819
But the human/animal rights issues pose an inherently stigmergic challenge to
broader issues of collaboration in Nature. Myxobacteria and other swarming cell
organisms function best in group deployment, behaving according to a multibillionyear- old coordinated eusocial pattern that (of stigmergy) humans have never succeeded
at, other than through a dominant mode of domestication. In some studied birds and
carnivores, bacteria grouping in the animal’s microbiome clusters have shown that
they are essentially in charge of scented exudations and critical life- cycle behaviors.
8
This is certainly the case in humans in terms of our antibodies and life-supportive
internal communities, that is, gut microbiota. We have no idea how such life forms
within us affect our judgments and assumptions. Consciousness does not commune in
its normal daily conversations with the numeric swarms within, which, by inference
from Arthur Schopenhauer, have their own “will” and “representation,”
9
even ethical
standing in the guise of self-preservation. Our efforts to promote our immune systems
are, ultimately, the first line of defense for that primary agent of consciousness, which
is the survival quotient itself, an ethical value among trillions of others.
In other words, an animal liberation choice perpetually emerges as a human goes
about her/his every day: Would you give your life, if need be, for another? If not,
then how can such a self-fulfilling choice be recognized as capable of crossing over
any other sentient boundaries, abandoning sovereignties in favor of universalism,
granting another organism all the freedom and affection of the Magna Carta or
Declaration of Independence?
94.2 Single, Large, or Several Small Habitat Refuges?
“Epistemology” does not lend credence to gun owners or killers of pigs and cows.
It deplores dictators while upholding social contracts that have the vim and vigor to
incentivize behavioral change among all constituencies, while marginalizing those
who insist on resorting to violence. We’ve seen great philosophical strides in realms
of non-violence and cooperative treaty agreements, from Mahavira to Hugo Grotius
to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In some ways, this kind of moral political ground mirrors
one of the leading conservation biology debates: SLOSS—single large or several
small habitat refuges.
10
pp. 173–176, Published by: Allen Press on behalf of the American Society of Parasitologists,
https://doi.org/10.2307/3277775, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3277775, https://www.jstor.org/
stable/3277775?seq=1, Accessed August 15, 2020.
8 See “Experimental evidence that symbiotic bacteria produce chemical cues in a songbird,” by
Danielle J. Whittaker, Samuel P. Slowinski, et al., Journal of Experimental Biology,” 2019, 222:
jeb202978, https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.202978. Published 16 October 2019, https://jeb.biologists.
org/content/222/20/jeb202978, Accessed November 13, 2019.
9 See Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1818/1819.
10 “The SLOSS Debate,” by Jennifer Bove, ThinkCo., August 27, 2018, https://www.thoughtco.
com/overview-of-the-sloss-debate-1181943. See also, Robert, A., 2009, The effects of spatially
correlated perturbations and habitat configuration on metapopulation persistence. Oikos 118:
1590–1600.
94.2 Single, Large, or Several Small Habitat Refuges?
But the human/animal rights issues pose an inherently stigmergic challenge to
broader issues of collaboration in Nature. Myxobacteria and other swarming cell
organisms function best in group deployment, behaving according to a multibillionyear- old coordinated eusocial pattern that (of stigmergy) humans have never succeeded
at, other than through a dominant mode of domestication. In some studied birds and
carnivores, bacteria grouping in the animal’s microbiome clusters have shown that
they are essentially in charge of scented exudations and critical life- cycle behaviors.
8
This is certainly the case in humans in terms of our antibodies and life-supportive
internal communities, that is, gut microbiota. We have no idea how such life forms
within us affect our judgments and assumptions. Consciousness does not commune in
its normal daily conversations with the numeric swarms within, which, by inference
from Arthur Schopenhauer, have their own “will” and “representation,”
9
even ethical
standing in the guise of self-preservation. Our efforts to promote our immune systems
are, ultimately, the first line of defense for that primary agent of consciousness, which
is the survival quotient itself, an ethical value among trillions of others.
In other words, an animal liberation choice perpetually emerges as a human goes
about her/his every day: Would you give your life, if need be, for another? If not,
then how can such a self-fulfilling choice be recognized as capable of crossing over
any other sentient boundaries, abandoning sovereignties in favor of universalism,
granting another organism all the freedom and affection of the Magna Carta or
Declaration of Independence?
94.2 Single, Large, or Several Small Habitat Refuges?
“Epistemology” does not lend credence to gun owners or killers of pigs and cows.
It deplores dictators while upholding social contracts that have the vim and vigor to
incentivize behavioral change among all constituencies, while marginalizing those
who insist on resorting to violence. We’ve seen great philosophical strides in realms
of non-violence and cooperative treaty agreements, from Mahavira to Hugo Grotius
to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In some ways, this kind of moral political ground mirrors
one of the leading conservation biology debates: SLOSS—single large or several
small habitat refuges.
10
pp. 173–176, Published by: Allen Press on behalf of the American Society of Parasitologists,
https://doi.org/10.2307/3277775, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3277775, https://www.jstor.org/
stable/3277775?seq=1, Accessed August 15, 2020.
8 See “Experimental evidence that symbiotic bacteria produce chemical cues in a songbird,” by
Danielle J. Whittaker, Samuel P. Slowinski, et al., Journal of Experimental Biology,” 2019, 222:
jeb202978, https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.202978. Published 16 October 2019, https://jeb.biologists.
org/content/222/20/jeb202978, Accessed November 13, 2019.
9 See Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1818/1819.
10 “The SLOSS Debate,” by Jennifer Bove, ThinkCo., August 27, 2018, https://www.thoughtco.
com/overview-of-the-sloss-debate-1181943. See also, Robert, A., 2009, The effects of spatially
correlated perturbations and habitat configuration on metapopulation persistence. Oikos 118:
1590–1600.
94.2 Single, Large, or Several Small Habitat Refuges?