Category Archives: Virtual Forums

Animals Are Totally Without Feeling…Or Are They?

http://people.whitman.edu/~herbrawt/classes/339/Descartes.pdf John Cottingham’s dissection of Descartes’ treatment of animals was interesting to me in that he played Devil’s Advocate and took the stance that perhaps Descartes was not as anti-animals as people made him out to be.  He recaps the … Continue reading

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Humanity and Perspective

Perhaps the biggest question we have discussed in class, which relates to every single text we have read, is what makes a human a human, and how are we distinguishable from other nonhuman entities? I think that We3, Unflattening, and … Continue reading

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Useful Psychology behind Robotic Animals?

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/542791/what-dancing-lizards-can-teach-us-about-human-robot-interaction/ There’s a lot to be learned between robotic animal, animal, and human interaction, and how that is affected by the social status we give them. Animals could be tricked to believe that a robotic machine is one of their … Continue reading

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Comics as Literature

The graphic narrative format in itself was an interesting medium to place the narratives of both We3 and Unflattening. By placing these stories within this format, the authors have expanded their limitations to a different realm, other than the traditional … Continue reading

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Computer-Controlled Cockroaches Control Computers

My investigation of how technology and biology are becoming intertwined led me to realize an unexpected dichotomy. In the year 2015, there are technologies being developed to hack into cockroach brains and control their movement, while at the same time … Continue reading

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Animal Robots as Pet Therapy

http://www.parorobots.com/ For this contextualization post, I have found an article that presents a positive avenue for robotics in animals: pet therapy.  A fuzzy white mechanical baby harp seal, PARO is far from the uncanny and takes pet therapy to places … Continue reading

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Animals and Animal Robots Are NOT Just Machines

http://qz.com/426253/scientists-have-made-enough-animal-robots-to-fill-a-terrifying-zoo/ http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/9-biomimetic-robots-act-animals-article-1.2094006 I have provided links above to various robotic animals, each with it’s own ability. I think it is interesting to consider the vast difference between these inventions and what we considered an animal robots as children (Tickle Me … Continue reading

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Weaponized Animals

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2517413/The-kamikaze-canines-blew-destroy-Nazi-tanks-WWII-photographs-reveal-Stalins-dogs-war-explosives-strapped-them.html We3, short for Animal Weapon 3, presents an alternative reality and quasi-dystopian view of how humans hierarchize other life and thereby employ it as a means to an end. Many of those participating in the weapons research project treat … Continue reading

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Technology From Animals

http://mentalfloss.com/article/22702/10-technologies-we-stole-animal-kingdom This article entitled “10 Technologies We Stole From the Animal Kingdom” supports Descartes’s claim that animals differ from humans because they are mechanical entities without souls. Specifically, the article speaks to the second section of Descartes’s argument that animals … Continue reading

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Robots designed to mimic animal movement

I found an interesting article from the website Popular Mechanics about five new animal robots that are designed to look and act like animals. An emphasis is placed on the movement of these animal robots; although their form is mechanical … Continue reading

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