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Am I the only one here at least considering the ethical aspect of attaching some device to an insect? Maybe I'm sentimental and contradictory because when I dr
by rv-de 6y ago
Am I the only one here at least considering the ethical aspect of attaching some device to an insect?
Maybe I'm sentimental and contradictory because when I drive a car over the Autobahn I'm killing hundreds of insects in an hour. At the same time I cannot harm a bug intentionally.
- mycall 6y agoYou don't have to drive.
- toxicFork 6y agosomeone has to kill the insects
- raz32dust 6y agoI can relate, but considering how much we exploit animals, including agricultural animals, breeding, raising and killing animals for food, using rats and monkeys for testing etc., this would not surface in the priority list for fighting animal welfare for me for a very, very long time. Even in thought.
- LeifCarrotson 6y agoI agree - there's a big difference between the ability of various species to experience suffering or to experience happiness, and I think that has an impact on the ethics of how we treat them. Humans, monkeys, pigs, dogs, etc. are definitely social/emotional intelligences that deserve better treatment than we give them. Rats? Chickens? Insects? Jellyfish? Plants? Bacteria? Somewhere on that spectrum I cease to worry about the suffering of the animal and worry more about those affected by it.
- FiberBundle 6y agoThat's so ignorant. How can we possibly know how other animals experience pain or suffering? You just assume that the further you diverge from us in the animal kingdom the less animals are able to suffer. That certainly makes things easier.
- season2episode3 6y agoI think a lot of it has to do with the means of reproduction of the animal. One might make an argument that [r-type species](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory#r-selection https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory#r-selec...) have decimating loss factored into their everyday experience and survival strategy. As a different commenter pointed out, driving a car down a highway kills hundreds of insects. As a practical matter, insects are the most successful clade ever, with the largest biodiversity, largest number of individuals, and largest biomass of any land animals (by far). If the end is to reduce human impact on ecosystems, then farming insects seems like a reasonable trade off from a utilitarian perspective.
- refurb 6y agoThere has been a ton of research into how different animals experience pain. You are correct that we don't know how they experience it, but based on nervous system structure and other behavior, we can make some conclusions about the nature of the pain and whether it's a basic avoidance mechanism or something more complex that would involve suffering.[1] That said, I think a good rule is to not cause unnecessary pain/suffering in any living thing (e.g. if trapping rodents, use something that leads to a humane death). [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_invertebrates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_invertebrates
- metta2uall 6y agoI think the assumption that anything with a brain can experience pain, suffering and happiness is a pretty safe one. Synthesising information to decide what is suffering and happiness, and then trying to maximise happiness, seems to be one of the basic functions of any brain.
- dependenttypes 6y agoRats, mice, dolphins, and parrots are all intelligent enough to be grouped along with dogs, monkeys, etc.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 6y agoIt's like killing a spider in the house. Killing it instead of taking it outside doesn't bring me any benefit the way eating a chicken does, so why kill it? Just like putting the camera rig on an actual beetle for the demo doesn't bring a benefit, so why do it?
- matonias 6y agoI think this is just a reflection of your personality. Respecting nature, small or big and taking the time to give it space, let’s you value and organise your life in a more balanced fashion.
- stormdennis 6y agoSpiders live by the sword so when I see them in my bath, I am become God!
- cgriswald 6y agoThat’s only true if your time has no value. Killing is faster. Also, as someone who has gotten multiple infections from non-venomous spider bites, I can tell you catch and release is riskier than killing.
- metta2uall 6y agoMost killing also splatters their insides, with potentially infectious germs, into your house..
- cgriswald 6y agoThat’s usually taken care of with the method of killing. Regardless, in your house is preferable to inside your skin.
- istjohn 6y ago> The researchers removed the electronics from the insects after the experiments and observed no noticeable adverse effects on their behavior.
- walrus01 6y agothis is much better than previous things i've seen that implanted electrodes in the brains of cockroaches and used electrical impulses to steer them around.
- Sharlin 6y agoAttaching a camera to an insect is probably not even a blip on the radar of a university ethics board compared to all the mammals that are used and killed annually in various experiments.
- mola 6y agoIsn't that just whataboutism? Does one wrong thing makes another wrong thing ok?
- userbinator 6y agoYou also kill billions of bacteria without even knowing it... and of course every time you wash your hands, which I hope is a frequent occurrence in these times.