The Internet Is Coming to the Rest of the Animal Kingdom
spectrum.ieee.org
A new Doolittlesque initiative aims to promote Internet communication among smart animals

I heard about this because someone I know personally on here says she’s helping to work on this (which by the way sounds like it would perfectly fit the format/structure of the fediverse) and I felt too fascinated to not ask. What are some scenarios that comes to mind when you think of this being a thing?

  • @[email protected]
    10•6 months ago

    I think if it turns out that most animals are able to communicate to the same level humans are we’ll end up with conflict between meat eaters and vegans, at least for a few generations.

    • If we’ve already got affordable lab grown meat options it’ll probably just be old people who don’t trust lab meat or aren’t really able to comprehend that we can talk to animals and nobody will take them seriously.
    • People would probably protest or maybe take direct action if we don’t have affordable lab meat but may eventually be placated if insects are unable to communicate and we develop convincing meat like insect protein forms.
    • But if we don’t have either of those alternatives I think that there could be a straight up war between (probably religious zealot) meat eaters and vegans.
    • This conflict would die out with subsequent generations but there may still be a “real” meat black market.

    But imagine if we can employ an animal to help us say build a house or a ship. It could change our lives entirely.