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I have several non-human conscious beings in my garden. Four of them lay eggs every day and one keeps predatory conscious beings like thieves rats and foxes away. I treat them as I would wish to be treated and they look after me. No need to invent anything new.
Actually they do. The chickens move around the garden in a phalanx for mutual protection, warn each other of danger (birds of prey) and huddle together for warmth at night. One dog doesn't have much opportunity for collaboration but dogs in the local parkland and especially wild dogs go hunting in quite efficient groups, and working dogs collaborate with humans in all sorts of ways.
There is no common goal for humans. We collaborate in small groups to compete with other small groups - witness the Euroshambles over COVID vaccine! Having a goal in common (personal survival) is not the same as having a common goal - ants and bees are very different from humans.
their effectiveness is very limited, especially when compared to modern human global civilization. They have no chance to survive giant asteroid impact.
The common goal of hive populations is the survival of the hive, which takes precedence over survival of the individual. There's little evidence of such behavior in human society: self-sacrificing heroes are rare enough to make history, and the sacrifice is always for a small group - family or crew, not the entire human race.
There are far more chickens than humans on the planet, and whilst many humans are devoted to looking after chickens, the converse is not true. The human population is fragile (almost totally dependent on having fresh water on tap) and self-destructive when stressed, but chickens are happy to forage in the dirt and drink from puddles.
For now, until synthetic chicken meat becomes good enough and cheap enough which makes it well accepted and ubiquitous.
Way off topic, but synthetic meat isn't really necessary. Most of what we grow is inedible for humans: we throw away at least 60% of all the grass crops (wheat, corn, rice...) and a fair bit of root vegetable leaf. All of that is consumable by insects, some of which are amazingly efficient at turning carbohydrates into fat and protein, and chickens turn insects and scrap leaves into very high quality protein. Pigs do a good job too. The only process that could be more efficient is the direct processing of insects to acceptable human food.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXYg-qt4OCcComing Soon: A Post-Cow World - Precision FermentationQuoteWe are on the cusp of a major disruption in how we feed ourselves. This video is a quick summary of a report from RethinkX on where agriculture is headed over the next decade, and it's mind blowing!
We are on the cusp of a major disruption in how we feed ourselves. This video is a quick summary of a report from RethinkX on where agriculture is headed over the next decade, and it's mind blowing!
So. Are you your body? And if so, how exactly does this work? Lets explore lots of confusing questions.
Are you a left-brained person or a right-brained person? Spoiler: You're neither. Each of us uses both sides of our brain for most of what we do. But still, there are a number of brain functions that do show lateralization, where they are localized to one side or another. Why is this? And how does it influence our definition of consciousness? People with "split brains" can help us figure it out.
Does the soul exist? Does science prove the soul or disprove it? Explore the oddest clinical cases in the world of neuroscience that raise some very interesting questions about the soul.
It's time to explore a big question while we watch a ciliate go through its last moments.
Death is inevitable and mysterious, even in the microcosmos. Stentors, heliozoans, and yes, even tardigrades, experience death in many different ways.
1. It is morally good to do stuff that you would like others to do to you or that you would do to your nearest and dearest. You can be prosecuted for failing to render obvious assistance to someone in immediate danger. Problem with human rights legislation is that everyone's right is someone else's duty, which is why the EU is a Bad Thing. But whilst helping the obvious acute case is morally good, not intentionally seeking out people in distress is not morally bad because we quickly run into questions of judgement: what do we mean by "better off"? I have two televisions and a crippling mortgage, you have no TV but own your house: who pays whom?
Nice guy, but the problems aren't particularly difficult.