On Fri, 3 Dec 1999 Delvieron@aol.com wrote:
> I think I if any animal deserves to be uplifted, it is the dog.
>
Yes, then we could have the dogs treating the cats as mice...
>
> Also high on my list would be other primates...I'm a family sorta guy<g>. Of
> course, in the case of the great apes, we might be able to explain enough
> (very crudely) to ask them if they wish to be uplifted.
>
>
The problem here that I foresee is that we (as humans) presumably have a fairly strong built in respect for other humans (even those we consider enemies). I don't think this perspective is built in by default for other species. If we start uplifting many species, we may find ourselves answering a lot of questions about why we ate, simply murdered (for sport), or simply destroyed the habitats of so many of "their kind".
I don't think the answer "that we didn't know any better" is going to satisfy those individuals. And they may not have the "mutual respect" programming that we have that helps prevent us (most of the time) from taking out our anger on frustration on a particular class of other humans.
I'll be happy watching (from a distance) one of the other list members explain to an uplifted (uncaged) gorilla why it is we keep so many individuals who look like him locked up in zoos...
Robert