There are good reasons not to put a tight loop in the food chain, because it gives an opportunity for disease to amplify in that loop. The UK tried this with their cattle and the result was “mad cow” disease which is also lethal to humans who eat the contaminated meat.
Similarly, if you are out in the woods and you find someone dead by the track, even though you didn’t kill them and there’s no real moral problem with eating them, it would still be a really bad idea to eat this person because you have no idea what they died of, and every disease they might have is also a disease you yourself are vulnerable to.
This is also why cooking all your food is a good idea, but that won’t protect you from “mad cow” contamination which happens to be highly stable when subjected to heat, although at least cooking protects you against bacteria, etc.
There’s a trust problem too. If I buy a whole raw chicken then I can take a look at it and have a reasonable idea if it was healthy when killed. When I cook it myself I know how it was cleaned, etc. If I buy fake meat out of a lab, then I’m just trusting that lab to do the right thing, even worse if it then goes through some industrial cooking process. Better efficiency in mass food production, but the risk is pushed out to the tail of the distribution (i.e. that stuff Nassim Taleb always carries on about).
For tonight’s entertainment I’m stepping out and recommending a low budget Australian production. Great entertainment and I won’t spoil the ending which is pretty cool.
We wouldn’t see you for a while, E. Harding, and then about 30 minutes from the end the audience learns that you have been working with the zombies the whole time.
Because “lab-grown meat” by itself isn’t weird enough… Ugh, I really need to stop thinking about this ASAP. The questions that this raises are too revolting to post.
At present I believe we would have no choice but to start with an actual cell. In which case the Kosher argument would resolve to “non-Kosher” because the original cell would have been part of a pig.
However, in principle the genome could be constructed from synthesised DNA which had never been part of a pig, or which did not represent any actual human being. I presume most of the genome could be dispensed with, as we would only need those parts associated with muscle growth.
The question is interesting to me as it tests why we have certain attitudes. I for one have no intention of eating insects, as I find them disgusting, which is entirely an aspect of my culture and upbringing.
If I had sufficient reason to try to overcome this I may well do so, but as it is the effort does not seem worthwhile. The same applies to vat-grown human flesh, I think.
Hey you guys have been getting zombies all wrong. We need some more empathy here – look at it from the Zombies perspective. If you look you will see that their cooperation and persistence in pursuit of a goal (brain eating in this case) is something we should emulate. They seem to be essentially pacifists when it comes to other zombies. Everything will be much better when everyone stops smashing their heads in and joins them.
Also they don’t have any centralized Government, yet seem to be able to maintain their society over extended periods of time.
There are good reasons not to put a tight loop in the food chain, because it gives an opportunity for disease to amplify in that loop. The UK tried this with their cattle and the result was “mad cow” disease which is also lethal to humans who eat the contaminated meat.
Similarly, if you are out in the woods and you find someone dead by the track, even though you didn’t kill them and there’s no real moral problem with eating them, it would still be a really bad idea to eat this person because you have no idea what they died of, and every disease they might have is also a disease you yourself are vulnerable to.
This is also why cooking all your food is a good idea, but that won’t protect you from “mad cow” contamination which happens to be highly stable when subjected to heat, although at least cooking protects you against bacteria, etc.
There’s a trust problem too. If I buy a whole raw chicken then I can take a look at it and have a reasonable idea if it was healthy when killed. When I cook it myself I know how it was cleaned, etc. If I buy fake meat out of a lab, then I’m just trusting that lab to do the right thing, even worse if it then goes through some industrial cooking process. Better efficiency in mass food production, but the risk is pushed out to the tail of the distribution (i.e. that stuff Nassim Taleb always carries on about).
If the people on this blog were cast into a zombie movie, Tel would be around for at least an hour.
My plan is to convincingly pretend to be a blond virgin, then I might get an hour and a half.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339840/
For tonight’s entertainment I’m stepping out and recommending a low budget Australian production. Great entertainment and I won’t spoil the ending which is pretty cool.
what about me?
We wouldn’t see you for a while, E. Harding, and then about 30 minutes from the end the audience learns that you have been working with the zombies the whole time.
I have a feeling that lab-grown human flesh will cost an arm and a leg.
Because “lab-grown meat” by itself isn’t weird enough… Ugh, I really need to stop thinking about this ASAP. The questions that this raises are too revolting to post.
Questions like, “Is lab grown pork kosher since it was technically never part of an actual pig?”
Questions like, “If you were going to eat lab-grown human flesh, whose DNA would you use to seed the growth?”
At present I believe we would have no choice but to start with an actual cell. In which case the Kosher argument would resolve to “non-Kosher” because the original cell would have been part of a pig.
However, in principle the genome could be constructed from synthesised DNA which had never been part of a pig, or which did not represent any actual human being. I presume most of the genome could be dispensed with, as we would only need those parts associated with muscle growth.
The question is interesting to me as it tests why we have certain attitudes. I for one have no intention of eating insects, as I find them disgusting, which is entirely an aspect of my culture and upbringing.
If I had sufficient reason to try to overcome this I may well do so, but as it is the effort does not seem worthwhile. The same applies to vat-grown human flesh, I think.
Hey you guys have been getting zombies all wrong. We need some more empathy here – look at it from the Zombies perspective. If you look you will see that their cooperation and persistence in pursuit of a goal (brain eating in this case) is something we should emulate. They seem to be essentially pacifists when it comes to other zombies. Everything will be much better when everyone stops smashing their heads in and joins them.
Also they don’t have any centralized Government, yet seem to be able to maintain their society over extended periods of time.
So are the zombies communists or anarchists?