Modern Western law and ethics has been built on a categorical distinction between human and non-human, preserving the protections of law and moral consideration for the human and relegating the non-human to the status of object for exploitation. The fruits of this thinking, as well as humanity’s attendant and growing separation from the more-than-human world, have been deleterious. The urgency of the need to dispense with this categorical and artificial distinction between the human and non-human worlds is, moreover, bolstered by new and profound advancements in biological sciences, which chip away at the various criteria Western law and ethics have used to maintain a human-dominated species hierarchy, from sentience and cognition to problem-solving and complex language.
Advanced machine learning combined with bioacoustics holds a similar potential as the microscope or telescope, affording humans a new lens to hear and connect to the non-human world.
With respect to the last criterion – complex language – particularly exciting advances have been made in the realms of biological science and applied computer sciences. This includes the advancements achieved by Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), the leading scientific organization dedicated to applying advanced machine learning and state-of-the-art robotics to understand and translate sperm whale communications. Advanced machine learning combined with bioacoustics holds a similar potential as the microscope or telescope, affording humans a new lens to hear and connect to the non-human world. A hypothesis underlying the CETI research mission is that listening to and translating non-human communications can lead to increased connectivity, understanding, and protections for the more-than-human world.
Advances in the study and comprehension of animal communications like those achieved by Project CETI are accelerating. Indeed, observers in the field expect that the technology and capacity to translate animal communications (and potentially communicate back) will exist in the coming decade, collapsing the wall between direct human and non-human animal communications but also raising additional potential risks for the well-being of non-humans.
In short, advances in animal communications will not only transform our understanding of the cognition and complexity of the more-than-human world, but also will present unparalleled opportunities for restructuring our relationships with the animal world. Despite this urgent state of affairs, however, law and ethics is far behind and has not yet effectively tackled the legal and ethical implications of advances in animal communications, nor has it taken advantage of the field of new opportunities to advance protections and legal claims for non-humans.
In short, advances in animal communications will not only transform our understanding of the cognition and complexity of the more-than-human world, but also will present unparalleled opportunities for restructuring our relationships with the animal world.
For that reason, the NYU MOTH Project has partnered with Project CETI to fill this gap. This line of work addresses both the profound opportunities, as well as risks, raised by ongoing advances in animal communications. It does so, on one hand, by working to progressively develop the case law on the matter through a pilot legal action, which seeks to translate state-of-the-art advances in animal communications, including the findings of Project CETI, into enhanced legal and policy protections for the more-than-human world. Strategically, this legal action aims to lay the groundwork for other legal actions in other jurisdictions to translate new understandings of animal communications into improved legal and policy protections for non-humans.
To guard against these new developments’ risks, on the other hand, the MOTH Project is also developing legal and ethical principles and rules that help proactively place parameters around present and future developments in and applications of animal communications. The ultimate mission is to ensure the widespread, field-level adoption of these rules and principles to mitigate additional risks to the non-human world as well as amplify opportunities to expand legal and policy protections and safeguards for the more-than-human world.