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A review by leili_vee
The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves by Arik Kershenbaum
4.0
3.75??? I liked the premise of this book, but I suppose carrying it out in a world where most people are basically science-illiterate could have been problematic for the author. The book is good, don’t get me wrong: I learned a few cool facts about some Earth creatures. However, it is not a book about xenobiology. The author never gets too in depth or too creative with all the possible variables that might affect alien life, nor all their possible variants.
What I liked: he sticks to science, albeit only the science he knows. He uses examples from myriad Terran flora and fauna. The book is engaging, despite its lack of detail and supposition.
What I did not like: the author claims that wisdom teeth and appendices have no purpose—this just isn’t true. Wisdom teeth were meant to replace our teeth that go bad (before modern dentistry), and appendices are not well understood. It is quite possible that they have a really important purpose, we just do not fully understand it yet. But to say they both have no purpose is misleading.
The author says we haven’t created meat that can be grown out of a vat yet. This is just false. As a vegetarian, I know for a fact that it has been done. Perhaps we are still waiting on the monetary benefits of making this a large-scale industry thing, but it definitely has been done already, and well before this book was published, too! I was surprised no one fact-checked him on these things.
I had several problems with the section of the book pertaining to language. I understand that different fields of study define language differently. However, language is a means of communication, and animals can communicate in different ways. For the author to describe the way cephalopods communicate as “smell,” well, that just seems strange to me. Cephalopods exchange chemicals on their tentacles by touch. These chemicals send messages to them. We still do not fully understand this mechanism of transfer fully, but I don’t think calling it “smelling” is very descriptive or accurate here. It just falls short. The author then goes on to claim that cephalopods do not have a language, after he tells us about their use of color and patterns externally (and skips over their chemical receptors that transmit Cthulhu-knows-what to their neuro-pathways). Questionable! Similarly, the author states that sign language is not really a language, but rather something that portrays a language, which yeah, I guess if you want to be arbitrary, maybe it could be classified as such, but to do so is disrespectful to deaf culture. Again, this is a book about biology and not a pedantic linguistic tome. Language communicates. Sign language communicates. It’s exclusionary to suggest that the deaf cannot have language. He then goes on to say that no Earth language is conveyed in exactly the way we see or hear the thing that is being talked about (i.e. obviously descriptive pictograms), so I guess he forgot that there are actually a few languages (and more than a few not in use anymore) that utilize ideograms. I don’t know. That just seems very exclusionary to me. Whole cultures use that. Also exclusionary are his attempts to explain how language cannot be circular in time (think “The Arrival”), because in no way can time be circular because he doesn’t think it is here). But several First Nations people have a culture based on the premise that time is circular, and their language and stories convey that in many different ways. Just because most white men don’t see it doesn’t mean it can’t possibly exist. The author likes to say that no animal (aside from humans) has language, in fact. But he admits that they do use body language (again, body language is a way of conveying meaning, so how is it not a language??). He explains that at least two creatures on Earth are known to have not just one specific word for something, but more than a few words that represent one clear object and are always used in the same situation, and despite how awesome he agrees that this is, he insists on reiterating that no animal has language aside from humans. It’s…mind-boggling to me the lack of logic in some of his statements!
Another point of contention that came up in the book is when the author proclaims that no simple life forms (like bacteria) can make decisions. Again, this is flat out wrong. Scientists have known for a while now that certain apparently unicellular (but can act as communal) organisms are capable of decision-making, as seen in many slime mold species. This is something that was well-known well before publication of this book. Another person that reviewed this book here also pointed out that the author contends that genetic memory doesn’t exist. It has been proven that genetic memory exists in many species, even in humans to some extent. How is this dood a zoologist?! How did I forget that perplexing claim?! Thanks to the person here that caught that!
Furthermore, the author states that legal personhood was petitioned for, but not granted to, orcas that have been held in captivity in places like Seaworld, but he neglects to mention that most are no longer forced to perform, and the ones that were able to be reintroduced into the wild, have been. That is a huge omission.
My final issue with this book is that all throughout, the author classifies any possible alien as being strictly plant or animal because that’s how it is here (he is quite fond of limiting the possibilities to only how it is here, even though there is quite literally a limitless bound to all of the possibilities of life and the rules governing them), but what about mushrooms???? What about protoclista??? He is leaving out entire kingdoms in this Terran taxonomy he is wont to follow!
Admittedly, the author states in the afterword that he refrained from going into too much detail so as to be the most understood by the largest amount of readers. Perhaps this is why so much was left out, explained poorly, or misrepresented altogether?? I don’t know.
I know after this review you will wonder if I am confused and forgot that I said in the beginning I actually liked the book. I promise I’m not confused. I did actually like the book. It’s not heavy on the science, and surprisingly, it’s not heavy on creative theories either. So don’t go reading it if you truly want to learn more about xenobiology or even zoology as we currently know it here, because at times, it is lacking. That being said, it’s still mildly engaging and mostly accurate, if a little Earth-bound in the topic of aliens.
What I liked: he sticks to science, albeit only the science he knows. He uses examples from myriad Terran flora and fauna. The book is engaging, despite its lack of detail and supposition.
What I did not like: the author claims that wisdom teeth and appendices have no purpose—this just isn’t true. Wisdom teeth were meant to replace our teeth that go bad (before modern dentistry), and appendices are not well understood. It is quite possible that they have a really important purpose, we just do not fully understand it yet. But to say they both have no purpose is misleading.
The author says we haven’t created meat that can be grown out of a vat yet. This is just false. As a vegetarian, I know for a fact that it has been done. Perhaps we are still waiting on the monetary benefits of making this a large-scale industry thing, but it definitely has been done already, and well before this book was published, too! I was surprised no one fact-checked him on these things.
I had several problems with the section of the book pertaining to language. I understand that different fields of study define language differently. However, language is a means of communication, and animals can communicate in different ways. For the author to describe the way cephalopods communicate as “smell,” well, that just seems strange to me. Cephalopods exchange chemicals on their tentacles by touch. These chemicals send messages to them. We still do not fully understand this mechanism of transfer fully, but I don’t think calling it “smelling” is very descriptive or accurate here. It just falls short. The author then goes on to claim that cephalopods do not have a language, after he tells us about their use of color and patterns externally (and skips over their chemical receptors that transmit Cthulhu-knows-what to their neuro-pathways). Questionable! Similarly, the author states that sign language is not really a language, but rather something that portrays a language, which yeah, I guess if you want to be arbitrary, maybe it could be classified as such, but to do so is disrespectful to deaf culture. Again, this is a book about biology and not a pedantic linguistic tome. Language communicates. Sign language communicates. It’s exclusionary to suggest that the deaf cannot have language. He then goes on to say that no Earth language is conveyed in exactly the way we see or hear the thing that is being talked about (i.e. obviously descriptive pictograms), so I guess he forgot that there are actually a few languages (and more than a few not in use anymore) that utilize ideograms. I don’t know. That just seems very exclusionary to me. Whole cultures use that. Also exclusionary are his attempts to explain how language cannot be circular in time (think “The Arrival”), because in no way can time be circular because he doesn’t think it is here). But several First Nations people have a culture based on the premise that time is circular, and their language and stories convey that in many different ways. Just because most white men don’t see it doesn’t mean it can’t possibly exist. The author likes to say that no animal (aside from humans) has language, in fact. But he admits that they do use body language (again, body language is a way of conveying meaning, so how is it not a language??). He explains that at least two creatures on Earth are known to have not just one specific word for something, but more than a few words that represent one clear object and are always used in the same situation, and despite how awesome he agrees that this is, he insists on reiterating that no animal has language aside from humans. It’s…mind-boggling to me the lack of logic in some of his statements!
Another point of contention that came up in the book is when the author proclaims that no simple life forms (like bacteria) can make decisions. Again, this is flat out wrong. Scientists have known for a while now that certain apparently unicellular (but can act as communal) organisms are capable of decision-making, as seen in many slime mold species. This is something that was well-known well before publication of this book. Another person that reviewed this book here also pointed out that the author contends that genetic memory doesn’t exist. It has been proven that genetic memory exists in many species, even in humans to some extent. How is this dood a zoologist?! How did I forget that perplexing claim?! Thanks to the person here that caught that!
Furthermore, the author states that legal personhood was petitioned for, but not granted to, orcas that have been held in captivity in places like Seaworld, but he neglects to mention that most are no longer forced to perform, and the ones that were able to be reintroduced into the wild, have been. That is a huge omission.
My final issue with this book is that all throughout, the author classifies any possible alien as being strictly plant or animal because that’s how it is here (he is quite fond of limiting the possibilities to only how it is here, even though there is quite literally a limitless bound to all of the possibilities of life and the rules governing them), but what about mushrooms???? What about protoclista??? He is leaving out entire kingdoms in this Terran taxonomy he is wont to follow!
Admittedly, the author states in the afterword that he refrained from going into too much detail so as to be the most understood by the largest amount of readers. Perhaps this is why so much was left out, explained poorly, or misrepresented altogether?? I don’t know.
I know after this review you will wonder if I am confused and forgot that I said in the beginning I actually liked the book. I promise I’m not confused. I did actually like the book. It’s not heavy on the science, and surprisingly, it’s not heavy on creative theories either. So don’t go reading it if you truly want to learn more about xenobiology or even zoology as we currently know it here, because at times, it is lacking. That being said, it’s still mildly engaging and mostly accurate, if a little Earth-bound in the topic of aliens.