Peter Singer: Of great apes and men

Peter Singer says that, as Spain takes one great step forward for animal rights and liberty, activists elsewhere are persecuted:

If we regard human rights as something possessed by all human beings, no matter how limited their intellectual or emotional capacities may be, how can we deny similar rights to great apes? To do so would be to display a prejudice against other beings merely because they are not members of our species - a prejudice we call speciesism, to highlight its resemblance to racism. The Spanish resolution marks the first official acceptance of that view. The use of the term "slavery" in relation to animals is especially significant, for it has been assumed that animals are rightly our slaves, to use as we wish, whether to pull our carts, be models of human diseases for research, or produce eggs, milk, or flesh for us to eat. Recognition by a government that it can be wrong to enslave animals is a significant breach in the wall of exclusive moral significance we have built around our own species. -- Peter Singer

Entire article.

New trailer for The Day the Earth Stood Still

I'm looking forward to this. To be released on Dec. 12. Here's the original trailer -- theremin and all:



My review of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

What I've been reading: 2008-07-06

• 'World's longest concert' resumes (BBC)
  A note from a piece by a US composer is to be played this weekend in a German town in what has been called the world's slowest and longest concert. [Yes! I've been waiting for this note for some time now... -GD]
• Life Support - Could animals be transformed into medical devices? (we make money not art)
  Design for debate explores how design can be used as a medium to draw attention to the social, cultural and ethical implications of new technologies.
• Animal-Rights Farm (William Saletan - Slate Magazine)
  Ape rights and the myth of animal equality.

My transhumanism and life extension talk for the CFI

I gave this talk in April 2008 for the Center for Inquiry Ontario.