The Paris Blob, Crows, Trees, and the End of Human Hubris
Even outside of politics, sentience doesn’t appear to require a brain.
It was Paris Zoo’s slime mold that conquered the internet. It learns! It heals itself! It has memories! Maybe it can haz cheezburgers! And now that its fifteen minutes of fame are up, we’re off to the next internet sensation du jour in our perpetual species-wide collective case of internet-enabled ADHD (yes, I’ve been diagnosed as such).
But wait, there really is more. The slime mold appears to be just another in a long line of living organisms that are trying to tell humanity, “Hey! We are aware!”
The Animal Kingdom
I remember twenty-odd years ago when I was having a discussion with my brother-in-law concerning slaughtering pigs. I pointed out to him that pigs are aware, that they have feelings and empathy, and that they feel pain. He looked at me and laughed, and in a tone dripping with scorn, informed me that animals don’t feel pain, but that they just react that way because instinct forces them to do so. I let the matter drop, for it was pretty obvious that nothing I said would help him change his mind.
That conversation has bothered me ever since. How could anyone not see that animals have a form of awareness, of sentience? How could any dog- or cat-owner think…
