3.0

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Humans are increasingly thinking about their relationship with nonhumans, ranging from AI to animals to corporations, including what it means to communicate with nonhumans or nonhuman systems. AI speech can now be mistaken for human speech but is commonly thought not to have meaning or intention in the same way. Many animals have complex verbal and nonverbal modes of communication; elephants, for instance, raise distinct sounds of alarm based on the kind of danger that is coming. Corporations in the United States have legal personhood, which includes the right to free speech, and are often talked about as if they have intentions, values, and desires. This class will query how we should interpret nonhuman communication across a range of sources and perspectives, including law, literature, philosophy, science, and popular culture. How do we know what such communication means, or if it has meaning, and according to what criteria? What is the relationship between communication and rights, including the right to personhood? And how does nonhuman communication change our understanding of how humans create meaning and connection with one another?