You, Animals, and Machines: For a New Community (by Dominique Lestel)

2023/03/22

Do you have friends? I think many would answer yes. If asked, "Are those friends human or animal?" you would likely answer that they are humans, of course. While there are many discussions regarding friendships between humans, friendships with animals have not been discussed. The author, Dominique Lestel, delves into this issue.

Dominique calls himself a philosophical ethologist and actually conducts animal research. However, as one might expect from a professor at the École Normale, there is a sophisticated philosophical analysis behind it, which was quite a challenge for the translators. Friendship is often discussed in terms of emotions and feelings, but Dominique focuses on the sharing of time and space as a phenomenon. This applies to human-human, animal-animal, and human-animal relationships. He also points out that the interspecies relationship between humans and animals is asymmetrical. Animals are given names by humans, "personified," and even have biographies written about them. On the other hand, humans need animals infinitely. Humans are a lonely, isolated species whose close relatives have all gone extinct. Dominique's writing extends to animal death, play, and even musical performances (!) with humans.

Animals are integrated into our communities. They are companions, labor, and food. While it may seem that humans unilaterally exploit animals, when it comes to reproduction, humans are the ones being utilized. Compared to the total wolf population of 200,000 on Earth, there are over 400 million dogs. In a hetero-community composed of different species, different members mutually regulate each other's behavior. House cats must relieve themselves in designated areas, but humans must make the preparations for that. Robots are also entering the hetero-community. Machines are made by humans, but for humans to become companions to machines, they must learn their language. Elderly people are making painstaking efforts to become companions to their smartphones. Dominique is currently focusing on joint research with Japanese roboticists.

By the way, I don't know a single word of French. The reason this book could be published is that Ms. Wakabayashi, who lives in France, and Mr. Shishikura from the publishing house provided the preliminary translation, which Yoichi Sumi then carefully supervised. This process was enjoyable in its own way.

You, Animals, and Machines: For a New Community (by Dominique Lestel)

Shigeru Watanabe

Nakanishiya Publishers

160 pages, 3,300 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.