Non-human

{{Short description|Entity that is not considered human}} {{Redirect|Unhuman|2024 book by Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec|Unhumans{{!}}''Unhumans''|2022 horror film|Unhuman (film){{!}}''Unhuman'' (film)}} '''Non-human''' (also spelled '''nonhuman''') is any entity displaying some,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nonhuman|title=the definition of nonhuman|website=Dictionary.com|access-date=5 February 2019}}</ref> but not enough, human characteristics to be considered a human. The term has been used in a variety of contexts and may refer to objects that have been developed with human intelligence, such as robots or vehicles.

== Organisms ==

=== Animal rights and personhood === {{Further information|Personhood#Non-human animals}} In the animal rights movement, it is common to distinguish between "human animals" and "non-human animals". Participants in the animal rights movement generally recognize that non-human animals have some similar characteristics to those of human persons. For example, various non-human animals have been shown to register pain, compassion, memory, and some cognitive function. Some animal rights activists argue that the similarities between human and non-human animals justify giving non-human animals rights that human society has afforded to humans, such as the right to self-preservation, and some even wish for all non-human animals or at least those that bear a fully thinking and conscious mind, such as vertebrates and some invertebrates such as cephalopods, to be given a full right of personhood.

=== The non-human in philosophy === {{Clarify section|date=January 2022}} Contemporary philosophers have drawn on the work of Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Claude Lévi-Strauss (among others) to suggest that the non-human poses epistemological and ontological problems for humanist and post-humanist ethics,<ref>{{Citation | title= Becoming-Animal Is A Trap For Humans: Deleuze and Guattari in Madagascar | first= Timothy | last= Laurie | journal=Deleuze and the Non-Human | year=2015 | url= https://www.academia.edu/10912960}} eds. Hannah Stark and Jon Roffe.</ref> and have linked the study of non-humans to materialist and ethological approaches to the study of society and culture.<ref>Whatmore, Sarah (2006), 'Materialist Returns: Practising Cultural Geography In and For a More-Than-Human World', ''Cultural Geographies'', 13, pp. 600-09.</ref>

== Software and robots == The term non-human has been used to describe computer programs and robot-like devices that display some human-like characteristics. In both science fiction and in the real world, computer programs and robots have been built to perform tasks that require human-computer interactions in a manner that suggests sentience and compassion. There is increasing interest in the use of robots in nursing homes and to provide elder care.<ref>{{citation |author=Nick Bilton| newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 19, 2013 |title=Disruptions: Helper Robots Are Steered, Tentatively, to Care for the Aging |url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/disruptions-helper-robots-are-steered-tentatively-to-elder-care/?ref=technology |access-date=2013-05-24}}</ref> Computer programs have been used for years in schools to provide one-on-one education with children. The Tamagotchi toy required children to provide care, attention, and nourishment to keep it "alive".

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == {{refbegin}} *Johnson, Jim. [http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/35-MIXING-H-ET-NH-GBpdf_0.pdf "Mixing Humans and Nonhumans Together: The Sociology of a Door-Closer"] *Latour, Bruno. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110429072506/http://www.bruno-latour.fr/articles/article/113-MYERS-ECOTHEO.pdf "Will Non-humans be Saved? An Argument in Ecotheology"]. *Smithsonian, Magazine. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/essential-timeline-understanding-evolution-homo-sapiens-180976807/ An Evolutionary Timeline of Homo Sapiens] {{refend}}

Category:Personhood Category:Artificial intelligence Category:Critical theory Category:Zoology