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by bloopernova 439 days ago
One thought exercise I've had fun with in the past:

We already control dogs' sub-species, so let's say we decide to uplift dogs to human level intelligence. How long would it take? At what point does it become unethical to modify a species that is on the way to intelligence? What does an evolved dog look like at different stages of their human-forced evolution? A modern dog is what (very rough) equivalent to which stage of human evolution?
1 comments
cmrdporcupine 439 days ago
As an owner of two border collies I feel like in some ways we're already on the very cusp of it starting to get creepy. Our female is insanely intuitive and able to figure out what's going on in simple sentences (probably mostly keywords and tone) and is extremely alert to the things going on that might be key to her.

Let's say you breed a dog past toddler level intelligence, and a little more conscious, and communicative... How do we now feel about them having a lifespan of 10-15 years? It's already heartbreaking enough. Imagine if they were aware of their mortality and short relative lifespans...

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yencabulator 439 days ago
> Imagine if they were aware of their mortality and short relative lifespans...

Having had dogs live with other dogs growing old and passing away, I think this might be a lower threshold than understanding (a subset of) human language. Surely even without humans, a pack of social animals has individuals getting sick and growing old, and that changes how they interact with each other. Elephants are known to keep visiting bones of relatives over multiple years.

I'm personally more surprised at how well my 12-year old mutt picks up new routines, and the words that are said at the start of the routine, than at the thought that she would know that everyone's getting older and will die at some point. I'm anecdotally actually quite convinced she used to live with older people before -- she comes to "take care of me" every time I cough or sneeze.

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NoGravitas 439 days ago
Consciousness is already MALIGNANTLY USELESS[1] in humans. Spreading it to other species would be the greatest crime in human history.

[1] Ligotti, 2010

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freilanzer 432 days ago
I have also come to this conclusion. Consciousness might be an evolutionary dead end.
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Intralexical 439 days ago
I imagine they'd feel about it as we feel towards Greenland sharks and Galapagos tortoises.

And perhaps grateful that if they're here for a short time, they're blessed to burn all the brighter.

> Imagine if they were aware of their mortality and short relative lifespans...

Though you might certainly feel less grief, if there was less of them to lose in the first place.

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