Earlier quoted context omitted.
Idea that intellect should be a measure of if is okay to kill or other use a species is extremely flawed in my opinion.
What else do you want to use?
Impact, contribution, etc. to an ecosystem.
Inky the octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
31–40 of 250 posts
Re: Inky the octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
This won't be seriously entertained by most people until their standard of living is better than the octopus. Hungry people don't have the time or energy to worry about how smart their meal is. Only religion ever seems to make a dent in dietary habits in the 3rd world.
Isn't eating live animals a luxurious thing in some regions of Asia?
I'm not really worried about rare luxuries. You're talking about a ubiquitous foodstuff the world over, and we treat it like it's no smarter than a clam. It's variously treated as bycatch to suffer and die in nets, trapped as 'pets' or exhibits (and I think long-term confinement has to be hell for intelligent beings), and eaten the good old fashioned way, by sticking them in a pot.
Focusing on a particular way of killing them that strikes humans as gruesome doesn't interest me as much as the global treatment of them.
Re: Inky the octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
#33Great article until they conflated stupid human sports superstition with cephalopod intelligence.
Re: Inky the octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Idea that intellect should be a measure of if is okay to kill or other use a species is extremely flawed in my opinion.
What else do you want to use?
The current bar is just anything not in the genus Homo and would likely extend to any 'humanoid' species.
A wolf doesn't really care about the relative intelligence of the rabbits it kills, but has a natural kinship between other wolves or wolf-like creatures which more-or-less extends to, "I wont kill you for food unless I'm starving."
Re: Inky the octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
#35It upsets me to no end that we find evidence such as this piece that cephalopods are actually (relatively speaking) remarkably more intelligent than common wisdom pertains[0], and yet the culinary abuse and harm (i.e. 'live sushi/sashimi') of these creatures continues. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_intelligence
So are you saying each lifeform should only eat what is dumber than it?
I doubt the commenter means that, since the word "should" implies ethical reasoning which is presumably not a capability of most non-humans.
Re: Inky the octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree but cheer up. One day you and I will provide sustenance for a whole range of lower order organisms - one way or another.
That will not involve a whole lot of suffering that can be prevented.
...you must not expect to die in the US healthcare system.~
Re: Inky the octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
This won't be seriously entertained by most people until their standard of living is better than the octopus. Hungry people don't have the time or energy to worry about how smart their meal is. Only religion ever seems to make a dent in dietary habits in the 3rd world.
Isn't eating live animals a luxurious thing in some regions of Asia?
This is a practice with sushi and certain fish, I don't know if it occurs with octopus though. I say this merely to confirm a fact, I am qualifying no judgement here.
Re: Inky the octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
#38It upsets me to no end that we find evidence such as this piece that cephalopods are actually (relatively speaking) remarkably more intelligent than common wisdom pertains[0], and yet the culinary abuse and harm (i.e. 'live sushi/sashimi') of these creatures continues. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_intelligence
Ten minutes of animal cruelty involved in eating a live octopus doesn't phase me compared to the life-long animal cruelty most farm animals suffer. The only reason it's more outrageous is because it's 'obvious,' I imagine. In the West, we like our animal cruelty to be kept strictly behind closed doors.
Maybe there's a way to chemically destroy part of their brain at birth, while using their body to grow meat tissue?
Some ethicist should come up with an electronic controller that keeps the chickens or whatever alive by stimulating neurons like the brain would, but which clearly has no consciousness attached.
Actually, this entire business of needing a whole chicken to make chicken meat seems inefficient. I wonder if there's a way to grow meat tissue like you would algae?
Re: Inky the octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
#39It upsets me to no end that we find evidence such as this piece that cephalopods are actually (relatively speaking) remarkably more intelligent than common wisdom pertains[0], and yet the culinary abuse and harm (i.e. 'live sushi/sashimi') of these creatures continues. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_intelligence
Ten minutes of animal cruelty involved in eating a live octopus doesn't phase me compared to the life-long animal cruelty most farm animals suffer. The only reason it's more outrageous is because it's 'obvious,' I imagine. In the West, we like our animal cruelty to be kept strictly behind closed doors.
There is a certain disturbing factor of enjoying the practice of actively harming another individual. But from a view of amount of harm done, you're absolutely right. The scale of our atrocities towards animals is enormous.
Re: Inky the octopus breaks out of New Zealand aquarium
#40Amazing. Most humans couldnt come up with an escape plan like this.
It's possible he exhibiting long term goal oriented planning here.
Have we considered octopi might actually be more intelligent than humans?
Wouldn't it be funny if in the future we figured out how to communicate with them and they ended up solving our hardest problems or making breakthroughs in physics and math?