The Importance of Insect Suffering
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The Importance of Insect Suffering
1–10 of 38 posts
Re: The Importance of Insect Suffering
#2Oh come one. We'll sooner have AIs that will wonder if humans can truly suffer, than we will be able to determine if insects suffer.
Re: The Importance of Insect Suffering
#3I can't help but feel that without also adding a right to life for insects or similar this swiftly leads to the conclusion that we should pave over the rainforests to minimize long-term suffering.
Re: The Importance of Insect Suffering
#4Oh come one. We'll sooner have AIs that will wonder if humans can truly suffer, than we will be able to determine if insects suffer.
Perhaps those AIs will help us get incrementally closer to finding out about insect suffering; in the meantime, we have to act under uncertainty.
Re: The Importance of Insect Suffering
#5Millions of human beings are dying of starvation, but no let's fret about the insects we might step on while we walk across the lawn.
Re: The Importance of Insect Suffering
#6Strongly in favour of encouraging this lunacy.
Let's all autoeuthenise and let the other animals get on with the stuff we stopped doing because it was morally wrong.
Re: The Importance of Insect Suffering
#7Oh come one. We'll sooner have AIs that will wonder if humans can truly suffer, than we will be able to determine if insects suffer.
Proving subjective experiences is pretty tricky indeed. If I were to poke you with a needle, I'd assume your vocalisations and gesticulations meant you experienced suffering, because your behaviours map to what I would do, myself, were I suffering from a needle poke. I can't prove that, however, any more than I can prove a fly suffers.
When it comes to humans, we generally don't worry about that lack of rigorous proof. But why does that generosity extend only to our own kind?
Re: The Importance of Insect Suffering
#8I can't help but feel that without also adding a right to life for insects or similar this swiftly leads to the conclusion that we should pave over the rainforests to minimize long-term suffering.
Well, the good news on that front is we're already eliminating insects https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeti...
Re: The Importance of Insect Suffering
#9Strongly in favour of encouraging this lunacy. Let's all autoeuthenise and let the other animals get on with the stuff we stopped doing because it was morally wrong.
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Re: The Importance of Insect Suffering
#10Millions of human beings are dying of starvation, but no let's fret about the insects we might step on while we walk across the lawn.
Let's now wait while some "bright mind" jumps to add "Why not do both?".