
Thinking the Way Animals Do (2015) - nabla9
http://www.grandin.com/references/thinking.animals.html
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pmoriarty
It would be interesting to hear what Dr. Grandin has to say on _" What it's
like to be a bat"_:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_it_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_it_Like_to_Be_a_Bat%3F)

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splittingTimes
She gave a wonderful talk at google in 2014 about the different ways humans
conceptualize the understanding their surrounding world and how her thought
process differs from that of non-autistic people.

"The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum" [60min]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA4tE3_2qmI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA4tE3_2qmI)

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tritium
So I notice that her brain has been scanned and a careful analysis has been
performed to detect differences relating to the areas she exhibits strengths
in, and also the biological roots for some of her struggles.

It sounds like it was part of an elaborate project, but what was it, and how
did the organzers arrive at the decision to approach and invite her to the
study? Or did she hear about it, and ask to participate as a matter of
curiosity?

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hprotagonist
_Asa person with autism, it is easy for me to understand how animals think
because my thinking processes are like an animal 's._

this is either trite (in that all humans are animals), or an extremely bold
claim indeed.

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robotresearcher
That's her thing. She has made a living consulting on animal behaviour for the
design of animal handling processes such as slaughterhouses. She was good at
it and people valued her insight into small details that would bother the
animals. She also writes about her experience being autistic and her ideas
about cognition from her unusual perspective.

I have met her and had a chance to chat, have lunch, etc, and hear her give a
technical talk on designing animal handling systems. She's very smart,
competent and confident. Her autism makes her quite a strange person to hang
out with. Her overly bold statements and confidence could be part of that, but
it's not so unusual for professors, writers and similar types to behave that
way.

But she honestly believes she is missing some of the particular human stuff,
while still being very bright, and thus has unusual intuition into non-human
animal cognition. It's hard to provide evidence for this, of course.

In summary: not trite at all, but indeed a bold, interesting and controversial
claim.

(Edit, caveat: I last met her 19 years ago and have not kept up with her work
since)

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throraway10312
I think it's no coincidence she specifically works on animals in /captivity/,
her public talks basically start with how she was "broken in" like a wild
animal as a child having to learn to act like a "normal" person.

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nerdponx
I always assumed that her objective in working with captive and doomed-for-
slaughter animals is that they're the biggest opportunities for mitigating
harm. Not sure where I got that idea, maybe just guilt over not being vegan
myself.

~~~
robotresearcher
Another simple explanation is that there is a large industry around domestic
animals, with consulting opportunities that don't exist for wild animals.

I don't doubt that improving welfare is important to Grandin, though.

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lowleveldesign
Tangential, but if you would like to learn more about her life, there is a
movie entitled „Temple Grandin”
([http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1278469/](http://m.imdb.com/title/tt1278469/)). I
found it inspiring.

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b0rsuk
Fascinating, eye-opening article.

As a child, I used to have vivid imagination, vivid dreams, be afraid of silly
things such as fear literal ghosts that could live in our (dark) corridor, at
the attic or the shed on the far side of the garden. I remember taking more
pleasure in playing, reading, interacting with other people, playing computer
games, telling jokes (I used to be good at this), being more open, having many
more friends.

In recent years I found few things give me pleasure, I very rarely remember my
dreams, I can't really get into PnP RPG sessions because I have hard time
visualizing what's happening, I have practically no friends, low stress
resistance, affinity for vector graphics rather than raster (bitmap) graphics.
I'm looking for work as a programmer. Emotionally, I'm an unhappy person. I'm
barely even scared by horror movies (I never watched them until recently - I
was too afraid as a child). I tend to watch "strong" movies, often thrillers,
because they make me feel _something_ , unlike most other movies. Girls stay
away from me because they think I'm cold and emotionless, even call me a
psycho.

This year, I've been diagnosed with Schizoid Personality Disorder. It boils
down to I'm very uncomfortable showing emotions, and even _feeling_ emotions.
I avoid situations (even watching certain movies) which make me feel emotion.
I won't go into detail but SPD is a very good description of how I feel.

This article makes me realize what happened to me as I grew up. To a degree
it's common in all people - moving from a affective, visual kind of mind to a
more verbal kind of mind. In me, it's pushed to an unhealthy extreme and
causing me unhappiness. My psychiatrist told me what, this article is the
missing piece of the puzzle as it tells me why and how.

Some people have an affinity for drawing, and raster/bitmap graphics which is
a lot like it. I feel drawn towards vector graphics, SVG and Inkscape because
I can utilize my analitycal mind and verbal thinking. With vector, you throw
down some shapes and deform them. It's more like sculpting in clay or play-
dough than drawing!

But I digress. Now I know how to move in the opposite direction, towards
child-like imagination and the times I miss so much. Call it regress if you
like. Away from depression, lack of friends, lack of purpose in life. Don't
repress emotion, learn to express it. Take singing and/or dancing lessons,
something I used to be deathly scared of (until I had an insight: I had to
endure much worse things). Exercise my imagination the way I exercise my
programming skills and work out. Do more vector graphics (they look cool in a
github README.rst), but also try to learn drawing the old-school way. A couple
of women, not asked, have told me I have a nice voice. I like fantasy and SF,
why would I NOT record some audiobooks ? I can focus on short stories that are
no longer copyrighted. I lived in a world of irrational fears. People don't
care about me if they can't have a use of me, so they won't remember my
antics.

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aryehof
I too found the article fascinating, along with your comment. My reaction is
that in your openness, you exhibit a bravery and presence of mind that I
admire.

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b0rsuk
Because I don't like where my life has been going and intend to change it.
It's like watching life from the sidelines, and people distancing themselves
from you one by one. I suffered much and realized it was much worse than the
effort of working on myself and trying once more. Very little to lose. I
suspect the biggest change in my attitude came when I started working out -
the dopamine kick pulled me from depression(not the only factor, but the
largest contributor) and I only have mild symptoms now. Later, my psychiatrist
literally told me to never stop working out. That's more encouragement than I
got from my physician (and my health requires regular exercise).

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adamnemecek
The degree to which people take everything this person says at face value is
astounding.

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nerdponx
Even if she's full of it (which is unlikely if she's a professor at a well-
known university in the USA), she is probably doing net good in the world by
getting people to even consider that animals, especially ones that they eat or
rely on for physical labor, might think and feel in the first place.

