nom the puppetThu, Sep 10, 2009 @nagash - your body destroys oodles microbial life on a daily basis. if we are to consider all lifeforms of having equal moral value, then any complex organism with an immune system is just an automated genocide roaming the earth in ignorance.
i agree that intelligence is becoming a fuzzier term, but i think you're taking much to broad of strokes with it. if intelligence is determined by the capability of an organism, then there are millions of things we can do that those organisms can't and it still wouldn't make sense to call them more intelligent. and though i wish i had chloroplasts underneath my skin, i don't think my lack thereof is a sign of diminished intelligence.
@nagash - your body destroys oodles microbial life on a daily basis. if we are to consider all lifeforms of having equal moral value, then any complex organism with an immune system is just an automated genocide roaming the earth in ignorance.
i agree that intelligence is becoming a fuzzier term, but i think you're taking much to broad of strokes with it. if intelligence is determined by the capability of an organism, then there are millions of things we can do that those organisms can't and it still wouldn't make sense to call them more intelligent. and though i wish i had chloroplasts underneath my skin, i don't think my lack thereof is a sign of diminished intelligence.