‘Animal–computer interaction: a manifesto’ (2011) and sections from ‘towards an animal-centered ethics for animal–computer interaction’ (2016)

Animals2 have been involved in machine interactions for many decades. Skinner’s famous operant conditioning chamber, used in behavioral experiments since the early 1930s,3 provided output devices, such as lights or sounds, and input devices, such as levers or buttons, and would dispense food or water if, for example, a rat or a pigeon completed a given sequence of tasks correctly. These systems have gradually evolved into sophisticated computerized environments affording complex interactivity. Other interaction systems, such as computer games currently employed in more advanced primate cognition studies, provide, for example, onscreen animations that can be controlled via joystick (Gill 2011).