MICROSOFT AND IBM sent congratulatory public messages to president-elect Joe Biden this month. Both expressed hope that his administration would ease the nation’s political divisions, and suggested it consider crafting the first federal rules governing face recognition.
To be a giraffe among giraffes, or a pigeon among pigeons, is to live at all times in that scene from Being John Malkovich—a world in which everyone you know looks pretty much exactly like you. However wondrously varied the animal kingdom might be, on a species-level its residents tend to look more similar than not—at least, from a human perspective. I’m not saying that all squirrels look identical—just that being a squirrel, and trying to distinguish your squirrel-spouse from your squirrel dad from your squirrel-mailman, seems like it would be pretty hard work.
As humans, we’re taught at an early age to not judge people by the way they look. And that’s for a good reason—people’s natures aren’t defined by their physical appearance.
