What are animals thinking and feeling? by Emmie Larson

“What are animals thinking and feeling?” a TedTalk by Carl Safina

https://www.ted.com/talks/carl_safina_what_are_animals_thinking_and_feeling/transcript#t-232676




The ted talk starts out by Safina asking why we always ask such basic questions when talking about mammals (specifically marine mammals) intelligence and feelings. We tend to ask “do they like my treats?” or “do they love me back?” he asks if we are narcissists because we tend to only look at what we are feeling over the creatures we observe. We do this because as humans we have capabilities that many creatures can not do but to the ones that can we question it greatly only on the fact that we think that we are superior which enables us to think beyond and discover more. He goes on to talk about how our brains are inherited the first being simple neurons from jellyfish which gave the first rise to chordates, then to vertebrates, then to vertebrates that came out of the sea finally then to us. Safina uses this to again talk about how the same neuron that we all stemmed from the same, so how can we be similar to things like crawfish and birds. It has been researched that if you give crawfish tiny electric shocks every time it tries to come of it's borrow then the crawfish will develop anxiety to the point that it will never come out, then if you give the same crawfish anxiety meds (that you would normally give humans) they will calm down and learn to come out again. Safina goes on to talk about the similarities with octopus and ape like creatures (monkeys) and how they can use any object around them as a tool and how they can recognize faces to use for patterns and behavioral attachment. These creatures like us, teach their offspring by using tactile and visual cues and take time to raise their young, to better prepare them for when they go out on their own. If so many creatures are just like us in the aspect they can find and create food, have their own form of communication, they can reproduce, raise offspring and create a suitable living environment how can they be only something to throw into a tank and eaten. When will we start asking the “Are we capable of using what we have to care enough to simply let them continue?”






Why is this Ted Talk important now or why are we talking about this only now? (what is happening that we need to closely study the cognitive and emotional behaviors of animals)


Do we have the ability to educate are sleeves of we are superior to all others, what could we use this information for?