Non-human Persons

I was recently reading about scientists that want to reclassify dolphins as non-human persons. The reason for this is because recent intelligence tests on dolphins have shown that they are more intelligent than previously thought. This is an interesting idea, not the dolphin's intelligence (although that is also very cool and I want to talk about that later), but that we have non-human persons on this planet. We have always considered ourselves the premier beings on the planet, and although this isn't really going to change that thought it is cool to see that we might have a somewhat equal. If we could have an actual conversation with another being on this planet it would be amazing. I can't imagine what another species would think about the world. Science fiction writers have lots of stories about aliens, but we don't have a lot of stories about life along side our own. I don't think a lot of people can imagine what sharing the planet would be like. Right now we have enough trouble sharing the planet with other humans, so it would be very difficult for us to get along with something that would truly different from us. Perhaps with another species running the planet with us we wouldn't have some of the same problems that we have. I can imagine that if were competing with another species that we wouldn't have so much trouble with how our skin looks or where we were born. I think we would be able to see each other as a single species, which would be a really cool. I also would love to see what other religions come out of another sentient species would come up with. I can imagine how "created in gods image" would become a much more difficult idea to accept.

I can imagine if we could communicate dolphins right now they would probably be pretty upset about how we are treating the environment. But I don't think that is what people would be asking about, well some people would be. A number of writers have suggested the intelligence of dolphins before, such as Douglas Adams, and of course in the Simpsons. One of the calls to actions with naming dolphins non-human persons, would also be to release them from captivity. The idea being that we don't have the right to own them, in the same way we don't have the right to own people. So who knows, perhaps in the future we will have the non-human persons civil rights movement.