4 ms·

I'll play :) Bears don't kill people. Lacerations from their teeth and claws do.

542458 3y ago
Is it the lacerations, or the blood loss? Is it the blood loss, or the stopping of the heart? Is it the stopping of the heart, or oxygen starvation of the brain? Is it the oxygen starvation of the brain, or the chemical breakdown therein? Is it the chemical breakdown of the brain, or the resulting changed perception of others causing them to ascribe the very human and sometimes subjective label “dead” to the subject of the bear’s attentions?
- kdmccormick 3y ago
  Or is it the victim themselves for going near a bear? Or is it the victim's ancestors, who made sure they were alive in the first place, thus setting the stage for their guaranteed death?
  - dkersten 3y ago
    Deep. Just like the cuts from the bear claws.
  - biofunsf 3y ago
    Must be our ancestors fault. They did a good job at contributing to the extinction of many megafauna (in addition to Paleocene climate changes), but didn’t quite get all the bears. How lazy of them. Though fun-fact: California used to have an endemic subspecies of Grizzly bear that was entirely wiped out by the European settlers. I can’t really fault them for this... times were tough back then. Some Grizzly Bears have re-enter California from the north in more recent times. Makes me realize that in certain contexts ecological preservation is a privilege. If there’s a 2% chance a Grizzly is going to kill my darling child Timmy, I’m okay with wiping them out and worrying about the ramifications later. I’m not going to risk little Timmy being eaten to preserve some amorphous concept of natural balance. Fortunately we don’t live in that world any longer. (And >0.05% risk of Timmy being eaten is acceptable to me, since this is on par with many other risks)
- the8472 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information-theoretic_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information-theoretic_death

Is it the lacerations, or the blood loss? Is it the blood loss, or the stopping of the heart? Is it the stopping of the heart, or oxygen starvation of the brain? Is it the oxygen starvation of the brain, or the chemical breakdown therein? Is it the chemical breakdown of the brain, or the resulting changed perception of others causing them to ascribe the very human and sometimes subjective label “dead” to the subject of the bear’s attentions?

kdmccormick 3y ago
Or is it the victim themselves for going near a bear? Or is it the victim's ancestors, who made sure they were alive in the first place, thus setting the stage for their guaranteed death?
- dkersten 3y ago
  Deep. Just like the cuts from the bear claws.
- biofunsf 3y ago
  Must be our ancestors fault. They did a good job at contributing to the extinction of many megafauna (in addition to Paleocene climate changes), but didn’t quite get all the bears. How lazy of them. Though fun-fact: California used to have an endemic subspecies of Grizzly bear that was entirely wiped out by the European settlers. I can’t really fault them for this... times were tough back then. Some Grizzly Bears have re-enter California from the north in more recent times. Makes me realize that in certain contexts ecological preservation is a privilege. If there’s a 2% chance a Grizzly is going to kill my darling child Timmy, I’m okay with wiping them out and worrying about the ramifications later. I’m not going to risk little Timmy being eaten to preserve some amorphous concept of natural balance. Fortunately we don’t live in that world any longer. (And >0.05% risk of Timmy being eaten is acceptable to me, since this is on par with many other risks)
the8472 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information-theoretic_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information-theoretic_death