perhaps we will not enter the next stage (beyond posthuman) until somehow animals join in our digitally interconnected world. Can cats really play with electric ants? Why would my cat play with these ants anyway? there is no food (for the cat) involved, but it does resemble analogue offerings…
On the other hand, human exploitation of animals is aided by technology. What sort of philosophical and ethical implications are there? The materiality of our biological needs (taking the flesh i.e. meat) is still primary. The loss of body (information) is in support of material sustenance, of both meat and non-meat eaters.
And then I read the Hayles article ’From ‘Cyborgs to Cognisphere’ ‘ in which she is reflecting on Haraway’s recent work
‘Understanding that humans and animals have co-evolved together is entirely consistent with the contemporary but nevertheless potent phenomenon of humans and machines co-evolving together. Indeed, given the technologies of genetic engineering, implants and bio-silicon hybrids created from a variety of life forms ranging from cockroaches to lampreys, it is clear that humans, animals and intelligent machines are more tightly bound together than ever in their cultural, social, biological and technological evolutions.
(…)
Haraway’s insistence that the world is ‘relationality all the way down’ applies as much to technology as to companion species. In the contemporary period, computation emerges as a crucial aspect of the entwined dynamical hierarchies that structure and energize relational dynamics. As inhabitants of globally interconnected networks, we are joined in a dynamic co-evolutionary spiral with intelligent machines as well as with the other biological species with whom we share the planet.
[will need to give this further thought...]
Haraway more recently looked at the dogworld, this lecture offering further insights below and reviewed here.
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/05.02/15-haraway.html
by the way: it took my cat many attempts at grasping what was going on: he was not keen to act, but purring all the time… !
There is an example here of a frog eating ants off an ipad, but in the end the frog bites the kid! – No idea how it relates to Hayles, Haraway – but found it quite amusing!
Frog Tries To Eat Fly Off Screen! – YouTube.
thanks Annabel. My daughter mentioned a gecko doing this, and that’s what gave us the idea to try it out on our cat.
I was thinking about how biological systems are all connected. The idea of compound tools developing, with human/machines evolving and affecting other biological life too.
So far we extract products from other biological systems (animals, plants etc) but what if we can extend immaterial perceptions?
I guess there is already a TV channel for dogs….
http://www.dogtv.com/
Brilliant. One of my cats is only ever interested in the TV when David Attenborough is on – it’s almost like a she’s living vicariously via a mediated representation of the wild. Could this be an example of immaterial perceptions?
My other cat likes snooker…