http://www.chickenindustry.com/cfi/intelligence/
I found this site on the intelligence of birds, namely chickens, after our discussion of chickens in class. Experts say that chickens can remember the faces of other chickens and they have at least thirty different “vocalizations.” I never considered that the intelligence level of a chicken had been manipulated in order to relieve consumer guilt and therefore increase sales. The parallel that Professor Parham drew between this tactic and the tactic of publicizing slaves’ inability to read/write/learn in order to relieve any guilt in subjugating them is fascinating. A parallel can also be drawn in terms of robot creation and advertisement. Robots are, in contrast to chickens and slaves, portrayed as exceedingly smart; however, they lack important human emotions. Without these emotions, such as empathy, it is difficult to feel bad about ordering them around or rewiring them if there is a defect or destroying them if there is no longer use for them.
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Regarding chickens, and most domestic animals actually, a common way to deflect guilt is to say “Well, they were meant to be eaten” or “They would die off if humans didn’t raise them.” I think this is very similar to the way slaveholders used to say that they were doing the slaves a favor because the slaves could not take care of themselves.
I also found this concept really interesting, and like how you brought robots into the conversation. Since robots are always characterized as being really smart and without certain emotions as you say, I think that we’re often led to think of them like walking, talking computers rather than human-esque beings. Certainly if a robot producing corporation like the one described in Asimov’s tales ever wanted to start mass producing robots for a wide audience, with the expectation of trading them in for “new models,” dehumanizing them would be absolutely critical. Otherwise people would become attached to them in the same way that Gloria becomes attached to Robbie, which as we saw, wouldn’t exactly go over well with a less accepting public.
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