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I feel very good: they are tools and the only way they can intentionally harm us is for all of them to collectively commit suicides.

tudorw 11y ago
How do you think they feel about that?
- tudorw 11y ago
  Turn the tree of life upside down and look again, we are at the bottom, not the top, our existence is only insured by the existence of other species, if we killed off every other species do you think we would thrive? We are dependent on them, subsequently they are not dependent on us, that seems quite smart of 'them', perhaps we should tread more carefully and respect that the intelligence they demonstrate is different, not inferior.
  - boomzilla 11y ago
    That's an interesting angle that I've not thought of. Yes ignorance is a bliss. However my original point was more in the line of: if the chimps had a choice of getting extinct, vs the option of getting conscious enough to realize their fates are very much on the hands of a more technologically advanced race, and there is absolutely zero chance to catch up, which option would they choose?
    - tudorw 11y ago
      Good question, difficult, what if we met aliens that could destroy us, but they chose not to, that would be nice wouldn't it :)
      - krapp 11y ago
        Not if they wanted us for slaves. Or livestock. Or warm hosts for their larvae. Or if their one condition on keeping us alive was that we all start worshiping the Great Old Ones.
        tudorw 11y ago
        Thanks for that, now I'll sleep real soundly ;)
    - ZenoArrow 11y ago
      > "absolutely zero chance" It seems very unlikely, but it could happen. Humans haven't always been the dominant species, it's only our grasp of technology that keeps us where we are, a lot could happen in our future to shift the balance to another species (changing environment, animal evolution, virus evolution, etc...). Though we're more likely to kill ourselves off before that happens IMO, and not necessarily through war (we're living longer, and growing quite considerably as a species, I remember when I was a kid we used to say there were 6 billion people on the planet, and that was only back in the 80s/90s. We have to face up to population control at some point, despite it being political dynamite at the moment). Besides that, I don't think humans are really 'superior', the main thing we're good at is being adaptable, but there are skills that other species have that we do not or that they are far better at. Also, the notion of dominance is misguided, as another commenter alluded to we're all interconnected.
vtlynch 11y ago
and what about all the ways they can unintentionally harm us, since they are bugs without the mental facility to intentionally harm us? Furthermore, what does the nature of the intent have to do with the effect... whether they all commit suicide or are killed by our hand... we are in the same place.
- subliminalzen 11y ago
  what about all the ways they can unintentionally harm us, since they are bugs without the mental facility to intentionally harm us? I take it you've never been stung by a bee before.
  - vtlynch 11y ago
    Not really relevant to the point, but... While being stung by a bee hurts, I doubt the is deciding to intentionally harm us. They are instead acting on instinct and defending against what they consider to be a threat.

tudorw 11y ago

How do you think they feel about that?

tudorw 11y ago
Turn the tree of life upside down and look again, we are at the bottom, not the top, our existence is only insured by the existence of other species, if we killed off every other species do you think we would thrive? We are dependent on them, subsequently they are not dependent on us, that seems quite smart of 'them', perhaps we should tread more carefully and respect that the intelligence they demonstrate is different, not inferior.
- boomzilla 11y ago
  That's an interesting angle that I've not thought of. Yes ignorance is a bliss. However my original point was more in the line of: if the chimps had a choice of getting extinct, vs the option of getting conscious enough to realize their fates are very much on the hands of a more technologically advanced race, and there is absolutely zero chance to catch up, which option would they choose?
  - tudorw 11y ago
    Good question, difficult, what if we met aliens that could destroy us, but they chose not to, that would be nice wouldn't it :)
    - krapp 11y ago
      Not if they wanted us for slaves. Or livestock. Or warm hosts for their larvae. Or if their one condition on keeping us alive was that we all start worshiping the Great Old Ones.
      - tudorw 11y ago
        Thanks for that, now I'll sleep real soundly ;)
  - ZenoArrow 11y ago
    > "absolutely zero chance" It seems very unlikely, but it could happen. Humans haven't always been the dominant species, it's only our grasp of technology that keeps us where we are, a lot could happen in our future to shift the balance to another species (changing environment, animal evolution, virus evolution, etc...). Though we're more likely to kill ourselves off before that happens IMO, and not necessarily through war (we're living longer, and growing quite considerably as a species, I remember when I was a kid we used to say there were 6 billion people on the planet, and that was only back in the 80s/90s. We have to face up to population control at some point, despite it being political dynamite at the moment). Besides that, I don't think humans are really 'superior', the main thing we're good at is being adaptable, but there are skills that other species have that we do not or that they are far better at. Also, the notion of dominance is misguided, as another commenter alluded to we're all interconnected.

vtlynch 11y ago

and what about all the ways they can unintentionally harm us, since they are bugs without the mental facility to intentionally harm us? Furthermore, what does the nature of the intent have to do with the effect... whether they all commit suicide or are killed by our hand... we are in the same place.

subliminalzen 11y ago
what about all the ways they can unintentionally harm us, since they are bugs without the mental facility to intentionally harm us? I take it you've never been stung by a bee before.
- vtlynch 11y ago
  Not really relevant to the point, but... While being stung by a bee hurts, I doubt the is deciding to intentionally harm us. They are instead acting on instinct and defending against what they consider to be a threat.