[neuronic]

This is probably me not being able to “read the room” but this study both makes me very happy and very sad.

I recently watched Dominion documentary [1] and the more we learn about animals cognition the more I feel the weight of their massive abuse especially in the last 150 years. (The recent story of an HNer interacting with a spider on his desk was really cool though, I don’t have a link anymore.)

Without judging anyone or their behavior in particular I just feel repelled by our treatment of other clearly cognitive beings. The people working these places don’t seem like ones you would want around anyone in society either and I don’t buy the story that it’s only bad in some places. I’d wager that it’s really bad in most cases.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQRAfJyEsko

[austinjp]

I think you're reading the room perfectly well. Or at least, reading the mood of plenty of people.

We're only going to find ever-increasing numbers of animals that demonstrate various forms of cognisance. Hopefully we'll continually re-evaluate our collective actions as a globally dominant species.

Perhaps you should avoid reading about Harry Harlow's "wire mother" experiments [0]. They're abjectly depressing, and demonstrate how horrifically cruel humanity can be toward other creatures.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow

[Luc]

Cultured meat will become widely available soon. I have high hopes.

[seanwilson]

> widely available soon

I keep hearing this but we're likely still decades anyway from this scaling up to replacing most meat so I think individuals who care about this issue right now shouldn't be using it as an excuse for waiting to give up meat.

It's been just around the corner for ages and still not in supermarkets, let alone at the scale and cut variety required for everyone to replace meat with it.

Stances like "I'll switch when it's the same look and taste but cheaper" and "it's unnatural" are going to take time to go away too. And what about people that want a whole roast chicken or a duck leg?

There's lots of good replacements already for dairy milk for example but it's still popular so I'm not hopeful cultured meat will be different. Maybe the real issue is the cost of animal products don't take externalities into account and are artificially cheap.

[neuronic]

This is my hope as well but I have already heard the backlash: it's pharma companies trying to control our food.

Increasingly, I feel afraid of the lunatics trying to hinder progress like some 14th century catholics. Progress to me means also an increasing awareness of the limitations of our ecosystems and that infinite growth is a myth.