vrts's recent activity

  1. Comment on Octopuses sleep—and possibly dream—just like humans in ~science

    vrts
    Link Parent
    Right, my stance is hardly original and I'm glad it's not. By most metrics, the meat consumption in the western world is insane. It's good to know where your food comes from and what it takes to...

    I don't think you're alone in that sentiment. I've seen it brought up before in reddit discussions related to this topic.

    Right, my stance is hardly original and I'm glad it's not. By most metrics, the meat consumption in the western world is insane. It's good to know where your food comes from and what it takes to enable it.

    Like you said, it's a way to at least recognize the cost of enjoying meat.

    Yes, even though the recognition might be partly irrational due to the pseudo-spirituality it represents; yet, I still am drawn to it.

    At the end of the day, like most things in life, do what works for you!

    For me though it's mostly a luxury, so that makes it a selfish matter.

    An important distinction, and something that more people should at least contemplate. I'm glad you're making a decision, rather than just assuming a default pos

  2. Comment on Octopuses sleep—and possibly dream—just like humans in ~science

    vrts
    Link Parent
    My daughter is 6 months now. It is absolutely incredible observing her development and how she'll spontaneously know to do certain things. I did some reading on this earlier on, and it was...

    My daughter is 6 months now. It is absolutely incredible observing her development and how she'll spontaneously know to do certain things. I did some reading on this earlier on, and it was fascinating.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_reflexes

    But even beyond that, there are so many little things that she does that are clearly "intelligent", yet she could not have learned from us.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Octopuses sleep—and possibly dream—just like humans in ~science

    vrts
    Link Parent
    Your latter sentence really summarizes the quandary about extinguishing lives. I also eat meat, and understand that it causes suffering. While it might just be mental salve, I think it's important...

    Your latter sentence really summarizes the quandary about extinguishing lives. I also eat meat, and understand that it causes suffering. While it might just be mental salve, I think it's important to recognize these things. That our choices have consequences, and in this case we're not the ones suffering the consequences. I don't intend to stop eating octopus or meat in general, but I will be more grateful for the sacrifice that had to be made for my meal.

    I have long been captured by the idea of various cultures expressing gratitude for the lives that they must take for their meal(s). Since then, I have taken steps to get closer to my food. To obtain it in whole form so that I must confront the reality that the piece of meat that I purchased, neatly presented on its Styrofoam package, was once a living creature. That in breaking it down, I see how analogous our bodies are, how we're really not that different.

    My goal, that I grow ever closer to, is to hunt and kill an animal. To intimately experience the moment that I must choose to end a life for my benefit. I wonder to myself, what will go through my head in that moment. Or if I had to say, catch a chicken and dispatch it.

    Personal ethics can be simultaneously rigid yet amorphous.

    Oh boy... just before I'm about to click post: Re-reading my post, I realize this might make me sound like a psychopath. I promise I'm not. I am perhaps over romanticizing things, but in the spirit of connection with animals, not "I want to murder things, look how similar they are to humans".

    2 votes