like i’m watching blue planet and i’m yelling at the tv!
there’s all these yimmer yammer hand-wavey scientific rigor lines where it’s like ‘we may believe that these animals do on occasion have a base brain-related impulse that allows them to experience feelings somewhat like to those of friendship’ or whatever in the script on top of footage that they then describe as ‘it seems as though these two groups [of fish, different species] are old friends…’ in an almost whimsical manner.
can’t they give them some credit! they have eyes and a face, why is it so insane to think they can’t experience friendship or love or joy just like us? ‘buhhu uhhh its only accurate science if we only observe observable behavior’ why?? you’re neglecting a whole part of any living thing’s experience! inner life can’t be hand waved away! even for a mollusk!
and people loved doing this on reddit as well – oh actually your cat doesn’t understand love or joy or humor, it is simply reacting to the physical warmth of your lap, they don’t actually care for you. don’t worry, depth and emotion does not exist!
Very true, but…
It is strange to me that having emotions isn’t the default assumption. Of course science ought to try to prove even that which seems obvious, but the general expectation tends to be that similar things will be similar until proven otherwise. That is, if you tell me a spaghetti monster created earth, I need proof because nothing seems to work like that, but if you tell me spines of one animal are like spines of another, I won’t argue without data because, yes, spines generally work the same way, as do nerves, muscles, and respiration. Even things like maternal care – which vary wildly from ‘none’ to ‘lots’ – tend to have similar patterns, so why would we presume humans are specially endowed with this thing called “emotions” if it isn’t a shared trait common to other species?
I suspect the idea that “animals are stupid and without emotion” is a holdover from when humans considered themselves separate and uniquely endowed by God with a soul that set them above everything else in the universe. It makes more sense to me that emotions (perhaps just crude ones) are just another shared trait. Being scared of a danger or loving your offspring might be helpful in perpetuating your genes.