Great book, short (308 pages) well referenced and still highly anecdotal. Author is Temple Grandin, PHD and an autistic slaughterhouse designer and animal behaviourist etc...draws fascinating parallels about how the autistic brain works with how we believe animals may think. Language, emotion, how animals experience pain and fear.truly great and surprising stuff. Some of it seems off the cuff and wholly anecdotal but i chased down many of the references and the sceince is solid. The emerging science of wolf and man's co-evolution is amazing.
"He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that." JS Mill
Temple Grandin is a fascinating person.
Very influential in designing "ethical slaughterhouses" and surprisingly open about being studied by neuroscientists.
Sounds like an interesting read.
Shafpocalypse Now wrote:
If I put this pie on end, and spin in, it forms a volume of space similar to a sphere.
Now look. I've eaten a pice of pie.
When we spin the pie again, the area cut out of the volume of the sphere equals fitness.
redefines consciousness and argues that language is not a requirement for consciousness
categorizes autism as a way station on the road from animals to humans
explores the "Interpreter" in the normal human brain that filters out detail, creating an unintentional blindness that animals and autistics do not suffer from
applies the autism theory of "hyper-specificity' to animals, meaning that there is no forest, only trees, trees, and more trees
argues that the single worst thing you can do to an animal is make it feel afraid
examines how humans and animals use their emotions, including to predict the future
compares animals to autistic savants, in fact declaring that animals may be autistic savants, with special forms of genius that normal people cannot see
explains that most animals have "super-human" skills: animals have animal genius
reveals the abilities handicapped people, and animals, have that normal people don't
