Sometimes I am alarmed that so few people are “species ethicists.” In a Darwinian sense, the chicken had won a genetic lottery by being tasty, horse by being fast, dog by being friendly. Discontinuing meat is ethically equivalent to species extinction.
I think that is the argument, yes. There's some kind of moral calculus that has an equation of the form: Suffering = Pain * Time How is quality of life defined? That's the part where it goes off the rails, and is largely why I'm not persuaded by animal-welfare arguments.
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the vat-grown scenario is meant to address the issue of animal suffering. I'd rather take on the issue of ecological damage and misallocation of scarce resources associated with factory-farming though, but that's off topic from what Ort was trying to discuss.
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but, if we're probing into thought experiment hypotheticals, I would insist that the vat-grown meat also be more energy efficient to produce than live animal meat or else it's pointless to begin with, at least according to where my priorities are.
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There are species of ants that "farm" aphids. Are the ants committing a moral crime by not foraging for the sweet excretions of wild aphids instead? The ants have been doing this for millions of years though. What if the aphids' "natural habitat" involves a symbiosis with ants?
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If the aphids' symbiosis with ants is considered "natural" while human symbiosis with, say, cows, is "unnatural" -- is it because the latter have recently become radically more efficient at extracting milk? If not, is it because the ants have been doing it for millions of years?
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I'm certainly not trying to use "natural" as a proxy for "good", as is frequently done by ecologically minded folks. I think that's orthogonal to the question we're discussing. Many things in the non-human influenced parts of the ecosphere are horrific and painful.
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I do, however, want to discuss whether we can optimize for minimal suffering in a farm environment though.
End of conversation
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