2. - What made me glow with keen-ness was the radio broadcast stuff of observing behaviour and making judgement upon those results/observations, rather than 'Sky fairy says woman in sack is good!'.
It's definitely possible to make thought experiments where you weigh one life against many, or one discomfort against many lives etc. It all comes down to choice.
For me what's important is to stand by those choices as choices, rather than the Supernaturally mandated filterings of the Skydaddy.
Yes, military expenditure has driven great advances. I wasn't suggesting that we immediately live in Star Trek la-la-land. We can generate or find naturally occurring hotbeds of disease/horror/crime to examine and invest in to make advances in medical science. But come back to the 'Thinking about it' stuff. Maybe you do have a Great Benefit to all of Society (tm) - If this is only possible by grinding tiny kittenheads in a bucket you weigh up your options. Will synthetic kittens do? Can you vatgrow vegikittens? Whatever.
Main point being - as subjective critters, we define our own morality *anyway*. Our morality is the stuff we already did that seems OK, or less than OK. We keep the good stuff, hopefully limit the bad baggage and move forward into the shiny and untested future.
no subject
2. - What made me glow with keen-ness was the radio broadcast stuff of observing behaviour and making judgement upon those results/observations, rather than 'Sky fairy says woman in sack is good!'.
It's definitely possible to make thought experiments where you weigh one life against many, or one discomfort against many lives etc. It all comes down to choice.
For me what's important is to stand by those choices as choices, rather than the Supernaturally mandated filterings of the Skydaddy.
Yes, military expenditure has driven great advances. I wasn't suggesting that we immediately live in Star Trek la-la-land. We can generate or find naturally occurring hotbeds of disease/horror/crime to examine and invest in to make advances in medical science. But come back to the 'Thinking about it' stuff. Maybe you do have a Great Benefit to all of Society (tm) - If this is only possible by grinding tiny kittenheads in a bucket you weigh up your options. Will synthetic kittens do? Can you vatgrow vegikittens? Whatever.
Main point being - as subjective critters, we define our own morality *anyway*. Our morality is the stuff we already did that seems OK, or less than OK. We keep the good stuff, hopefully limit the bad baggage and move forward into the shiny and untested future.