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"Well that Sounds Like Slavery With Extra Steps"
by thesebas 1y ago
"Well that Sounds Like Slavery With Extra Steps"
- Telemakhos 1y agoNo more so than brewing beer with yeast or fermenting wine or growing crops.
- zenmac 1y agoYeah that may be true, but how do we feel about using actual brain tissues to train AI like: https://corticallabs.com https://corticallabs.com
- roughly 1y agoThe fact that brain organelles start spontaneously firing in synchronized patterns when they reach a certain size is enough to give me serious pause about anything trying to use brain tissue. We don’t quite know what consciousness is, but we know what it looks like from the outside.
- NonHyloMorph 1y agoOh my. Shot from the hip: Not good.
- PaulHoule 1y agoYou've got plenty of bacteria working for you (and sometimes against you) in your gut. Microbe-enhanced cement is a significant research topic. And the most plausible route to a chemical "factory factory" that space colonists would need to make middle and top-of-pyramid chemicals is a synthetic biology platform where you could make bespoke bacteria and yeasts that could make just about anything for you.
- siavosh 1y agoI’m not sure if I’m joking or not, but the difference between your two examples is one of them is a choice and the other is not. Maybe we’re going to enter a new era of microorganism ethics (or morality?).
- roughly 1y agoMicroorganisms get interesting because they’re simple enough that we can see all the parts involved, but complex enough that we can see what looks like intentionality in their actions. We consider them Alive, but we also know all the mechanisms making them seem that way - there’s nowhere for the ghost to hide. They’re a fascinating case for ethics, especially since there’s effectively no way we could operate in this world without both relying on them and killing them in droves, because they’re also parts of the mechanism almost anywhere we look at biology. Hell, human cells are outnumbered 10:1 - by number, we’re outvoted.
- siavosh 1y agoYeah I think if ethics are involved it has to be based on intentions and hence choice. Accidentally stepping on a few million microorganisms is probably ethically ok. Building your civilization in the “enslavement” of gazzilions of microorganisms might be more ethically discussion worthy. I do wonder how plants are different than microorganisms if at all since obviously we farm and eat them.
- roughly 1y agoWith microorganisms it’s particularly interesting because the time and space scales are so different there’s no coherent narrative between humans and bacteria - it’d be like a species of sentient space nebulas seeding a promising planet with proto-humans so we’d eventually plant fruit trees there or something. In one sense, yes, if you were one of the eventual resulting humans, you’re the result of an alien species enslaving humans to do their bidding, but you’re living your entire life just generally doing what you’d do as a human totally unaware of your apparent enslavement and with no apparent restrictions on your movement or decision-space. I’m not an ethicist - anything that doesn’t involve the full consent of all parties gives me pause, but I’m not quite sure what the conversation there looks like.
- siavosh 1y agoWell these humans would be totally ignorant of what’s going on but that I think would be besides the point because the space nebula would know what they’re doing!
- pfdietz 1y agoDon't anthropomorphize microbes. They hate it when you do that.
- pengaru 1y agoWait til you learn where honey comes from
- Forgeties79 1y agoEek barba dirkle, someone got laid in college