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This got asked deep in a comment, but NASA also used animals in space tests as briefly mentioned in the article. https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html https://
by boulos 4y ago
This got asked deep in a comment, but NASA also used animals in space tests as briefly mentioned in the article.
https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html is a more straightforward recounting of the various tests and animals involved, including the V-2 tests.
- misiti3780 4y agoso messed up.
- standardUser 4y agoSeems more humane than factory farming (shruggy emoji).
- thehappypm 4y agoI don’t really agree. Farming meets a basic human need. The food chain is the food chain, after all. Laika died for purely political purposes, to show how superior the Russian space program was.
- Koshkin 4y agoWhy wouldn’t one send an animal to space before sending a person for the first time? What does politics have to do with this?
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y agoI know contrarianism hot takes are a big part of this site, but a few rebuttals to this sentiment: 1) Farming at least serves a purpose (food for humans). 2) The vast majority of people who eat meat do not support the farming and slaughter of dogs. They're tremendously emotionally intelligent, social creatures. 3) Sacrificing an animal for science may be morally justifiable if it saves human lives, but this was not one of those situations. A quote from one of the scientists assigned to Laika’s program: > “The more time passes, the more I’m sorry about it. We shouldn’t have done it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog.”
- adolph 4y ago> 2) The vast majority of people who eat meat do not support the farming and slaughter of dogs. They're tremendously emotionally intelligent, social creatures. How about farming those pigs? https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/201307/are-pigs-smart-dogs-and-does-it-really-matter https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/2013...
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y agoI didn't say that dogs are both emotional and intelligent, I said they're emotionally intelligent, meaning they can understand the emotions of humans. Pigs and octopuses may be more objectively intelligent than dogs by most measures (problem solving, memory, etc.). But much worse at empathizing with us, so in return, we empathize less with them.
- adolph 4y agoTherefore? "empathizing with us" == "emotionally intelligent" If dogs rather than pigs and octopuses gain human empathy through the appearance of understanding the emotions of humans, is intelligence in this sense equivalent to manipulative capability?
- userbinator 4y agoWould you like to volunteer to go instead?