From: marlatt@spot.Colorado.EDU (Stuart W. Marlatt)
Subject: Re: Abbey bashing.
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 16:39:04 GMT

In article <Nov17.213846.66267@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> trzyna@CS.ColoState.EDU (wayne trzyna) writes:
>In article <27614@oasys.dt.navy.mil> oreagan@oasys.dt.navy.mil (William Oreagan) writes:
>>In rec.backcountry, trzyna@CS.ColoState.EDU (wayne trzyna) writes:
>>!Christian sentiments asside, the loss of a snake is a tragedy.  The
>>!loss of a human is insignificant, or possibly a blessing.  (This all
>>
>>This self deprecation has always annoyed me.  The snake surely doesn't
>>think ITS demise is more desirable than YOURS.  But if you truly feel
>>that way,  Goodbye.
>
>Ah, I was waiting for the flames to ignite.  After all, you can't
>simply toss Christian sentiments aside, in a Christian culture.
>(Even the athiest reader's views are likely a product of this
>Christian Milieu.)
>
>Here's a question:  Is a single human life worth more than the lives
>of all the snakes in the world?  How about all the snakes plus all the
>mice?  Yes?  How about the snakes plus the mice plus all the chimpanzees?
>We laugh at those who once thought the earth was the center of the
>universe, yet we still believe humanity to be the center of the biosphere.
>
>The fact that the snake doesn't "think" implies only that the snake
>isn't guilty of stupidity.
>
>-- 
>
>-Wayne Trzyna
> trzyna@CS.ColoState.EDU

This is an interesting debate, and brings to mind some retorical situations
I've considered (and maybe more fodder for Eugene's Turing Test).

1. You are a research biologist, and discover a highly contagious virus
   which will result in infertility in all of humanity. Do you release it?

2. You are a research biologist, and discover a highly contagious virus
   which will result in infertility in about half the people it infects.
   Do you release it?

3. Smallpox has been largely destroyed - should the virus be given
   endanged species status? (Would an infected person then be denied
   treatment?)

4. You become injured on a remote, solo climbing trip, and find yourself
   trapped on a high ledge. You cannot expect rescue for many weeks. A
   small seep provides you with water, but you ran out of food several
   days ago. You have an opportunity to kill the a condor...

5. A certain small cave contains a rare subspecies of salamader, known
   nowhere else in the world. a) The entire population in the cave is
   destroyed when the small entrance is blocked by a careless bulldozer
   operator cutting a logging road. b) The entire population in the cave
   is destroyed when the entrance collapses after an exceptionally
   heavy thunderstorm. Remark on differences between a and b. The cave
   salamander fills a dead-end ecological niche - the survival or loss
   of the cave ecosystem will have no impact on even the local surface
   ecosystem. Does this in any way affect previous remarks?

That's enough for now.


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Do I dare                                                                 
Disturb the universe?                                                     
In a minute there is time                                                 
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.                  
  --T.S. Eliot,  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock                      
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s.w. marlatt, <><  &  *(:-)               Prov. 25.2
University of Colorado:                   marlatt@spot.Colorado.edu  492-3939
National Center for Atmospheric Research: marlatt@neit.cgd.ucar.edu  497-1669
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