Artificiality

My zoo is closed today.  Which isn't surprising, because just about every zoo in North America appears to be closed today.  Many zoos are blanketed under a think fall of snow.  Others "only" have crippling cold to deal with.  It's especially hard for zoos that are in southern locations that don't usually get snow/cold weather - it's hard to move your animals into winter holding when they don't actually have winter holding.  Some northern zoos just close down for the season.

This morning, I saw a post that was cheerfully saying that, even if the zoo is closed, we can benefit from the tech revolution - Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and the like.

I thought it sounded kind of sad.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a complete technophobe.  There are some applications that I find very helpful, including with application to animals.  For example, I frequently use my Merlin App when I go birding, which has been very helpful for me as a novice birder, but which I know some more experienced birders discount as "cheating" or "not real birdwatching."

But imagine opting not to go birdwatching because it was cold outside, and you could enjoy a virtual reality experience, seeing more birds than you'd ever see on a hike out in the woods, from the cozy comfort of your bedroom?

I've always found the joy of animals in zoos and aquariums to be that they are real, they are live, they are unpredictable, and they are self-willed.  When you go to the zoo, you don't know if they animals will be out and visible, or what they will be doing.  They may engage in fascinating behaviors in front of you.  They may sleep.  They may hide.  They may completely ignore you.  You don't know, because you can't control them.  They control themselves.

Sure, if a community doesn't have a zoo or aquarium, there's a niche that could be filled, or for doing displays of species which can't be kept in zoos (like great whales), but I don't imagine any computer simulation really replacing the reality of interacting with an animal, be it a budgie on a stick or a beluga gazing at you curiously through the glass of the tank to a boa being held by a docent, in the slightest way.

There's no substitution for actual life in front of you.