6 ms·

Sorry to derail, but I really am irked by this cattle VS. pets analogy. I know that a lot of meat is industrially produced with little regard for the animal we

Sorry to derail, but I really am irked by this cattle VS. pets analogy. I know that a lot of meat is industrially produced with little regard for the animal well-being (livestock). And I know quite a lot farmers growing their herds organically and naming every single one. Quite a few farmers told me they would never eat meat if they didn't know the name of the animal it came from. They know the character of every single animal in their herds. So to me this analogy only works as long as we disregard the fact that these animals have unique characters. And that imho counters the analogy. I prefer bots VS. pets to differentiate the two sides.

d110af5ccf 4y ago
Unique character has nothing to do with it. They may have names but they're still livestock - raised en masse to be sold. Pets don't just have names, they're akin to family members. Livestock don't hang out on the couch with you while you watch TV. Production systems are very much like livestock - spun up to serve a purpose. Getting overly attached as you might with a personal pet system is probably a mistake that will reduce your efficiency.
bayindirh 4y ago
> So to me this analogy only works as long as we disregard the fact that these animals have unique characters. And that imho counters the analogy. No, no... You are not mistaken. Every server in your "cattle" fleet has its own character after some point. Some of them eat through disks, one of them has a wonky Ethernet not quite broken, other one is always a little slower than the rest. On a more serious note, I really understand what you're saying, but I'd rather not discuss it here, but the above paragraph really holds.
dade_ 4y ago
But the farmer still kill the cow just the same for slaughter, and another one replaces it. Please meet Sally2, I say to my 10 year old pet dog. Note, the farmer doesn’t have any bots and even the tractor is a pet. Analogy is fine and I prefer to get these points of view on Portlandia.

d110af5ccf 4y ago

Unique character has nothing to do with it. They may have names but they're still livestock - raised en masse to be sold. Pets don't just have names, they're akin to family members. Livestock don't hang out on the couch with you while you watch TV. Production systems are very much like livestock - spun up to serve a purpose. Getting overly attached as you might with a personal pet system is probably a mistake that will reduce your efficiency.

bayindirh 4y ago

> So to me this analogy only works as long as we disregard the fact that these animals have unique characters. And that imho counters the analogy. No, no... You are not mistaken. Every server in your "cattle" fleet has its own character after some point. Some of them eat through disks, one of them has a wonky Ethernet not quite broken, other one is always a little slower than the rest. On a more serious note, I really understand what you're saying, but I'd rather not discuss it here, but the above paragraph really holds.

dade_ 4y ago

But the farmer still kill the cow just the same for slaughter, and another one replaces it. Please meet Sally2, I say to my 10 year old pet dog. Note, the farmer doesn’t have any bots and even the tractor is a pet. Analogy is fine and I prefer to get these points of view on Portlandia.