Re: future pets
Holger Wagner (Holger.Wagner@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Sun, 19 Apr 1998 13:18:18 +0200
Scott Badger wrote:
[...]
> I'm not worried about dogs and cats adapting. They'll be fine. I was
> thinking more about how the nature of our relationship with them may change
> as we and they evolve. I think that what we like most about our pets is
> that they love us unconditionally. But if we were to assist them in
> becoming trans-pets and they become conscious and self-aware, would they
> still love us unconditionally or might they want their freedom. Would we
> want to genetically arrange it so they did not value freedom? Imagine being
> the person that you currently are except that you have a master who expects
> unconditional love. This master would certainly seem god-like. Hmmm.
> Maybe the pervasiveness of religious groups on the planet suggests that we
> seek such a master for ourselves.
Let's say: a great part of human society seeks a master they can love
unconditionally. Most of those people don't seek though - they think
they have found "him" already. And a part of those would die for this
master, or even kill people who might be a "danger" to their master.
There's a great variety of different "masters", and also a great variety
of behaviours towards that (imaginary or real) master.
Others are their own masters.
later,
Holger