The New Atlantis » Do Elephants Have Souls?. This seminal piece in The New Atlantis:A Journal of Technology & Society is an exhortation to rethink determinism and the notion of our consciousness as it relates to life and creation. In the last two centuries elephant populations have declined by 98%.

Caitrin Nicol is Managing Editor at The New Atlantis in Washington after starting there as an intern in June of 2006. She also does research and writing for the Witherspoon Council on Ethics and the Integrity of Science.

Staff members at the Elephant Sanctuary told me of an incident with one of their “girls,” who spotted a fallen bird outside her barn and ran right over to it, utterly distraught. She crooned and stroked it and did not settle down till it had been properly laid to rest. What did this mean to her, exactly? We don’t know. But she was clearly very…