+1. We can't vaccinate people against stupidity, but we can keep their kids from suffering for it.
Or throw their kids out of school. Whichever.
Going off on a tangent here, while I echo your sentiment that people should be free to support whatever distributed computing project they want, I'm not sure people realize that SETI has basically already failed. They've covered their entire spectrum numerous times, and have been listening for decades without finding anything. The entire project operates off the assumption that interstellar communication of another intelligent life form would occur over radio waves.
well, the seti@home project may be in disarray, but it's a bit early to say that seti (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence) in general has failed, isn't it? a few decades of silence from potential civilizations that may potentially be thousands, millions or even billions of light years away can hardly be construed as strong evidence.
then her philosophy really is too simple, as i suspect your understanding of the vegan community is.
There's no such thing as a 'philosophy of the vegan community' - there are millions of individuals each with their own ideas.
i'm not sure why "philosophy of the vegan community" is in quotes. i never put those words next to each other in that order.
i agree with you. there are lots of ideas. any that removes carrots from consumption on philosophical grounds is not representative of even a small portion of vegans.
You ever been to a dairy farm? You should see what happens when to cows are not milked. Imagine a barn full of dairy cows that can raise the dead with the noise because their udders are swollen and they are in a lot of pain. They are happy to be milked. Or should we exterminate all dairy cows so they don't have to produce milk anymore? Dairy cows make milk that is what they were breed to do and all they can do. Dairy cow are better fed and like in clean barns compared to most cattle.
i have indeed been to a dairy farm. everything you describe is exactly why i don't consume dairy anymore. it's as artificial than a chip manufacturing plant.
well, one easy standard to apply is "would they do were it not forced on them?"
I don't think that's the standard that most strict vegans use. Most strict vegans I know don't eat honey, but the bees will keep making it, regardless of what is "forced" upon them. The bees are "free" to leave. (I'm aware that they stay due to the presence of the queen, but the queen could theoretically leave too... but the bees just like making honey in that environment.)
and cows will continue to reproduce even if it isn't "forced" upon them. the question is whether these bees will simply make honey and leave it there or whether they would do something with it, not whether they will continue making it at all or not.
Anyhow, I think the real vegan rationale is more like some sort of perceived "exploitation." That's a subjective term, but I think that's really what's going on in vegan philosophy. The animals might make the food anyway, but we are exploiting them to make food for us.
Of course, we also exploit plants too when we harvest parts of them like leaves or roots, which they have to regrow (or perhaps they even die or are completely consumed). Even by eating the fruit and not letting the seeds be dispersed naturally, we often interfere with reproduction.
The problem with all of these arguments is that you can keep going and going until you can't eat anything because you're exploiting it. I've even heard some vegans have arguments about whether we can eat leavened bread -- aren't you "exploiting" the yeast??
The question is just where you stop, because you have to eat something, and generally speaking, you'll end up exploiting or killing something else in the process... no matter what it is.
the slippery slope argument again. if you view veganism as a philosophy or moral code, it's simply one of taking humans off the pedestal. we are not the end-all, be-all where everything must serve us. that is all. once you understand that, all you have to do is say, well, humans are important in some respects, so we get some resources, but everything else in the world has importance too so they deserve resources. drawing the line at animals is as much about practical convenience (ie we can just as easily get what we "need" without them) as it is a rule.
well, one easy standard to apply is "would they do were it not forced on them?" i have yet to read about or see any animal in the wild stockpile their milk outside their bodies, let alone for consumption by another species.
So a mother feeding her child directly is vegan, but a mother stockpiling bottles of her milk (so the father can feed as well) is not?
um, simply, no. the mother can stockpile without it being forced on her.
"The medium is the massage." -- Crazy Nigel