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PAMBA 2025 at UCSB
What is an animal's right to privacy?
What is an animal's right to privacy?
Abstract: Recent work on privacy suggests many nonhuman animals may have a right to privacy from humans (e.g., Pepper, 2020). If animals can have a right to privacy, there might be potentially widespread implications for our interactions with the domesticated animals who live with us, the captive animals on display in zoos and being studied in laboratory facilities, and the wild animals who share spaces with us. How can we identify the contexts in which an animal deserves privacy from humans? In this paper, I argue that one way to identify these contexts is to identify and understand animal social norms. By studying animal social norms, we stand to learn what personal information animals need to control in order to have successful social relationships. Further, understanding animal privacy through social norms facilitates a better understanding of when humans might violate the privacy of animals. I discuss two ways: humans might interfere with behaviors governed by the norms of that animal’s community, and humans may violate the norms of a human-animal interspecies community structured by social norms. In both cases, studying animal social norms, and especially interspecies communities, will facilitate more concrete judgments about when animals deserve privacy and how we can respect their right.
Can we talk to the animals? The ethics of using machine learning to decode animal communication (with Kristin Andrews)
Can we talk to the animals? The ethics of using machine learning to decode animal communication (with Kristin Andrews)
Available open access at Topoi: https://rdcu.be/fbZwv
Abstract: There is currently much scientific and public interest in using machine learning to uncover the meaning of animal signals, which could ultimately lead to two-way communication systems between humans and other animals. This paper examines the research ethics that should govern this line of inquiry, and explores the transformative implications if scientists are successful at creating translations between animal signals and human language. We argue that the scientific and philosophical literature on animal communication systems warrants the attempt to engage in these translation projects, and describe the current state of the art of the research. While the ability to translate animal signals has many possible benefits, these come alongside no small number of risks to animal communities. We enumerate the risks that exist in the development of these models in order to help scientists avoid them. Looking ahead, we argue that successful two-way communication with animals would both reveal an existing moral landscape and create a new one. Any successful two-way communication system would require radical translation of animal signals, which in turn entails that animals are rational beings who live in normative communities. Furthermore, the creation of these communicative systems also gives rise to new responsibilities and new demands. As researchers work to transform our social relationships with animals, they must also take on the responsibility to prepare humanity for the challenges that will arise in this novel multi-species landscape.
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