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I had a pet jumper in my first apartment. He would follow me and my wife from room to room, wave at us, and sit by the sink when he was thirsty. We gave him water and called him Steve.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is that moral justification for eating or stepping on the sentient being over the plant, just because they’re both alive?
If anything it's moral justification for not doing that. I was pointing out how I kill living things in order to remain alive, even though I think they are unique individual people and it's troubling and confusing to me (because in order to live, another thing has to die).
I'm an energy well. They are an energy well. I can't hold off the march of entropy if I don't bring in more energy. So I absorb their well into mine.
Until we figure out how to integrate photosynthesis / photovoltaics into our bodies its not worth stressing out over the necessary survival process of killing other living things.
Uh-oh, I just read Children of Time ... and so it begins ... :-o
I had a pet jumper in my first apartment. He would follow me and my wife from room to room, wave at us, and sit by the sink when he was thirsty. We gave him water and called him Steve.
There's a reasonable pet trade for them. I never had the heart to put one in a box though. The most interesting interaction I had was watching one hunt a fly. The fly landed, and it crawled down on the side of the board the fly was on, out of sight. It emerged behind the fly, then snuck up on it, similar to how a cat does (move, pause, move, pause). Then, when it attacked, it didn't jump at the fly, but jumped up in…
The more I learn about various living beings around us, the more I'm convinced that they are all unique, individual people, with unique opinions and desires. They have unique DNA and unique personalities. If you've ever spent an extended period of time with any animal, you know that they all have different personalities and opinions that differ from other animals of the same species, eerily similar to humans. They tr…
Of course you can try to minimize the sentience of what you eat - wheat I heard of a small religion that eats only nuts and fruits, with the belief that the plants want them eaten - they evolved to make the nuts and fruits desireable in order to spread the plant's seeds. It's arguably still exploitation: The plants evolved that way because it is the least bad option among predators.
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> These results could well be made up. OK, so how can we analyze whether results are made up, partially made up, credible, etc.? > you'd hate to be the guy who spends years studying spiders just to conclude that they're about as stupid as everyone thinks they are. I'm sure people would hate to fund that too, or have their lab or university associated with it. How could they avoid it?
> How could they avoid it? By making up results, obviously. That's exactly what I was saying the first time.
I forget who said this or exactly what they said, but someone has pointed out that the more research humans conduct the more we find that animals and even plants are more complex, more intelligent and more sophisticated than we thought. It is worth keeping this in mind the next time someone tells you a small creature (perhaps a crustacean) cannot feel or think or do something that would mean we ought to be less cruel…
Driving a car through a bunch of mating insects? Who cares right?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a reasonable pet trade for them. I never had the heart to put one in a box though. The most interesting interaction I had was watching one hunt a fly. The fly landed, and it crawled down on the side of the board the fly was on, out of sight. It emerged behind the fly, then snuck up on it, similar to how a cat does (move, pause, move, pause). Then, when it attacked, it didn't jump at the fly, but jumped up in…
Jumping spiders have definitely helped me get over arachnophobia a bit. They're just too cute to be afraid of.
The more I learn about various living beings around us, the more I'm convinced that they are all unique, individual people, with unique opinions and desires. They have unique DNA and unique personalities. If you've ever spent an extended period of time with any animal, you know that they all have different personalities and opinions that differ from other animals of the same species, eerily similar to humans. They tr…
I feel there is some truth to this. Eventually, your body will be consumed by insects.
I think the scientific consensus for cognition and brain size has been for a long time that the size matters much less than we previously thought. For instance, ravens/crows show remarkable problem solving skills and intelligence on par with much larger animals and their brains are extremely small. Given how much meat we as a society consume, and how we treat animals generally, it makes sense that we'd collectively a…
The lack of science on this matter is not the reason we still consume meat and more science won't change anything.
We've always found ways to justify/accept our need for meat and wel'll continue doing this as long as science doesn't find an equally nutritious alternative that can be produced at scale.