Making Machines of Animals

Making Machines of Animals PDF Author: Neal A. Knapp
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421446553
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
How the Chicago International Livestock Exposition leveraged the eugenics movement to transform animals into machines and industrialize American agriculture. In 1900, the Chicago International Livestock Exposition became the epicenter of agricultural reform that focused on reinventing animals' bodies to fit a modern, industrial design. Chicago meatpackers partnered with land-grant university professors to create the International—a spectacle on the scale of a world's fair—with the intention of setting the standard for animal quality and, in doing so, transformed American agriculture. In Making Machines of Animals, Neal A. Knapp explains the motivations of both the meatpackers and the professors, describing how they deployed the International to redefine animality itself. Both professors and packers hoped to replace so-called scrub livestock with "improved" animals and created a new taxonomy of animal quality based on the burgeoning eugenics movement. The International created novel definitions of animal superiority and codified new norms, resulting in a dramatic shift in animal weight, body size, and market age. These changes transformed the animals from multipurpose to single-purpose products. These standardized animals and their dependence on off-the-farm inputs and exchanges limited farmers' choices regarding husbandry and marketing, ultimately undermining any goals for balanced farming or the maintenance and regeneration of soil fertility. Drawing on land-grant university research and publications, meatpacker records and propaganda, and newspaper and agricultural journal articles, Knapp critiques the supposed market-oriented, efficiency-driven industrial reforms proffered by the International, which were underpinned by irrational, racist ideologies. The livestock reform movement not only resulted in cruel and violent outcomes for animals but also led to twentieth-century crops and animal husbandry that were rife with inefficiencies and agricultural vulnerabilities.

Making Machines of Animals

Making Machines of Animals PDF Author: Neal A. Knapp
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421446553
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Get Book

Book Description
How the Chicago International Livestock Exposition leveraged the eugenics movement to transform animals into machines and industrialize American agriculture. In 1900, the Chicago International Livestock Exposition became the epicenter of agricultural reform that focused on reinventing animals' bodies to fit a modern, industrial design. Chicago meatpackers partnered with land-grant university professors to create the International—a spectacle on the scale of a world's fair—with the intention of setting the standard for animal quality and, in doing so, transformed American agriculture. In Making Machines of Animals, Neal A. Knapp explains the motivations of both the meatpackers and the professors, describing how they deployed the International to redefine animality itself. Both professors and packers hoped to replace so-called scrub livestock with "improved" animals and created a new taxonomy of animal quality based on the burgeoning eugenics movement. The International created novel definitions of animal superiority and codified new norms, resulting in a dramatic shift in animal weight, body size, and market age. These changes transformed the animals from multipurpose to single-purpose products. These standardized animals and their dependence on off-the-farm inputs and exchanges limited farmers' choices regarding husbandry and marketing, ultimately undermining any goals for balanced farming or the maintenance and regeneration of soil fertility. Drawing on land-grant university research and publications, meatpacker records and propaganda, and newspaper and agricultural journal articles, Knapp critiques the supposed market-oriented, efficiency-driven industrial reforms proffered by the International, which were underpinned by irrational, racist ideologies. The livestock reform movement not only resulted in cruel and violent outcomes for animals but also led to twentieth-century crops and animal husbandry that were rife with inefficiencies and agricultural vulnerabilities.

Making Machines of Animals

Making Machines of Animals PDF Author: Neal A. Knapp
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421446561
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
How the Chicago International Livestock Exposition leveraged the eugenics movement to transform animals into machines and industrialize American agriculture. In 1900, the Chicago International Livestock Exposition became the epicenter of agricultural reform that focused on reinventing animals' bodies to fit a modern, industrial design. Chicago meatpackers partnered with land-grant university professors to create the International—a spectacle on the scale of a world's fair—with the intention of setting the standard for animal quality and, in doing so, transformed American agriculture. In Making Machines of Animals, Neal A. Knapp explains the motivations of both the meatpackers and the professors, describing how they deployed the International to redefine animality itself. Both professors and packers hoped to replace so-called scrub livestock with "improved" animals and created a new taxonomy of animal quality based on the burgeoning eugenics movement. The International created novel definitions of animal superiority and codified new norms, resulting in a dramatic shift in animal weight, body size, and market age. These changes transformed the animals from multipurpose to single-purpose products. These standardized animals and their dependence on off-the-farm inputs and exchanges limited farmers' choices regarding husbandry and marketing, ultimately undermining any goals for balanced farming or the maintenance and regeneration of soil fertility. Drawing on land-grant university research and publications, meatpacker records and propaganda, and newspaper and agricultural journal articles, Knapp critiques the supposed market-oriented, efficiency-driven industrial reforms proffered by the International, which were underpinned by irrational, racist ideologies. The livestock reform movement not only resulted in cruel and violent outcomes for animals but also led to twentieth-century crops and animal husbandry that were rife with inefficiencies and agricultural vulnerabilities.

Bots and Beasts

Bots and Beasts PDF Author: Paul Thagard
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262548542
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
An expert on mind considers how animals and smart machines measure up to human intelligence. Octopuses can open jars to get food, and chimpanzees can plan for the future. An IBM computer named Watson won on Jeopardy! and Alexa knows our favorite songs. But do animals and smart machines really have intelligence comparable to that of humans? In Bots and Beasts, Paul Thagard looks at how computers ("bots") and animals measure up to the minds of people, offering the first systematic comparison of intelligence across machines, animals, and humans. Thagard explains that human intelligence is more than IQ and encompasses such features as problem solving, decision making, and creativity. He uses a checklist of twenty characteristics of human intelligence to evaluate the smartest machines--including Watson, AlphaZero, virtual assistants, and self-driving cars--and the most intelligent animals--including octopuses, dogs, dolphins, bees, and chimpanzees. Neither a romantic enthusiast for nonhuman intelligence nor a skeptical killjoy, Thagard offers a clear assessment. He discusses hotly debated issues about animal intelligence concerning bacterial consciousness, fish pain, and dog jealousy. He evaluates the plausibility of achieving human-level artificial intelligence and considers ethical and policy issues. A full appreciation of human minds reveals that current bots and beasts fall far short of human capabilities.

God, Human, Animal, Machine

God, Human, Animal, Machine PDF Author: Meghan O'Gieblyn
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0525562710
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
A strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence, from the author of the critically-acclaimed Interior States. • "At times personal, at times philosophical, with a bracing mixture of openness and skepticism, it speaks thoughtfully and articulately to the most crucial issues awaiting our future." —Phillip Lopate “[A] truly fantastic book.”—Ezra Klein For most of human history the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond our understanding. The rise of science and Descartes's division of mind from world made materialism our ruling paradigm, in the process asking whether our own consciousness—i.e., souls—might be illusions. Now the inexorable rise of technology, with artificial intelligences that surpass our comprehension and control, and the spread of digital metaphors for self-understanding, the core questions of existence—identity, knowledge, the very nature and purpose of life itself—urgently require rethinking. Meghan O'Gieblyn tackles this challenge with philosophical rigor, intellectual reach, essayistic verve, refreshing originality, and an ironic sense of contradiction. She draws deeply and sometimes humorously from her own personal experience as a formerly religious believer still haunted by questions of faith, and she serves as the best possible guide to navigating the territory we are all entering.

Humans, Animals, Machines

Humans, Animals, Machines PDF Author: Glen A. Mazis
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791477762
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Examines the overlap and blurring of boundaries among humans, animals, and machines.

Animal Machines

Animal Machines PDF Author: Ruth Harrison
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1780642849
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
First published in 1964, Ruth Harrison's book Animal Machines had a profound and lasting impact on world agriculture, public opinion and the quality of life of millions of farmed animals. Concerned with welfare standards at a time when animal production was increasing in scale and mechanization, Ruth Harrison set about investigating the situation in a fair and even-handed way. Reporting her findings in this book, Harrison alerted the public to the undeniable suffering of calves living in veal crates and birds in battery cages. Written at the beginning of the intensive farming movement, which promised progress but in reality worsened conditions for domesticated animals, Animal Machines provides a fascinating insight into the system we are living with today and must continue with as the global population increases. Harrison's work brought about legal reforms, a greater understanding of farm conditions for animals and increased public awareness. Animal Machines is reprinted here in its entirety, accompanied by new chapters by world-renowned experts in animal welfare discussing the legacy and impact of Animal Machines 50 years on.

Engineering Applications in Livestock Production

Engineering Applications in Livestock Production PDF Author: Ayon Tarafdar
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0323985815
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Engineering Applications in Livestock Production covers the recent advancements and technological developments in the field of livestock production engineering in great detail. The major advances covered in this book include the use of artificial intelligence, image processing, Internet of Things, novel animal product processing technologies, farm automation systems, sensor technology, bioengineering practices and even engineered housing systems among others. The book includes applications of emerging sensor based and intelligent techniques/systems in the field of livestock production and management The book will have separate chapters dedicated to innovative approaches in the livestock sector such as artificial intelligence, micro and nano sensors, IoT, image processing and farm automation Specialists contribution of chapters provide comprehensive details while assisting the understanding of the concepts

Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery

Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery PDF Author: David Gordon
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481459678
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
Just because you’re extremely cute, doesn’t mean you can’t operate a bulldozer! From author-illustrator David Gordon comes a fun, funny, and whimsical take on believing in yourself and telling bullies who’s boss! Karen and the other extremely cute animals just want to build sand castles. But the terribly mean bullies Skyler, Mike, and Trent keep knocking them down! So Karen and her friends get another idea. They’ll build something the bullies can’t knock down, something even bigger and better than a sand castle... It’s a good thing being excessively cute doesn’t prevent you from operating heavy machinery!

Pastoralism – Making variability work

Pastoralism – Making variability work PDF Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251347530
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Book Description
Pastoral systems have evolved to function with the natural environment and therefore with variability. By identifying variability as an entry point, this paper aims at (i) engaging FAO in the mainstreaming of pastoralism by establishing the understanding of pastoralism, and its systematic inclusion in the normal operations of FAO, and at (ii) presenting an evidence based narrative on pastoralism to a specialists’ audience. Two main points are made in this document: First, pastoral systems are emblematic of farming with nature. Second, pastoral systems make use of variability in inputs (the environment) by matching it with variability in their own operational processes (flexibility in movements, animal breeds, labour force, etc.) in such a way as to reduce the variability in outputs (animal production and health, household’s food security, etc). Since 2015, the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub (PKH) has helped creating an institutional space for connecting and coordinating work on pastoralism within FAO. An Inter-Departmental Working Group on Pastoralism has been formed. The conceptual framework of this paper and early versions have benefited from comments and guidance of FAO staff as well as of specialists of pastoralism worldwide.

Animal Machines

Animal Machines PDF Author: Ruth Harrison
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animal industry
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
A reprint of a book originally published in 1964, with new contributions setting a modern context. The original book is comprised of 10 chapters covering and describing the methods of intensive farming of poultry and livestock during the 1960s. It was aimed at creating awareness regarding the production of animals under artificial and damaging conditions that prevail in factory-like installations. Focus is given on broiler chickens, poultry packing stations, battery birds, veal calves, basis of quality, quantity versus quality and animal cruelty and legislation.