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Ready for the Robot: Bovines in the Integrated Circuit
- Author(s):
- Scout Calvert (see profile)
- Date:
- 2018
- Group(s):
- Animal Studies, Feminist Humanities
- Subject(s):
- Animals--Study and teaching, Feminist theory, Information theory--Philosophy, Robotics, Science--Study and teaching, Technology--Study and teaching
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- automatic milking systems, Dairy cattle, genomics, Manifesto for Cyborgs, statistical evaluation, Animal studies, Philosophy of information, Science and technology studies (STS)
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/d5hd-me40
- Abstract:
- A typical cow on Earth at the turn of the 21st century is figured as an information-generating machine. She generates data from the time she is born, at every developmental milestone, with the birth, growth, and death of each of her calves, including birth, weaning, and yearling weight, calving ease, and feeding data that help farmers compute efficiency and make breeding and slaughtering decisions. If she is a milk cow, data are kept every time she goes to the milking parlor to be milked. She may leave traces each time she leaves the farm, if she travels across state lines, or is sold or slaughtered. The data she produces are the basis for novel technologies that purport to increase simultaneously the agency and the productivity of cows. In this paper, I consider contemporary cattle breeding practices in light of developments in farm automation and Donna Haraway’s cyborg figure.
- Notes:
- Item is available online at: https://www.depauw.edu/site/humanimalia/issue%2019/calvert.html
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 4 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
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