Virtual Thought

So I was reading Slashdot and I found a neato article about designer mice. What was even more interesting was this discussion about the designer mice.

That comment thread covers, I believe, the gamut of opinions about animal testing and the relative worth of animals to humans:

• The musopologists who believe they understand what mice are thinking and can make judgements for them (it doesn’t hurt them, they don’t have social structure, etc.)
• The skeptical thinker who stays on the fence about the whole thing
• The person who is enlightened enough to be able to weigh the lives of many mice versus the lives of many humans and come up with the right answer (humans)
• The person who thinks its horrible that we test on animals

I don’t know how I feel about animal testing. The best I can do is this: I think it’s terrible that I live in a world where we have to make decisions such as, “A mouse’s life is worth less than our own so we may torture it.” Yes, yes, I know… the natural world is built on this sort of predator/prey pyramid and little defenseless creatures get consumed all the time so that those near the pointy end (notice I didn’t say top!) can survive… but, I don’t know, I like the fact that our big ol’ honkin brains can make us struggle against what we think of as the “natural order.”

Because, truthfully… I think our genes are biasing our arguments here. In one sense we, as living beings, are incredibly sophisticated machines whose main purpose is to propogate. I would bet that at levels that exist underneath our conciousness our very biology is biasing these arguments. Our biology is saying that it’s okay for us to tear mice apart in our searches for longevity and health. We still bear the responsibility for those actions (again, those darn big brains)... but how much time are we spending figuring out how to get those poor, living creatures out of the equation?

So, back to the mice… our brains have to save us from the inexorable push of our biologies to survive. Our biology is not free of our morality. So why are we still torturing mice again? Why are we not straining with every neuron we collectively have to solve the problem of the necessity to make other creatures suffer that we might live?

...and I don’t think Apple is ever going to put it in.

I read an article on Wired that discusses where Apple’s entertainment division is going next now that there are no more features to be added to the iPod. Basically, the author says that since Apple hasn’t added a new feature to the iPod this year that is a sign that they’re slowing down, that they’re feature complete.

Nope. The killer feature that Apple could add to iPods is wireless connectability. I believe it is the killer feature. Imagine being able to put two iPods side-by-side and have the little beasties communicate and give their users the ability to swap songs. Easy as pie. “Select the songs you want to transfer.” “Click here to transfer.” “Transferring…” “Done!”

I understand the author isn’t saying that he thinks iPods don’t need features anymore… that it’s Apple that is saying it. Still… imagine how cool it would be to transfer songs with your friends! C’mon, Apple!

Of course the RIAA might have something to say about that… ( =

Morpheus

Which Of The Greek Gods Are You?

I just found out that Octavia Butler, one of my favorite sci-fi authors, died on February 24, 2006. BoingBoing has a nice entry about her passing.

Mrs. Butler’s novel Dawn opened my eyes about science fiction, politics, race, self-determination, freedom, imperialism… it is such a varied and subtle book that I would recommend to anyone, sci-fi fan or no. It literally changed my life.

Lillith Iyapo survives the human race’s descent into near self-destruction only to learn that a race of interstellar gene manipulator’s have determined that humans are, by nature, doomed… this race will entirely rule the future of humankind and forcefully entertwine their genetic futures whether the human races wants to or not. Humans have no choice: they must be reborn into a new world entirely re-created by the Oonkali in their image of perfection, by their rules, under their aegis… in fact, the aliens have redefined what it means to be human. Humans cannot go backward, cannot rebel in any macro sense. They just have to adopt these new identities and gestalt them with some new idea of self-determination that, hopefully, does not include armageddon. Can they do it?

Thank you Octavia Butler. I owe you so much!

I love Don Hertzfeldt. I love him so much I snarfed these images from Leyna’s MySpace profile so they could live forever.

I shouldn’t post on not enough sleep.

If you haven’t checked out his site recently, it appears that Hertzfeldt is going a little Edward Gorey in his, um, well, age. I love Edward Gorey.

Where would I be without my faithful news outlets dutifully reporting that cats like birds?

Okay, that’s not entirely true… the article is about the recent cat death in Germany. The cat had eaten a bird infected with H5N1 bird flu and consequently sickened and died.

But with photos like these, I just had to poke fun:

Yes. Thank you. I know cats like birds.

In this struggle to have up-to-the-minute news coverage of every little detail because of the transparency afforded by electronic, “new” media I think our more traditional news outlets are flailing and flapping around like flu-addled birds trying to provide us with the detail they think we want. Heck, maybe we think we want it.

I get really nervous when we apply supply-and-demand economics to the news… is it really okay to give us what we want, all the time? Isn’t that how we get Jerry Springer-style sensationalism that focuses entirely too much on couples whose names abbreviate is cute ways (Bennifer, Brangelina, Jessinick… I made that last one up) instead of real issues like the horrible, unjust war in Iraq, the corruption that is increasingly evident in the highest echelons of government, the global warming we brought upon ourselves that we are still denying?

Cats like birds indeed.