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Research. In a university. Not on the sidewalk with your iPhone. Their ethical section on Kickstarter is a joke. People apparently said that this is a toy and
by WA 13y ago
Research. In a university. Not on the sidewalk with your iPhone.
Their ethical section on Kickstarter is a joke. People apparently said that this is a toy and you turn animals in a toy and the only response is basically:"Well, it's not a toy, because we could give it an extremely complicated title to make it sound like research."
Research has the goal of producing some sort of output. A paper, general knowledge, whatever. If people want to do some neuro science research, they should do it in a controlled environment and release a paper afterwards, but not buy a DIY cockroach-antenna-controller-toy for five bucks and call the toy "a research project".
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- bodo_leer 13y agoMaybe it is disturbing to me and many others because many people with a 'hacker's mindset' share the romantic idea that technology shouldn't be used to gain power over other lifeforms.
- eli_gottlieb 13y agoRomantic is the right word. Any sufficiently capable life-form has power over other life-forms, often very deadly power. What do you think farming, herding, hunting, industrialization, politics, business, and global warming are?
- akiselev 13y agoMost of the stuff I did wasn't for research to publish a paper. I sacrificed those mice to get a better understanding of the natural world all for my own selfish reasons. I did this in an academic lab with a scientist by my side and I knew from the beginning that mice are not "expendable," they are alive. I would have preferred a full holographic and interactive mouse multiphysics simulation I could manipulate to my heart's content, but those don't exist. These types of educational tools can inspire the future scientists and educating the young minds that will do tomorrow what we can't bring ourselves to do today is worth the sacrifice, as long as we take care to not waste life needlessly.
- milkshakes 13y agoI don't know, Alex. It still smells like playing god. Research, formal or informal is at least ostensibly justifiable if it is performed with respect and in the name of furthering individual or collective knowledge. Do you really think that's what's going on here? Doesn't it seem more like it's being marketed as an educational toy? Is it really appropriate to transform other life forms into our toys?
- akiselev 13y agoThis isn't playing god, this is using tiny electrodes to change the voltage potential across neurons (it's not even a shock, it's not painful). We don't start playing god until we have a good grasp of the genetic code and can manipulate it. Bramie, I don't necessarily approve of their presentation but their product is an effective teaching tool, especially if their iPhone is better than the crap neuroscientists usually have to deal with. I just hope the people who buy the roackes understand that.