Wild Animal Sovereignty and the Ethics of Listening

It is no secert that we live in an AI-frenzied world today. When I started getting interested in the broad scope of its applications a few years ago, I stumbled across what I thought to be a fascinating, positive use for it: human to (non-human) animal communication. It still comes as a surprise to many people that this is very possible, and even further, that it’s happening.

I used to look at the work from the Earth Species project, for example, and marvel at their mission: decoding animal languages in an effort to help in conservation efforts (rerouting fishing routes according to whale songs, for example). Now, it worries me. I wrote the following philosophy paper addressing my concerns while according wild animals theoretical “soverignty rights”. To sum up my driving point in all the terminology: I belive the issue is the introduction of a new, yet familiar, form of colonialization. One that assumes a lesser moral status to those which we don’t fully understand.