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Incorrect. The tapeworm can choose where and how in the gut it exists. It can choose how much it leeches from its host. There are always choices to be made that

Incorrect. The tapeworm can choose where and how in the gut it exists. It can choose how much it leeches from its host. There are always choices to be made that direct our evolution, for you, me, the wasp, and the tapeworm. Your attitude is fatalistic. You're saying we're all doomed to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors until we die or get lucky. That's a belief. A false one at that.

antihipocrat 3y ago
The tapeworm has no conception that it exists inside a larger creature and that its nutrition is obtained by leeching off its host. The tapeworm has no choice because it has no ability to comprehend the context of its own existence. A lot of human beings find themselves in the same predicament through no fault of their own.
- hypertele-Xii 3y ago
  That seems so 100% wrong to me. Who are you to say what tapeworms do or don't comprehend? We don't even understand consciousness, yet here you are exclaiming that tapeworms are essentially robots fated to die of extinction. They are not. They are conscious beings in charge of their lives and evolution like any other being is. They might have less brain cells than us, but you don't know what they are thinking.
  - MattPalmer1086 3y ago
    Pretty sure they are not contemplating the problem of evil and whether they can make better moral choices. But, you know, who knows, right?
  - sleeplessworld 3y ago
    Animals do not become thinking beings, by human standards, just because we wish it to be so. I have had cats for most of my life. They are wonderful conscious and sentient beings. But they have limitations. As far as I can tell, they are a type of biological machine. They have a brain that is essentially some very advanced hardware. On that hardware is running very advanced software, that provides the cat with e.g. sensory functions, memory, processing and body control. Which means it can sense, see, feel, react and decide based on stimuli, sensory inputs, memory, programmed reactions, inherent drives, instincts etc. Does that make the cat an automaton? Maybe so, probably so. But it is an automaton, and a learning-adaptive one at that, so advanced that it is conscious and sentient. I think the cat very much feels and experiences that it is alive, feels and makes decisions. As we observe the natural world, it seems that various types of animals have different levels of "consciousness" and "sentience". I don't think the caterpillar is very conscious and thinking, it is running a smaller program on less hardware, but I think it may be more living than biology in general gives it credit for. I think we have the same functions as described, and more. Including limitations that we don't think about most of the time. As the cat also does not. This "more" is what separates us from animals. We have the same basic system, but we also have more than this. Which, among many things, gives rise to us contemplating what consciousness and sentience is, both in ourselves and in the animal world. And makes us perceive good and evil and have morals. For the cat good and evil is irrelevant. It does not have morals. It has a nature, which is the program running for that type of animal. The nature of the cat is to kill and eat the mouse. Good and evil is not involved. The wasp lays eggs in the caterpillar. Good and evil is not involved. It is nature and it is their programming. Where we humans may be able to use our consciousnes to change our programming to some extent, the animals cannot change their programming. It evolves indirectly over time and generations.

antihipocrat 3y ago

The tapeworm has no conception that it exists inside a larger creature and that its nutrition is obtained by leeching off its host. The tapeworm has no choice because it has no ability to comprehend the context of its own existence. A lot of human beings find themselves in the same predicament through no fault of their own.

hypertele-Xii 3y ago
That seems so 100% wrong to me. Who are you to say what tapeworms do or don't comprehend? We don't even understand consciousness, yet here you are exclaiming that tapeworms are essentially robots fated to die of extinction. They are not. They are conscious beings in charge of their lives and evolution like any other being is. They might have less brain cells than us, but you don't know what they are thinking.
- MattPalmer1086 3y ago
  Pretty sure they are not contemplating the problem of evil and whether they can make better moral choices. But, you know, who knows, right?
- sleeplessworld 3y ago
  Animals do not become thinking beings, by human standards, just because we wish it to be so. I have had cats for most of my life. They are wonderful conscious and sentient beings. But they have limitations. As far as I can tell, they are a type of biological machine. They have a brain that is essentially some very advanced hardware. On that hardware is running very advanced software, that provides the cat with e.g. sensory functions, memory, processing and body control. Which means it can sense, see, feel, react and decide based on stimuli, sensory inputs, memory, programmed reactions, inherent drives, instincts etc. Does that make the cat an automaton? Maybe so, probably so. But it is an automaton, and a learning-adaptive one at that, so advanced that it is conscious and sentient. I think the cat very much feels and experiences that it is alive, feels and makes decisions. As we observe the natural world, it seems that various types of animals have different levels of "consciousness" and "sentience". I don't think the caterpillar is very conscious and thinking, it is running a smaller program on less hardware, but I think it may be more living than biology in general gives it credit for. I think we have the same functions as described, and more. Including limitations that we don't think about most of the time. As the cat also does not. This "more" is what separates us from animals. We have the same basic system, but we also have more than this. Which, among many things, gives rise to us contemplating what consciousness and sentience is, both in ourselves and in the animal world. And makes us perceive good and evil and have morals. For the cat good and evil is irrelevant. It does not have morals. It has a nature, which is the program running for that type of animal. The nature of the cat is to kill and eat the mouse. Good and evil is not involved. The wasp lays eggs in the caterpillar. Good and evil is not involved. It is nature and it is their programming. Where we humans may be able to use our consciousnes to change our programming to some extent, the animals cannot change their programming. It evolves indirectly over time and generations.