
The Economic Lives of Animals - Thevet
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2017-biological-markets/
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tpeo
> Even John Maynard Keynes, the father of modern economics, attributed our
> irrational choices to “animal spirits.”

Yeah, there's an equivocation in this reference. The "animal" in "animal
spirits" doesn't refer to non-human lifeforms, rather it means "of or relating
to a soul". The expression itself is an obsolete medical term which designated
what people from late antiquity to the modern period thought was the cause of
bodily movement.

By the early 20th century, it had become a somewhat quaint and tongue-in-cheek
expression. To say that someone was "full of animal spirits" was to say that a
person was lively, restless, or something like that.

There's without doubt a conflict between rationality and irrationality in
Keynes' usage of it. But that conflict isn't alluded to through a reference to
"animals", in the contemporary sense.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_spirits_(Keynes)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_spirits_\(Keynes\))

[https://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/11/16/exorcising-...](https://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/11/16/exorcising-
animal-spirits-the-discovery-of-nerve-function/)

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msgilligan
And the term 'Homo Economicus' is usually (and originally) used pejoratively
to critique economics for its oversimplification of human behavior.

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erikpukinskis
The first person who starts a SnapChat and Patreon for a famous working
animal, and uses it to defend their legal right to minimum wage and some
degree of autonomy will change the world, regardless of the outcome of the
case.

The first egg farm that pays the chickens a wage, and lets them choose between
different "jobs" will make a huge splash. Once consensual animal products
enter the free market, there will be a fascinating forcing function on animal
welfare, possibly leading to legal personhood for some animals.

~~~
paperkettle
dont forget algorithms ! [http://nonhumans.net](http://nonhumans.net)

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anotheryou
please no animations where I'm trying to read...

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exotree
I found the animations to be quite informative in helping me see the animals,
thus helping me understand the article more clearly. They also were very
tastefully done. I hope this publication continues.

~~~
anotheryou
Which includes the necessity for looped animation?

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agumonkey
Reminds me of the video of monkeys living with dogs. It's a very weird
collaboration (in a particular context, based on free food from humans
nearby).

