Humans have bred wolves into dogs and dogs into specific breeds of dogs. Many of those breeds of dogs have a more human-like intelligence at minimum and are perhaps also more intelligent than they might have been without humans having bred them. Everything about the ethics of dogs as pets, servants, weapons, experimental subjects, commodities and strays is a non-hypothetical case study of animal cognitive enhancement.
The comic book WE3 by Grant Morrison (soon to be a film?) addresses animal cognitive enhancement. Recommended. The villain Gorilla Grodd and the hero Gorilla-Man are uplifted great apes in comic books.
The Planet of the Apes franchise applies as well. The most recent film is exceptionally recommended.
The Island of Dr. Moreau, of course.
The Cat in the television series Red Dwarf.
If you include humans as animals, there's all that literature too.
I have not seen any evidence of dogs being more intelligent than wolves.
In fact, I remember reading that wolves are more intelligent than dogs, but I can't find the source right now.
Does anyone have recommendations of good things to read on the ethics of animal cognitive enhancement? By this I mean applying various methods of human cognitive enhancement (pharmacological, technological, etc) to animals such as the Great Apes. I've also heard this referred to as 'up-lifting' an animal.
I'm looking for articles, books, lectures - anything really. Obviously one can just google this but I find getting recommendations from others a better bet. I think this may be a useful resource for other people interested in the same topic. Interesting issues might include:
- Possible obligations to enhance
- Possible negative consequences
- Possible side-effects (such as radically different perspective)