Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

published	January 2nd 2006 by Harvest Books
binding	Paperback
isbn	0156031442 (isbn13: 9780156031448)
pages	372
description	I don't know if people will ever be able to talk to animals the way Doctor Doolittle could, or whether animals will be able to talk back. Maybe science will have something to say about that. But I do know people can learn to "talk" to animals, and to hear what animals have to say, better than they do now. -...more [close] I don't know if people will ever be able to talk to animals the way Doctor Doolittle could, or whether animals will be able to talk back. Maybe science will have something to say about that. But I do know people can learn to "talk" to animals, and to hear what animals have to say, better than they do now. --From Animals in Translation Why would a cow lick a tractor? Why are collies getting dumber? Why do dolphins sometimes kill for fun? How can a parrot learn to spell? How did wolves teach man to evolve? Temple Grandin draws upon a long, distinguished career as an animal scientist and her own experiences with autism to deliver an extraordinary message about how animals act, think, and feel. She has a perspective like that of no other expert in the field, which allows her to offer unparalleled observations and groundbreaking ideas. People with autism can often think the way animals think, putting them in the perfect position to translate "animal talk." Grandin is a faithful guide into their world, exploring animal pain, fear, aggression, love, friendship, communication, learning, and, yes, even animal genius. The sweep of Animals in Translation is immense and will forever change the way we think about animals. includes a Behavior and Training Troubleshooting Guide Among its provocative ideas, the book:* argues that language is not a requirement for consciousness--and that animals do have consciousness applies the autism theory of "hyper-specificity" to animals, showing that animals and autistic people are so sensitive to detail that they "can't see the forest for the trees"--a talent as well as a "deficit" explores the "interpreter" in the normal human brain that filters out detail, leaving people blind to much of the reality that surrounds them--a reality animals and autistic people see, sometimes all too clearlyexplains how animals have "superhuman" skills: animals have animal geniuscompares animals to autistic savants, declaring that animals may in fact be autistic savants, with special forms of genius that normal people do not possess and sometimes cannot even see examines how humans and animals use their emotions to think, to decide, and even to predict the future reveals the remarkable abilities of handicapped people and animals maintains that the single worst thing you can do to an animal is to make it feel afraid [close]
date added	12-08-06 edit book

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John rated it:

11/02/07

While admitting that it can be a difficult area to research and still more a difficult area to know for certain, science has been coming a long way in understanding the area of animal cognition. The popular conception of it is that animals think pretty much the way we do, it's just that they're not as smart as we are. And largely don't have opposable thumbs.

It turns out that almost precisely the opposite is true: they don't think the same way that we do, but they're very smart--in fact, ofte...more While admitting that it can be a difficult area to research and still more a difficult area to know for certain, science has been coming a long way in understanding the area of animal cognition. The popular conception of it is that animals think pretty much the way we do, it's just that they're not as smart as we are. And largely don't have opposable thumbs.

It turns out that almost precisely the opposite is true: they don't think the same way that we do, but they're very smart--in fact, often smarter than we are, at least in very specialized ways. Animals in Translation's author, Temple Grandin, is autistic, and it turns out that animals and autistic people have a good deal in common with one another when it comes to how they process the sensory data coming in. Why this should be so requires a brief dip into how the brain evolved and is put together.

The brain evolved in three stages, essentially layering one development on top of the next. The earliest brain is the layer we call the reptilian brain, and it's the seat of our autonomic nervous system and basic functions. Our mid-brain or mammalian brain evolved next, and this is the seat of our emotions. Finally, the frontal lobe developed, which is the seat of our "higher functions," where all the really serious thinking goes on for us. It's an enlarged frontal lobe which has allowed us to rise to the top of things here on earth.

Now, it turns out than in autistic people, damage to the frontal lobe has meant that their midbrain has had to take on a lot of the functions which normally go to through the frontal lobe, which makes them similar in many respects to our various animal cousins on the family tree of life, who don't have as highly developed frontal lobes. And it turns out that this way of processing things makes a huge difference.

To cite just one of those differences (but a big one): our frontal lobes allow us to make generalizations, to put together the details and the information in front of us and form a "larger picture" view; autistic people and animals, relying more on their mid-brain, don't do this very well, but instead are very focussed on the details--in fact, they are far better at seeing the details than the rest of us, who constantly filter them out in favor of our conceptualizations and generalizations. Think of the scene in Rainman where the toothpicks are knocked over and he can instantly count them: in part, this is because he doesn't see "a whole bunch of toothpicks" the way we do; instead, he sees a bunch of individual toothpicks which he easily counts.

This difference in thinking comes up a lot in the context of Grandin's work to make slaughterhouses more humane. Often, cattle are spooked by details that don't even register with people: a yellow raincoat draped over the fence, reflected light on metal--all sorts of little details that don't jump out to us as strange.

Animals have also been shaped by their evolutionary roles in their environment. Simply put, predators think differently than prey, and animals that have been domesticated think differently than those which have not been. There were so many fascinating things in this book that I probably can't go into them without basically re-writing the whole book, and as much as I'd like to serve as your Sparknotes, I do have other things to do today and, anyway, it's not as though this is a particularly difficult book to read.

The writing is very accessible, to the point sometimes of being rather bland (and repetitive). This stylistic difficulty, though, is adequately compensated for by the inherent interest of the subject. Ultimately, this book isn't just about how animals think; it's equally about how we think. Grandin combines the relevent literature on these topics with enlightening personal anecdotes from her work and from the everyday life of herself and her friends. While reading this, I found myself constantly regaling friends with my discoveries. It's that kind of book....less

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