That made me think about predation and intelligence. Jumping spider have to be "smarter" than flies to catch them. Predators are almost
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always smarter than their prey. Plants have no brains at all, while animals who eat them are much smarter.
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So, the competitive pressures of predation lead to intelligence in the predators. If you are an "effective altruist," this may seem immoral
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The plants are being all productive, soaking up the sun and turning it into plant material, and then animals come along and take advantage.
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Doesn't seem fair to the plant, right? Effective altruists may say, "but plants can't feel," but this applies all the way up the food chain
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Effective altruism seems fundamentally anti-predator, in the interest of minimizing suffering. But without predation, no intelligence.
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Unless they prefer an all-plant (and dumb herbivore) world, perhaps they should rethink their anti-suffering goal. My preferred goal: civ
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See thoughts on predation and intelligence
@Outsideness -
Oh, and once we have our minimized suffering world of plants (and herbivores), guess what ecological niche opens up: predators
@Outsideness -
In sum, the right thing to do is to eat the effective altruists.
@Outsideness -
Eating effective altruists is the utilitarian solution!
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@HbdNrx Did you join the cheering throng? Spiders are our friends after all. Ridding the world of pests, one bug at a time! -
@PorphyConob yes, I was definitely on the spider's side
End of conversation
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