HDRO removes Kahnemann & Deaton reference after facing criticism for justification of maximum income threshold in HDI

The Human Development Report Office (HDRO) in New York, which is part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has made a change in the technical notes for the human development report and the accompanying Human development index (HDI). For the 2021/22 report (and in the preceding years), the maximum limit for income was justified by reference to a paper by Kahnemann and Deaton:

The maximum is set at $75,000 per capita. Kahneman and Deaton (2010)* have shown that there is virtually no gain in human development and wellbeing from annual income above $75,000 per capita. 

* High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being 

In the summer of 2022, I pointed out to the Chief statistician at the HDRO that this justification is wrong and misleading on several accounts, since the claims made in the technical notes were not supported by claims made in Kahneman and Deaton´s article. The chief statistician acknowledged that I was correct. My criticism was repeated in an invited talk I gave in the HDRO Seminar (from a distance, digitally) on March 21st 2023.

In the technical notes for the 2023/24 report, it now says, with no reference:

"The maximum is set at $75,000 per capita so that additional income above the maximum does not directly contribute to a country’s HDI value or improve its ranking."

While the HDRO has in this way removed an erronous justification for the maximum income threshold, the threshold now stands without any justification whatsoever.

The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness getting widespread media attention (BBC, NBC, New Scientist, etc.)

The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, which I have signed, although after it was launched April 19th (I was not among the initial signatories), has been getting extensive media coverage in major news outlets, most of it before my signature was added to the list of signatories on April 23rd. This includes:

Scientists push new paradigm of animal consciousness, saying even insects may be sentient (NBC News, April 19th)

It’s ‘irresponsible’ to ignore widespread consciousness across animal world, dozens of scientists argue (The Hill, April 19th)

Consciousness a ‘realistic possibility’ in birds, fish, squid and bees, scholars say (The Globe and Mail, April 22nd)

Scientists believe insects may have feelings (BBC, April 22nd)

Some scientists say insects are conscious – it doesn't settle anything (New Scientist, April 23rd - paywall)

See also:

"New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness" signed (April 23)

"New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness" signed

I have signed the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, which was launched April 19th 2024 at New York University. See also an informative background text. PS: I was not among the initial signatories.

**

The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness 

Which animals have the capacity for conscious experience? While much uncertainty remains, some points of wide agreement have emerged. 

First, there is strong scientific support for attributions of conscious experience to other mammals and to birds. 

Second, the empirical evidence indicates at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience in all vertebrates (including reptiles, amphibians, and fishes) and many invertebrates (including, at minimum, cephalopod mollusks, decapod crustaceans, and insects). 

Third, when there is a realistic possibility of conscious experience in an animal, it is irresponsible to ignore that possibility in decisions affecting that animal. We should consider welfare risks and use the evidence to inform our responses to these risks.

Presentation "Wasted growth?" given for Human Development Report Office

Today I have given the talk "Wasted growth?" in the research seminar of the Human Development Report Office (UNDP) in New York, via Zoom, with some 13 people attending.

Update: The Language and life research cluster

In March I joined the Language and Life research cluster, which is part of the Distributed Language Group, under the direction of Stephen Cowley. In June, at the Gathering in Biosemiotics in New York, some of us met and talked about the next step. We agreed that arranging a one-day Language and Life event adjoined to a bigger academic event - perhaps the Gathering in biosemiotics to take place in Tartu, Estonia, next summer, makes sense. A discussion about this and some topical issues is now taking place in the cluster via email.

Link to New York presentations in biosemiotics

A number of the presentations at the 11th gathering in biosemiotics, which took place in New York June 21-26, have been linked to from the event webpage, including my presentation Integrated Biological Individualism and the Primacy of the Individual Level of Biological Organization (Powerpoint only - uploaded to my profile at Academia.edu).

The others are those of:
Vinicius Romanini
Victoria Alexander
Paul Cobley
Dennis Goerlich et al.
Marcello Barbieri
Jan-Hendrik Hofmeyr
Mark Reybrouck
Jonathan Beever
Peter Harries-Jones
Eliseo Fernandez
Sara Cannizzaro
Thomas Long
Anna Arango

Conference pictures I: Gathering in biosemiotics 11, New York

These pictures have been published, among many many others, on Marcello Barbieri's webpage Biosemiotica.it.

From my presentation "Integrated biological individualism and the primacy of the individual level of biological organization", Saturday June 25th.

In the audience.

Talking with David Rothenberg.

During a coffee break.

Lunch at New York Times

The first day in New York last week, Monday June 20th, I had lunch with journalist, scholar and blogger Andrew Revkin plus philosopher-musician David Rothenberg at New York Times. Our primary topic for discussion was long-term environmental and societal scenaries. Revkin has received a couple of my articles and has decided to post on my work in his New York Times blog Dot Earth. A separate point is that I am interested in his prospective conference plans, on the theme "After the peak".

Visit at The Explorers Club

My visit to The Explorers Club in NYC, with philosopher-musician David Rothenberg, took place Wednesday June 22nd, during their monthly lounge night. Fascinating place, with a number of notable people and artefacts. And they have a high-quality journal, The Explorers Journal, which I can fully recommend.

Brief report from the gathering in biosemiotics in New York

Last week I participated at the 11th gathering in biosemiotics, in New York City, where I as mentioned in a previous post presented my paper "Integrated biological individualism and the primacy of the individual level of biological organization". There were 5 or 6 questions/comments to my paper, of a mildly critical or generally positive character.

The first gathering to take place outside Europe was in many ways suspiciously similar to the past 10 European gatherings. There's a particular Umwelt to this event, which seems to follow it. Positively I can mention my observation that the overall quality of papers this year was high (though to the returning participant there's always a measure of repetition).

This was my fifth gathering. Earlier I have taken part in 2/Tartu (2002), 7/Groningen (2007), 9/Prague (2009) and 10/Braga (2010).

12th gathering in biosemiotics to be held in Tartu

At the meeting of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS) during the 11th gathering in biosemiotics in New York City last week the board decided that next year's gathering will be arranged in Tartu, Estonia. This will be the third time the gatherings in biosemiotics is arranged in one and the same city for a second time - the second gathering, in 2002 (which happended to be my first gathering), was also held in Tartu. The other towns to have hosted a gathering in biosemiotics twice are Copenhagen and Prague.

The exact dates of the 12 gathering will be decided and announced later on, but it will in line with tradition be arranged in June or July.

Paper presented in NYC; powerpoint online

Saturday June 25th I presented my paper "Integrated biological individualism and the primacy of the individual level of biological organization" at the 11th gathering in biosemiotics, in New York City.

The powerpoint is uploaded to Academia.edu (videos not included - for some, see my account on YouTube).

Explorers event to be private

The aforementioned event which might or not take place in the localities of New York's Explorers' Club this June will regardless of where it will take place be a private event, not open to the public. Participating names are not confirmed yet.

Event at The Explorers Club? 2111...

During the zoosemiotics conference in Tartu this week David Rothenberg suggested that we make a happening/event at The Explorers Club in New York in June, when I'll be in town because of the Gatherings in Biosemiotics. We're talking about Monday June 20th - and my sketch for a theme sounds like this:

"2111"

As we have embarked upon our half-millennial path to a truly sustainable society, debate still lingers as to whether or not a new civilization has begun, or is but in preparation. Arne Næss, for one, looked forward to the 22nd century, by which time the three great challenges of the 21st century (the ecological crisis, poverty, and overcoming war) would have been solved. How did it all play out? How did we reveal, resist and defeat the self-fulfilling prognoses of growth-trapped society?

Travel route - Gatherings in Biosemiotics, NY

I have just returned to Norway from the ethological humanities workshop in Sydney, Australia, which brought me to (the airport Umwelt of) Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates - my first stop in the Middle East.

Yesterday I arranged tickets for my upcoming trip to the New York Gathering in Biosemiotics (where I'll be delighted by the company of my wife). This academic event will take me, for the first time, not only to the US, but also to Iceland, where we'll spend two nights.

Travel route:
June 11: Oslo - Reykjavik
June 12: Reykjavik - New York
June 26: New York - Reykjavik
June 27: Reykjavik - Oslo

New York presentation confirmed

My abstract ´Integrated biological individualism and the primacy of the individual level of biological organization´ has been accepted as basis for a presentation at the 11th Gathering in biosemiotics, to take place in New York June 22-26.

Abstract for the NY gathering in biosemiotics

I have completed and submitted an abstract for the 11th international gathering in biosemiotics, which will for the first time take place outside Europe - in New York, June 21-26 2011.

Integrated biological individualism and the primacy of the individual level of biological organization

Morten Tønnessen, Department of Semiotics – University of Tartu

In ‘Umwelt Transitions: Uexküll and Environmental Change’ (Biosemiotics 2.2) I introduced the notion of integrated biological individualism, according to which the individual, or more precisely organismic, level should occupy the centre—the middle ground—of methodology in the life sciences, at the crossroad where the somatic realm encounters the ecological one. The term was then included in a broader programmatic treatment in ‘Steps to a Semiotics of Being’ (Biosemiotics 3.3). From the standpoint of the individual, or organism, we can describe how an individual organism is constituted as a biological body, as well as how nature as a global ecological system is constituted by individual organisms and their interrelations. Nature, then, is a body of bodies (the ultimate superorganism); and any individual self is by its nature a social self – through its interrelation with others, a self is always bigger than itself.

In this paper I will expand upon the notion of integrated biological individualism by relating it more explicitly to the suggested primacy of the individual level of biological organization. As Anton Markoš remarks (Readers of the Book of Life: Contextualizing Developmental Evolutionary Biology (2002): 29), life “proceeds synchronously on innumerable space, time, and organizational levels. Nothing on any single level can reveal its essence”. Yet, it remains that a biological science with no concern for, or interest in, the living themselves (qua living beings – at the level of the individual) would be deeply problematic. There is no doubt that the ‘genetic turn’ in biology has been successful in terms of scientific understanding, but the new microscopic realm that has opened up to us has simultaneously induced us to neglect the ‘life-size’ realm. What future can we envision for the critical task of Umwelt mapping?

After a general introduction to this topic matter I will introduce an original, tentatively all-inclusive model of various levels of biosemiosis. According to this model there are six levels of biosemiosis, falling under three broader categories.

CATEGORIES // PRIMARY REALM // PRIMARY FIELD OF SEMIOTICS OF NATURE

SUB-PERCEPTUAL SEMIOSIS = MICROSCOPIC SEMIOSIS // Somatic // Biosemiotics

Intra-cellular semiosis

Inter-cellular semiosis

PERCEPTUAL SEMIOSIS = ORGANISMIC SEMIOSIS // Social // Zoosemiotics

Intra-organismic semiosis

Inter-organismic semiosis*

Extra-organismic semiosis

SUPER-PERCEPTUAL SEMIOSIS = MACROSCOPIC SEMIOSIS // Ecological // Ecosemiotics

Super-organismic semiosis*

* social proper, in the sense of involving several individuals

The tripartite model is relevant for simple and complex life forms alike (though in the case of very simple – non-social – creatures it collapses into a two-category model). As it demonstrates, perception is at the core of biosemiosis, even though not all biosemiosis is perceptual, and even though perception constitutes but one level (or layer) of biosemiosis. The standing of perception is intimately tied to the standing of the individual. With such an overall model of biosemiosis, the individual organism (and its lifeworld) is methodologically placed at the center of biological research.