this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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The hard truth is that there are a lot of completely un-empathetic scientists out there.
Some of the shit I saw them doing to animals when I worked for Baxter still makes me sick when I think about it. And I only had to go into that lab a couple times.
It's just a few cells they created on a mesh, it's not like they're using a hunk of his brain.
Yeah and it was just a bunch of sedated live rats pinned to little trays with their brains exposed and a bunch of shit stuck everywhere into their bodies that I had to see while working on the lab computers.
I'm not going to get into an argument about whether there's value in animal research (I think there is) but there's some horrifying shit that comes with it, and I'm just pointing out that I've directly worked with plenty of scientists that are completely unfazed by that shit. So while it may be a few cells on a mesh now, they won't stop at that.
it is important to note that the article says that Alvin eagrly agreed to this experiment, and donated the blood for it. If that is true, then I don't see any ethical dillemma in here
That is an important point that I missed in what I read of the article before I got grossed out. Thanks. I'm still not sure about this line of research because if (when?) they do make something that achieves a level of sentience, consciousness, or even just the ability to feel, will it be able to signal to us that it is happy, content, in agony, mental anguish, etc? The thought of being trapped in that situation is terrifying.
no, for sure there are limits. if you cultivated a whole functional brain, for example, would be dystopic af