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The idea of finally talking to something we’ve been killing for resources for centuries is kinda weird.
Only the "finally". We've been talking to other humans and then killing them for resources for a very long time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To hunt a species to extinction is not logical. Edit: Because the topic is about communicating with Whales and my response was to a comment about hunting them, I thought it would be appropriate to reference something Spock said in Star Trek IV. Colloquially known as "The one with the whales".
There are many (maybe all) examples from nature in which resources will get consumed until they are gone. "Logic" has nothing to do with it. That doesn't mean we should hunt species to extinction, but its definitely a natural thing to do.
I guess the GP post is simply a direct quote from "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (where IIRC Spock says something along those lines while he and Kirk visit a 20th century museum).
Whales, their extinction and communicating with them was central to the plot of that film.
EDIT: Ok, I looked it up. This exact quote is in the movie, verbatim, in the scene I mentioned. At around 00:47:39
The idea of finally talking to something we’ve been killing for resources for centuries is kinda weird.
To hunt a species to extinction is not logical. Edit: Because the topic is about communicating with Whales and my response was to a comment about hunting them, I thought it would be appropriate to reference something Spock said in Star Trek IV. Colloquially known as "The one with the whales".
Usually the species is hunted for something valuable, and that means that the species becoming rarer translates to higher prices. So the people who successfully kill the very last specimens will get rich from them; an absolutely logical motivation, even if it has disastrous consequences down the line. If you can get ten million dollars for the very last whale on Earth, it is better than spending your life hunting some ubiquitous not-whales for 5000 dollars each.
Of course, the end result is bad - the entire industry disappears - but so it is in the Prisoner's Dilemma.
The idea of finally talking to something we’ve been killing for resources for centuries is kinda weird.
The idea of finally talking to something we’ve been killing for resources for centuries is kinda weird.
To hunt a species to extinction is not logical. Edit: Because the topic is about communicating with Whales and my response was to a comment about hunting them, I thought it would be appropriate to reference something Spock said in Star Trek IV. Colloquially known as "The one with the whales".
Logic makes no moral judgements, and also logic doesn't care about the future, if it doesn't include the invididual.
(Here logic is also a stand-in for "maximizing benefit").
If one/a group hunts whales to extintion and makes a huge profit (say, enough to retire), they would be logically sound (if morally bankrupt) to not care less if there are no whales left.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are many (maybe all) examples from nature in which resources will get consumed until they are gone. "Logic" has nothing to do with it. That doesn't mean we should hunt species to extinction, but its definitely a natural thing to do.
> "Logic" has nothing to do with it. I guess the GP post is simply a direct quote from "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (where IIRC Spock says something along those lines while he and Kirk visit a 20th century museum). Whales, their extinction and communicating with them was central to the plot of that film. EDIT: Ok, I looked it up. This exact quote is in the movie, verbatim , in the scene I mentioned. At around 00:4…
As opposed to two decades ago (right column): https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/icq-2001
The idea of finally talking to something we’ve been killing for resources for centuries is kinda weird.
To hunt a species to extinction is not logical. Edit: Because the topic is about communicating with Whales and my response was to a comment about hunting them, I thought it would be appropriate to reference something Spock said in Star Trek IV. Colloquially known as "The one with the whales".
Could this technology be used to communicate with teenagers?
Prediction: an astonishingly large portion of animal utterances will have to do with reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that humans pour into the atmosphere. You heard it here first.