Moral and Ethical Question for all

a reply to: SentientCentenarian

Get out much?
Been to Walmart lately?

Do you REALLY think that the "People of Walmart" who've eaten themselves into a state of such morbid obesity that they have ride around the stores on electric carts would EVER give up REAL hamburgers?

a reply to: SLAYER69

Not without examining the impact from a complete scientific perspective.
You could hit a NASTY "Butterfly effect" with that.

It's not future science, it's here now: www.vox.com...

a reply to: SentientCentenarian

Wow, I can't wait for that! That's awesome. I'm already not eating meat, but I do miss a good burger sometimes. Here's another link for a video about the "meat" and how they make it "bleed" that I found interesting.

www.youtube.com...

On topic so as not to derail, no, we wouldn't have the right to eat creatures from another world any more than we think more advanced beings from another planet would have the right to eat us. Of course, that doesn't mean that they have the same ethical standard now, does it? They may do it anyway...

a reply to: neutronflux

I'm no hardcore vegetarian or anything. However, after taking a good hard look at the factory farming of cows, pigs, and chickens, I made a decision 25 years ago to eat way less meat. I'd rather eat fish I've caught myself, or deer, or wild turkey. American meat production is disgusting and very resource intensive.

Humans can survive quite well on a vegetarian diet or at least on a much less meat centered diet. I suggest, that given the scenario presented by the OP, the settlers could bring hydroponic gardens with them (fish in the water, veggie plants, etc.,) and minimize the impact on the local flora and fauna.

We don't need to chew up everything we encounter (intergalactic locusts). Think we'll ever learn to take care of the planet we already live on? Hmmm. As my Grandfather, a marine, used to say: "Don't crap in your own mess kit". I, for one, don't believe we should be permitted (by the universe) to go to another planet until we've learned to care for this one.

a reply to: SeaYote

But corn, wheat, bean, and vegetable production destroyers how much natural habitat? If you believe in the moral imperative, farming and wood production destroys habit for bears, Wolfs, lions, deer, owls, birds......

a reply to: SeaYote

I didn't know species were disappearing do to over hunting. I thought it was their habits were shrinking. Vegetarian does not mean animal friendly. How ironic.

a reply to: SLAYER69

If the amino acids were the correct orientation, I'd say soups on!

This is a very good question. When/if we do find a habitable planet, we will have to deal with indigenous life forms.

Bear in mind that we carry a huge viral and bacterial load as humans. We have some viral DNA, it's thought.

Non-terrestrials (which we would be on this planet) really do not want to find indigenous life on any planet that they might find habitable, because there would be a very good chance this 'life' would be harmful to them (us).

It might not be obviously harmful, as in big beasts with attitude.

Would it be prudent, would it be ethical to sterilize any planet, say if we found one that only had lower forms (single-celled creatures, perhaps primitive forms of bacteria which we had not encountered? It's not clear. Surely we would want to respect all life in such an instance. Maybe space-faring sentients specifically avoid trying to colonize planets with mid-to-higher forms of life? A Prime Directive of sorts.

I believe we would have to create a division of any program to deal with Xenobiology. We want to assure we don't infect another planet and we want to be sure that we don't carry back to Earth anything from another planet.

One of my pet theories is that this will be the way the human species meets its end, accidentally bringing back a life form that has subtly contaminated the mission and this form like H.G.Wells WotW would wipe out human life on this planet. We have to be very careful in this whole area.

a reply to: SLAYER69

Would we, as a specie, have the right during colonization, have a right, to consume animal lifeforms on our New home world?

What right? We'd be colonizing someone else's planet, making it home. We would kill anything standing in the way of us being the dominant specie. That's pretty much a given. Whether we ate what we killed would be up to determination of dieticians and such. Anything aggressively offended by our invasion would die regardless.

If a pre-colonization survey chose certain preserves to be left alone, the colonies would logically be established far enough away so that expansion would not impinge for a very long projected time. But where the colonies are based would be a free-fire zone pretty much.

originally posted by: pthena
a reply to: SLAYER69

Would we, as a specie, have the right during colonization, have a right, to consume animal lifeforms on our New home world?

What right? We'd be colonizing someone else's planet, making it home. We would kill anything standing in the way of us being the dominant specie. That's pretty much a given. Whether we ate what we killed would be up to determination of dieticians and such. Anything aggressively offended by our invasion would die regardless.

If a pre-colonization survey chose certain preserves to be left alone, the colonies would logically be established far enough away so that expansion would not impinge for a very long projected time. But where the colonies are based would be a free-fire zone pretty much.

While you may be right, I think the xenobiology team would reject your application.

originally posted by: Hazardous1408
a reply to: SLAYER69

I don't believe in Karma.

But I do believe in not being a hypocrite.

Fact is, if an Alien race comes here and needs is for sustenance then we've got little moral high ground to say "oh well I'm sentient, I can communicate with you and fear death"...


To which they'd probably say "so can all the animals you slaughter in the millions on a daily basis, you just aren't sentient enough to comprehend their communicative process, now get into my human sized wok".

However, we can fight and resist if we choose too, do you think we would chose too? or be farmed? ........ i know BS has happened in this world, and will continue to do so with the human race, some will surrender, many won't. The millions we slaughter everyday don't comprehend that choice, we do ...... we ACTUALLY have that choice as individuals and will form resistance movements ......... Chickens tend NOT to do that

Eat 'em up ... poop 'em out as fertilizer.

Why change what works?

assuming that the vegetation and animals could be eaten by the settlers of this new world...
I kind of think that we might do more harm than good to bring in species that are from earth.

really, I think that a look into our past to see what effect our migration to new worlds could have on a new planets, both good and bad...



personally, I would hope that we would develop a higher understanding of ecosystems and how to live in them without causing much harm.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: SLAYER69

If the amino acids were the correct orientation, I'd say soups on!

Yup

a reply to: Maverick7

I like your avatar, that's my favorite movie. As much as we'd like to identify with the Na'vi, we are the Sky People.


The xenobiologists get used then ignored.

If only I could get adopted by the natives, oh yeah, beat those Sky People away!

originally posted by: dawnstar
assuming that the vegetation and animals could be eaten by the settlers of this new world...
I kind of think that we might do more harm than good to bring in species that are from earth.

really, I think that a look into our past to see what effect our migration to new worlds could have on a new planets, both good and bad...

personally, I would hope that we would develop a higher understanding of ecosystems and how to live in them without causing much harm.

Flu, we have jabs now

Not so much than when Europe was conquering the Americas. Remember where both North and South were sprung from.

Yes of course we would eat them! Are we really any different than the explorers of 1535 who discovered the Galápagos Islands, these islands had species never encountered before. The ships only had minimal room for stores so relied on finding food whilst exploring. For example the giant tortoises local to the islands I doubt many European explorers had encountered anything like these before but never the less ate them into extinction.

By the time we're able to migrate to a new planet, we will be able to simply grow meat without the actual animal - assuming we would still have a need for it. We can kinda do this already anyway.

Animal welfare is the same 10km away as well as 10.000 AU's, it doesn't matter what's in between - mountains, oceans, space. But by then people will be able to grow meat in factories from stemcells without having a living thing growing it.

originally posted by: trollz
By the time we're able to migrate to a new planet, we will be able to simply grow meat without the actual animal - assuming we would still have a need for it. We can kinda do this already anyway.

www.fastcoexist.com...

It would not surprise me if it is all meat is artificial and not "natural" in 50 years. If it is close to similar on a physical level then I do not care at all if it is artificial.

I am mostly against GMO since the companies are not being responsable with what they are doing. Patents and the legal system used to contain knowledge and seed supplies instead of being a benefit for all.