The Zoo Hypothesis

Zoos, rehabilitation institutions, and many other environmental centers provide opportunities for the public to witness animals that cannot be seen on a daily basis. Whether to keep animals in captivity is morally hard to decide, especially for me personally. In the essay, “Against Zoos,” by Dale Jamieson, he writes about the positives zoos provide, and then reiterates them; making positives turn into negatives. Jamieson makes statements about humans being superior over animals, and how we should not be thinking that we are better. We tend to take a lead role over other species, because of our “higher intelligence.” That should not mean that we treat wildlife as if they are something lower than us. In more ways than one, we as humans are

Today, we know that there are literally thousands, if not millions of other planets, many of which may be very similar to our own earth. In Philips Lewis article, "Do Aliens Exist? Here's What Scientists Say About Life on Other Planets", a notable astronomer created an equation that was able to "[e]stimate the likelihood of the existence of alien life, taking into account a number of factors including the average number of planets able to support life and the fraction that could go on to support intelligent life". Therefore, the chances of life and habitable planets in our galaxy alone is overwhelmingly high. Also, everyday scientists find more planets within galaxies, which adds more probability of some sort of life outside our solar system. Astronomers using NASA’s Kepler space telescope announced that the planet-hunting spacecraft had increased its catalog by an additional 1,284 worlds. “Planet candidates can be thought of like bread crumbs"

We live in a universe that is about 46 billion light years old. In a world, as massive as ours there must be some form of extraterrestrial life out in the galaxy. For thousands of years ancient peoples, such as the Greeks, have wondered the same question. Are we alone? As our technology advances, things such as videos and photographs are surfacing of people claiming to see such alien life. Whether it is an unidentified flying object, or if it’s from someone claiming to see an actual alien, there are thousands of people that believe they have seen proof. Some also claim that the government is hiding things behind our backs, like the Roswell UFO incident for example. Though many people refuse to believe in the existence of alien life forms until they see evidence, the fact that multitudes of people have eye-witness accounts, the improbability that we are alone, and the idea that we have thought of aliens so long, bring forth the evidence that proves something is out there.

When we begin to colonize the stars, there is a chance that we could come into contact with members of life not from our original planet. If contact with another civilization occurs, we must be mindful to understand exactly (or to the best of our ability) where the other is coming from (their motivations, ideas, wants) in order to be able to live in harmony together. One specific case where beings were unable to understand the other in terms of their human motivations was in the fiction The Conquest of America written by Tzvetan Todorov.

Some people go to zoos to see the wild animals, but that’s not all that they are for. People in groups such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) may think that zoos cannot provide the needs to wild animals as the wild can. Zoos help animals. They have improved, helping to repopulate species and save animals in the wild.

Aliens and life beyond earth has been a mystery for a long time. Many people and scientist have been looking for life outside of Earth, or just floating in the sky trying to get video of it. For all of human history we have been looking for extraterrestrial life, and these are the major events of finding, debunking, and moving forward to life on earth

For the primate observation project I went to the Santa Barbara zoo to observe and contrast different types of primates. I observed one species of an old world monkey, which was a gorilla and two different species of new world monkeys, which were the Bolivian Grey Titi Monkey and also the Golden Lion Tamerin.

The lack of freedom is a major reason why animals should not be kept in zoos. This shows to be accurate because studies have shown that lack of freedom can affect animals negatively. In the article, "Reason to Rethink Zoos" by Katherine Glosser, she states,"Animals deserve the same quality of life that humans have. I can't imagine being trapped in a fake habitat, never being allowed to roam outside and watching people staring and pointing at me through a glass window. If I don't want that fate, I am sure animals don't want that either"(2).

This universe is so vast, diverse, and complex that makes it hard to think that we are truly alone out here. There are more than 100 billion billion earth-like planets, which makes about a hundred earth-like planets for every grain of sand in the world (Urban)! But if that’s the case, why haven’t we encountered any extraterrestrial beings? It’s strange how the possibility is off the charts, but because we’ve got nothing so far, we’re not even sure if they exist. So… where is everybody?

The first modern zoo founded was in Vienna, Madrid and Paris in the eighteenth century and later in London and Berlin in the nineteenth century. The first zoo to be established in America was in Philadelphia and Cincinnati in the 1870s. In today’s America there are thousands of zoos. Humans like to be entertained regardless of how they are being entertained, whether that is walking through the park, watching a show, listening to music or simply going to the zoo. There is truth behind zoos that many don’t see, for example, many zoos don’t show the death rates that many zoo animals have after being transported from their natural habitants or the experiences that the zoo keepers provide to the animals being kept in captivity. To what extent are we okay with animals being tortured or being aware that animals are being killed just so humans can be entertained? While there are benefits to keeping animals in captivity, scholars agree that there are more negative effects that are damaging to the animals. The purpose of zoos can be more than just keeping animals in captivity and creating significant health or mental problems, zoos also can have a positive outcome, zoos can help keep endangered animals safe from others who are trying to kill them for what they are worth. Jamieson explains and gives one example of when people started putting animals in captivity. The Romans is the example that Jamieson uses, the Romans “kept animals in order to have living fodder for

For many centuries, zoos have served as a way of both educating and entertaining various audiences around the world. However, many ethical and moral concerns have arisen recently regarding the manner in which the animals in these facilities are treated. Zoos disregard the rights of animals because the audiences and employees treat them poorly and animals are unable to thrive in the small enclosures. Journalist Michelle Carr is correct in her claim about the harsh reality of zoos. Even though authors Leslie Kaufman and John Pickrell are accurate when they claim that many zoos serve as educational and conservational institutions, this does not excuse the fact that zoos take advantage of animals in order to make money.

Perhaps one of the most substantial curiosities of the era is the possibility of other life forms in the universe. It’s an undeniable statement to claim that there is, in fact, other forms of life beyond the life on our planet. As the mind toils over this indisputable claim, one can’t help but to wonder if another life form has found the Earth yet, or have the people of Earth found them. Area 51 is believed to be the dwelling of extraterrestrial details for multiple reasons; there have been multiple sightings of strange aircrafts, it is exempt from many local, state, and national laws in order to protect classified information, and despite all of this the Air-Force still denies its existence entirely.

Many animals live miserable lives in zoos that do not take care of them properly. Most animals lie in barren cages until the day they die for public amusement. The pain that these animals go through is inhumane and just not right. ”In article , “Zoos:Myth and Reality” by Rob Laidlaw and “Zoos Connect us to Our Natural World”by Mike Hutchins both authors present their view on the state of zoos in the United States and Canada. Although some zoos are accredited vast numbers of zoo animals continue to endure lives of misery and deprivation which means zoos do not have animal's best interest in mind.

An alien society with advanced remote-sensing technologies may conclude that direct contact with neighbors added risks without an added benefit. Some assumptions for the zoo hypothesis is, first that a large number of alien cultures exist, and second that these aliens have great reverence for independent, natural evolution and development. In particular, assuming that intelligence is a physical process that acts to maximize the diversity of a system's accessible futures, a fundamental motivation for the zoo hypothesis would be that contact would unintelligently reduce the overall diversity of paths the universe itself could take. These ideas are perhaps most possible if there is a universal cultural or legal policy among a wide range of extraterrestrial civilizations needing isolation with respect to civilizations at Earth-like stages of development. In a universe without power, random single civilizations with independent principles would make contact. This makes a crowded universe with clearly defined rules seem more

The universe is too massive to describe in words, and is always expanding, mars could have once held life, and NASA has already discovered other habitable planets. There is no reason to scoff at the notion of alien life, the facts are too numerous, but we always need more. More discoveries and theories to keep the dream alive, that's why people should be more invested in space exploration, problems we have on this planet could have solutions on others. The universe could hold answers to questions we haven't asked, and to those queries we have, it's just a matter of whether or not we’re ready for