if a creature (human or not) is capable of displaying a set of priorities in how it behaves, and we can notice there are rules governing the way they conduct themselves, then that set of priorities and rules is susceptible to be understood as the moral compass that governs its behavior. […] To me, morality is intrinsic to any form of complex natural behavior subjected to evolutionary pressure (whether they have cognitive capacity or not).
Either you need to rethink your definition of moral or you are making a mistake here. (Or I am not understanding you here, which is another possibility of course.)
What is moral for you? What does it require?
I was thinking that for you and me, moral - in a nutshell - means distinguishing actions between “good” and “bad”, where the exact definition of “good” and “bad” can vary as well as the ethical framework which might be built on that. I need to emphasize the “distinguish” part of the last sentence, as this involves active contemplation about possibilities entangled with an evaluation of “good” and “bad”. If I don’t misunderstand you here, you say that any influence which lead to a certain behaviour in an organism can already be seen as moral behaviour. But is it though? Take a plant for example. It will grow towards light. Is this moral behaviour? I say it isn’t. I say it is a reflex. If the plant is not able to reason about whether it might be advantageous or not and thereby “good” or “bad” for its survival to grow towards light and if it does not have the possibility to “decide” against growing towards light, it can not have moral. The plant does not care whether it is “good” or “bad”, because it can not care at all. It just does, behaving purely as a reflex. That this reflex formed at all is the result of an evolutionary process, but it does not enable the plant to make decisions, especially not moral ones.
To me, that’s also a characteristic which distinguishes us humans from most animals or other forms of life. We are able to defy our nature by reasoning about it and making an active decision. That’s a key component necessary for moral agency which virtually all other forms of life on our space potato lack.
Even if there’s no “Universal” morality, there are objective moralities emergent from the way each species has been driven towards seeking some set of stimuli that might be “good” for their own survival. All that we see as “good” is only “good” because it satisfies that evolutionary drive… not because we happen to have a “thought” about it.
There are intrinsic objectives which emerge from the way organisms evolved, plants seek light, animals seek food, and so on, but those are not “moralities”, those are reflexes, instincts, beneficial and detrimental stimuli for the survival and procreation of a species. Yes, our understanding of “good” and “bad” are rooted in an understanding of such beneficial and detrimental stimuli, but to be able to actively, willingly, decide whether we want to confront ourselves or others with a (detrimental) stimuli, is something only we humans as moral agents are capable to do. A cow will feel detrimental stimuli when it is confined on small space, suffering pain from physical damages and will strive to escape from such influences, since those are detrimental stimuli of course. But it can not think about that in such a way that it could make the decision to stay. It lacks the cognitive abilities to do that. We on the other hand can do that. We can expose ourselves to detrimental stimuli willingly. We can expose others to those as well. We can label such actions as “good” or “bad”. Cows can’t. And wolves can’t as well.
Being able to decide, given a set of different actions, is one of the major factors which constitutes a moral agent.
Even if free will was an illusion and our universe was deterministic (which I currently think isn’t the case, as I detailed before), you are still able to think about your actions before you act on them. And not only think in a goal oriented manner about that, but in an ethical manner. Even if the result of such a thought process might be determined, you can still have one. And other life forms don’t. So why shouldn’t you have it? Isn’t your deterministic stance on free will not fallable for nihilism again? Because if it is deterministic anyway, doesn’t that make life and ethics meaningless again, even creating your own purpose and ethics in an amoral meaningless universe? Why do you seek a logical consistent ethical construct at all? I argue that being able to have these thoughts and contemplations, whether their results are predictable or not, you still need to have them to come to a conclusion for your action. We are able to ask such questions. We are able to get the impression of being able to make such decisions.
But if you do something “bad” without “thinking” (like you said wolfs do), that does not make the act any less “bad”. At most, it just shows that your “thinking” wasn’t the cause responsible for your behavior.
If someone is not able to think about their actions, they are not able to do “good” or “bad” things. But that’s just another example for the same concept we are arguing about. To illustrate this, say someone suffers from a brain injury which incapacitaes their higher reasoning. Then they kill someone. Wouldn’t you argue that this is something less “bad” than someone who kills someone else intentionally? I would even say, if their reasoning abilites were really completely turned off, they are “innocent”. They weren’t aware of what they were doing. You can find such interesting examples in criminology, or psychiatry in general, think of lobotomy for example. More common are negligent homicides. Someone does not look on the street while driving, a car crash happens, someone dies. It was “bad” that the driver did not look on the street. But it would’ve been way worse if they really wanted to kill someone. Intentions matter a lot, highlighting the importance of moral agency. However, if the driver in our example had a disease like narcolepsy (and wasn’t aware of that prior to driving) and suddenly fell asleep which then leads to the deadly car crash, then they would be innocent again from my point of view, since they didn’t kill someone willingly, nor was it rooted in negligence. It was simply an unfortunate accident.
It seems to me that’s arbitrary. I don’t see enough reason as to why the line should be drawn on vertebrates.
I understand that. That’s also one of the main reasons why I am not a vegan (yet), even though you find me defending veganism here a lot.
The best counter argument I got so far is rooted in the fact that I am already distinguishing between different forms of life. To illustrate it with an extreme example: I would rather pick a flower than shoot a human. What would you do?
Given such an extreme and hypothetical example if you were given a choice to pick a flower or shoot a human, and you would have to decide for one of these options and don’t have any other. Wouldn’t you also rather pick the flower?
This has significant implications. Probably because of natural instincts, I value the life of humans much higher than the ones of plants. Therefore I have to accept that I already see a hierarchy of life forms with respect to their capacity to suffer. And I don’t want to change my view of that hierachy. Vegans draw the line there, were more complex forms of suffering can begin, which are usually vertebrates. Simpler forms of life, whose capacity to suffer is reduced to mere reflexes (like the light seeking plant), can be ethically consumed. However, some vegans I’ve got to know so far would prefer nutrients snythesized from lifeless matter. Since that is not a realistic option right now, not consuming animal products, and plant- / non-animal-based products instead, is the best they can currently do.
I would prefer such synthesized products as well. But to be honest, I am currently still struggling whether I really want to accept that hierarchy as is and I am questioning myself whether it is “good” or “bad” that I also value the life of humans much higher than others. I need to justify somehow what forms of life I destroy in order to live myself. Veganism seems to provide the best logical construct for that, as I haven’t been in contact with better alternatives yet.
Maybe I interpreted it wrong… but seeing that the meme was not enough of an answer for me (and on top of that, it appealed to emotion), I saw it as an opportunity to engage in some conversation which I hoped would not be unwelcome.
I see. Yeah, I think maybe you interpreted it a bit wrong. However, any civil discussions on that topic - and I take the liberty to say that for the community here - are of course most welcome.
I also need to thank you for our discussion here. Even though we disagree on some key aspects, this motivated me to dive deeper into the topic of “true randomness” and related topics. This has yielded some life changing results for me, even though it led me to a minor existential crisis, haha. :D
I already gave my interpretation before. Instead of repeating myself, l’ll try to respond to your points and try to clear misunderstandings.
I was thinking that for you and me, moral - in a nutshell - means distinguishing actions between “good” and “bad”, where the exact definition of “good” and “bad” can vary as well as the ethical framework which might be built on that.
Yes, this is something I also can agree with.
But I don’t agree that “distinguishing” it requires “active contemplation” to manifest in the behavior of the entity.
You imply that if we don’t “actively contemplate” the act then it cannot be “good” nor “bad”.
This is analogous to the idea of a tree in the forest emits no sound if nobody hears it.
Well, I think we simply disagree on that.
In my interpretation, acts can be good or bad regardless of how you “contemplate” them. Even if it were done without “contemplation” if it results in killing humans then it’ll be “bad” for humanity (and “good” for some other species?). There’s an objective morality emerging from natural selection, though at the same time there’s certain subjectivity when we have different species competing. Some aspects might converge, maybe even some level of “symbiosis” in which we have convergent goals that are “good” for both species, but that doesn’t make it equal.
Take a plant for example. It will grow towards light. Is this moral behavior? I say it isn’t. I say it is a reflex. If the plant is not able to reason about whether it might be advantageous or not and thereby “good” or “bad” for its survival to grow towards light and if it does not have the possibility to “decide” against growing towards light, it can not have moral.
But that’s under your interpretation of morality.
Under mine, it is “good” for the plant to exercise a behavior that helps the survival of its species. My interpretation of morality relates to natural selection.
In fact, even our “higher” level human moral is constructed on “reflexive” instincts (emotions) as a basis, the only difference is that humans react to those reflexes while applying logic and reason in their behavior, because that way we can be more logically consistent at reacting to them. But the actions are ultimately driven by the same type of low-level instincts that drive all living things.
I’m curious: why do you think emotions are the basis on morality?
We agree on that, but I feel our reason as to “why that is” might be different.
How do you know something is “Good”?
Why do you think “treating others like you would want you to be treated”, for example, is “Good”?
My answer would be: because it’s evolutionarily beneficial, it helps our survivability.
Under your view of morality: why does it often makes us “feel good” to act “good”?
For mine: because it’s a reward that increases survival, so it passes natural selection.
But it can not think about that in such a way that it could make the decision to stay. It lacks the cognitive abilities to do that.
Yes. but that’s not a problem in my interpretation. Mine does not require “thinking”, like I explained before.
This is simply a matter of definition, we can repeat it many times but it does not make it more/less true.
you are still able to think about your actions before you act on them. And not only think in a goal oriented manner about that, but in an ethical manner.
Yes. But this is just as true in your view of morality as it is in mine.
The difference is that to me, being “able to think” is an extra, not a requirement.
Also, I’d say you still are “goal oriented” when ethics are the goal.
someone suffers from a brain injury which incapacitaes their higher reasoning. Then they kill someone. Wouldn’t you argue that this is something less “bad” than someone who kills someone else intentionally?
The act is still “bad”, because it negatively affects survivability of the species.
Like I said in what you quoted: “it just shows that [this person’s] “thinking” wasn’t the cause responsible for [their] behavior”
So, what the lack of “thinking” changes is the chain of responsibility. The “thinking” of the injured person is NOT responsible of the crime. So their “thinking” should NOT be punished. Instead, other measures should be taken to prevent killings.
That doesn’t mean that the act of killing unintentionally has no moral. The act is still something that we should try to prevent. It’s a “bad” act, so we should try to minimize it. Or do you think we should not and that it’s neither “good” nor “bad”?
One might argue the lack of intentionality might have less/more impact on human survival. So it might be less/more “bad”, but that would still be consistent with my interpretation. I’m not sure it is with yours, since you said that “thinking” the act was a requirement for it to be “good” or “bad”.
I think we have reached some level of understanding on that one.
I agree that human morals place an implicit hierarchy on animals, though I feel it has more to do with which animals are closer to us (and the attempt at measuring their “suffering” only makes sense as a consequence to that, with our concern relating only about forms of “suffering” that are closer to the way we ourselves experience “suffering”… in other words, we project ourselves into other creatures and judge them based on how well that projection maps).
That’s what I meant when I asked if you did find it curious how humans feel more attached to animals the more similar they are to us. Also, the more you get to know/love the animal, the stronger the emotional attachment. Even if there were no “suffering” in their death, it would still make us sad. This is why looking at a creature in the eyes and talking to it as if it were a human makes it harder for us to wish for them something that would be “humanly bad”.
In fact, I’d argue humans can even feel attached to inanimate objects sometimes. It’s a known phenomenon called “animistic thinking”, which it’s theorized to be common in babies. And I expect there’s evolutionary reasons as to why it happens too. Perhaps it’s related to how some animal babies will get attached to whichever creature they see first when they get born as if it were their parent (probably it helps their survival), to the point that many caretakers need to use animal-looking “puppets” when caring for the babies destined to be released back to nature. So the babies get attached to the puppet (even if it’s inanimate) and not the human.
Going back to veganism: personally, I find that the strongest case for it is in the defense of our own human interests. Because I do see that Veganism is actually something “good”, under my definition of “good” understood as beneficial for our own survival & natural adaptability.
So personally, I would find a more compelling argument in that direction. Rather than appealing to empathy towards animals. Which to me requires drawing arbitrary lines based on preconceived notions of what “suffering” might be without having a way to determine how strong those “feelings” are in what can only be an anthropocentric analysis that cannot take into account experiences that humans would not be able to experience to begin with, and to which we would be biased towards protecting those who are most similar to us, not those who contribute the most to the sustainability of our ecosystem.
Imho, we should stop breeding animals for human purposes like crazy because that’s gonna destroy our ecosystem. Though I expect this might lead to compromises that don’t match the more extreme vegan ideas. but I’m not convinced that driving veganism to the extreme is something advisable anyway.
Also, note that in some cases this even applies to some plants. The Borneo island is more and more being overrun with palm tree plantations because palm oil makes so much money there… we are removing jungle and more and more ecosystems are being lost, disturbing a balance that is likely to hit us in the face… biodiversity is good for our own adaptability, and I would say that endangering so many species at this rate is gonna hit back to us at some point… it goes against our own interests to exploit nature this badly. And this can only get worse the more “developed” some countries that used to be rich in diversity & natural resources become. You used to be able to get all kinds of relatively rare tropical fruits for cheap in countries like Malaysia, but that’s becoming increasingly harder little by little, as the country “westernizes”.
Out planet is like one of those “ecospheres” that are left alone in the sun within an hermetically closed jar. You can keep it alive and well for a long time if you manage to hit a good balance… but any change that could destabilize it can end up triggering a chain of events that could devastate even the most evolutionary advanced creatures within it.
I also need to thank you for our discussion here. Even though we disagree on some key aspects, this motivated me to dive deeper into the topic of “true randomness” and related topics. This has yielded some life changing results for me, even though it led me to a minor existential crisis, haha. :D
Ow… sorry (I think? :P). And I have to thank you too. I enjoy the conversation very much. It helped put into words some things, do some introspection and look deeper into how I think the world might work, trying to challenge my model of it. You have raised some reasonable points that have made me think deeper into some of its aspects, all the while keeping it very respectful.
Part 2 of 2:
Coming to your definition of moral agency:
Either you need to rethink your definition of moral or you are making a mistake here. (Or I am not understanding you here, which is another possibility of course.)
What is moral for you? What does it require?
I was thinking that for you and me, moral - in a nutshell - means distinguishing actions between “good” and “bad”, where the exact definition of “good” and “bad” can vary as well as the ethical framework which might be built on that. I need to emphasize the “distinguish” part of the last sentence, as this involves active contemplation about possibilities entangled with an evaluation of “good” and “bad”. If I don’t misunderstand you here, you say that any influence which lead to a certain behaviour in an organism can already be seen as moral behaviour. But is it though? Take a plant for example. It will grow towards light. Is this moral behaviour? I say it isn’t. I say it is a reflex. If the plant is not able to reason about whether it might be advantageous or not and thereby “good” or “bad” for its survival to grow towards light and if it does not have the possibility to “decide” against growing towards light, it can not have moral. The plant does not care whether it is “good” or “bad”, because it can not care at all. It just does, behaving purely as a reflex. That this reflex formed at all is the result of an evolutionary process, but it does not enable the plant to make decisions, especially not moral ones.
To me, that’s also a characteristic which distinguishes us humans from most animals or other forms of life. We are able to defy our nature by reasoning about it and making an active decision. That’s a key component necessary for moral agency which virtually all other forms of life on our space potato lack.
There are intrinsic objectives which emerge from the way organisms evolved, plants seek light, animals seek food, and so on, but those are not “moralities”, those are reflexes, instincts, beneficial and detrimental stimuli for the survival and procreation of a species. Yes, our understanding of “good” and “bad” are rooted in an understanding of such beneficial and detrimental stimuli, but to be able to actively, willingly, decide whether we want to confront ourselves or others with a (detrimental) stimuli, is something only we humans as moral agents are capable to do. A cow will feel detrimental stimuli when it is confined on small space, suffering pain from physical damages and will strive to escape from such influences, since those are detrimental stimuli of course. But it can not think about that in such a way that it could make the decision to stay. It lacks the cognitive abilities to do that. We on the other hand can do that. We can expose ourselves to detrimental stimuli willingly. We can expose others to those as well. We can label such actions as “good” or “bad”. Cows can’t. And wolves can’t as well.
Being able to decide, given a set of different actions, is one of the major factors which constitutes a moral agent.
Even if free will was an illusion and our universe was deterministic (which I currently think isn’t the case, as I detailed before), you are still able to think about your actions before you act on them. And not only think in a goal oriented manner about that, but in an ethical manner. Even if the result of such a thought process might be determined, you can still have one. And other life forms don’t. So why shouldn’t you have it? Isn’t your deterministic stance on free will not fallable for nihilism again? Because if it is deterministic anyway, doesn’t that make life and ethics meaningless again, even creating your own purpose and ethics in an amoral meaningless universe? Why do you seek a logical consistent ethical construct at all? I argue that being able to have these thoughts and contemplations, whether their results are predictable or not, you still need to have them to come to a conclusion for your action. We are able to ask such questions. We are able to get the impression of being able to make such decisions.
If someone is not able to think about their actions, they are not able to do “good” or “bad” things. But that’s just another example for the same concept we are arguing about. To illustrate this, say someone suffers from a brain injury which incapacitaes their higher reasoning. Then they kill someone. Wouldn’t you argue that this is something less “bad” than someone who kills someone else intentionally? I would even say, if their reasoning abilites were really completely turned off, they are “innocent”. They weren’t aware of what they were doing. You can find such interesting examples in criminology, or psychiatry in general, think of lobotomy for example. More common are negligent homicides. Someone does not look on the street while driving, a car crash happens, someone dies. It was “bad” that the driver did not look on the street. But it would’ve been way worse if they really wanted to kill someone. Intentions matter a lot, highlighting the importance of moral agency. However, if the driver in our example had a disease like narcolepsy (and wasn’t aware of that prior to driving) and suddenly fell asleep which then leads to the deadly car crash, then they would be innocent again from my point of view, since they didn’t kill someone willingly, nor was it rooted in negligence. It was simply an unfortunate accident.
I understand that. That’s also one of the main reasons why I am not a vegan (yet), even though you find me defending veganism here a lot. The best counter argument I got so far is rooted in the fact that I am already distinguishing between different forms of life. To illustrate it with an extreme example: I would rather pick a flower than shoot a human. What would you do?
Given such an extreme and hypothetical example if you were given a choice to pick a flower or shoot a human, and you would have to decide for one of these options and don’t have any other. Wouldn’t you also rather pick the flower?
This has significant implications. Probably because of natural instincts, I value the life of humans much higher than the ones of plants. Therefore I have to accept that I already see a hierarchy of life forms with respect to their capacity to suffer. And I don’t want to change my view of that hierachy. Vegans draw the line there, were more complex forms of suffering can begin, which are usually vertebrates. Simpler forms of life, whose capacity to suffer is reduced to mere reflexes (like the light seeking plant), can be ethically consumed. However, some vegans I’ve got to know so far would prefer nutrients snythesized from lifeless matter. Since that is not a realistic option right now, not consuming animal products, and plant- / non-animal-based products instead, is the best they can currently do.
I would prefer such synthesized products as well. But to be honest, I am currently still struggling whether I really want to accept that hierarchy as is and I am questioning myself whether it is “good” or “bad” that I also value the life of humans much higher than others. I need to justify somehow what forms of life I destroy in order to live myself. Veganism seems to provide the best logical construct for that, as I haven’t been in contact with better alternatives yet.
I see. Yeah, I think maybe you interpreted it a bit wrong. However, any civil discussions on that topic - and I take the liberty to say that for the community here - are of course most welcome.
I also need to thank you for our discussion here. Even though we disagree on some key aspects, this motivated me to dive deeper into the topic of “true randomness” and related topics. This has yielded some life changing results for me, even though it led me to a minor existential crisis, haha. :D
Part 2: Morality
I already gave my interpretation before. Instead of repeating myself, l’ll try to respond to your points and try to clear misunderstandings.
Yes, this is something I also can agree with.
But I don’t agree that “distinguishing” it requires “active contemplation” to manifest in the behavior of the entity.
You imply that if we don’t “actively contemplate” the act then it cannot be “good” nor “bad”.
This is analogous to the idea of a tree in the forest emits no sound if nobody hears it.
Well, I think we simply disagree on that.
In my interpretation, acts can be good or bad regardless of how you “contemplate” them. Even if it were done without “contemplation” if it results in killing humans then it’ll be “bad” for humanity (and “good” for some other species?). There’s an objective morality emerging from natural selection, though at the same time there’s certain subjectivity when we have different species competing. Some aspects might converge, maybe even some level of “symbiosis” in which we have convergent goals that are “good” for both species, but that doesn’t make it equal.
But that’s under your interpretation of morality.
Under mine, it is “good” for the plant to exercise a behavior that helps the survival of its species. My interpretation of morality relates to natural selection.
In fact, even our “higher” level human moral is constructed on “reflexive” instincts (emotions) as a basis, the only difference is that humans react to those reflexes while applying logic and reason in their behavior, because that way we can be more logically consistent at reacting to them. But the actions are ultimately driven by the same type of low-level instincts that drive all living things.
I’m curious: why do you think emotions are the basis on morality?
We agree on that, but I feel our reason as to “why that is” might be different.
How do you know something is “Good”?
Why do you think “treating others like you would want you to be treated”, for example, is “Good”?
My answer would be: because it’s evolutionarily beneficial, it helps our survivability.
Under your view of morality: why does it often makes us “feel good” to act “good”?
For mine: because it’s a reward that increases survival, so it passes natural selection.
Yes. but that’s not a problem in my interpretation. Mine does not require “thinking”, like I explained before.
This is simply a matter of definition, we can repeat it many times but it does not make it more/less true.
Yes. But this is just as true in your view of morality as it is in mine.
The difference is that to me, being “able to think” is an extra, not a requirement.
Also, I’d say you still are “goal oriented” when ethics are the goal.
The act is still “bad”, because it negatively affects survivability of the species.
Like I said in what you quoted: “it just shows that [this person’s] “thinking” wasn’t the cause responsible for [their] behavior”
So, what the lack of “thinking” changes is the chain of responsibility. The “thinking” of the injured person is NOT responsible of the crime. So their “thinking” should NOT be punished. Instead, other measures should be taken to prevent killings.
That doesn’t mean that the act of killing unintentionally has no moral. The act is still something that we should try to prevent. It’s a “bad” act, so we should try to minimize it. Or do you think we should not and that it’s neither “good” nor “bad”?
One might argue the lack of intentionality might have less/more impact on human survival. So it might be less/more “bad”, but that would still be consistent with my interpretation. I’m not sure it is with yours, since you said that “thinking” the act was a requirement for it to be “good” or “bad”.
Part 3: Veganism
I think we have reached some level of understanding on that one.
I agree that human morals place an implicit hierarchy on animals, though I feel it has more to do with which animals are closer to us (and the attempt at measuring their “suffering” only makes sense as a consequence to that, with our concern relating only about forms of “suffering” that are closer to the way we ourselves experience “suffering”… in other words, we project ourselves into other creatures and judge them based on how well that projection maps).
That’s what I meant when I asked if you did find it curious how humans feel more attached to animals the more similar they are to us. Also, the more you get to know/love the animal, the stronger the emotional attachment. Even if there were no “suffering” in their death, it would still make us sad. This is why looking at a creature in the eyes and talking to it as if it were a human makes it harder for us to wish for them something that would be “humanly bad”.
In fact, I’d argue humans can even feel attached to inanimate objects sometimes. It’s a known phenomenon called “animistic thinking”, which it’s theorized to be common in babies. And I expect there’s evolutionary reasons as to why it happens too. Perhaps it’s related to how some animal babies will get attached to whichever creature they see first when they get born as if it were their parent (probably it helps their survival), to the point that many caretakers need to use animal-looking “puppets” when caring for the babies destined to be released back to nature. So the babies get attached to the puppet (even if it’s inanimate) and not the human.
Going back to veganism: personally, I find that the strongest case for it is in the defense of our own human interests. Because I do see that Veganism is actually something “good”, under my definition of “good” understood as beneficial for our own survival & natural adaptability.
So personally, I would find a more compelling argument in that direction. Rather than appealing to empathy towards animals. Which to me requires drawing arbitrary lines based on preconceived notions of what “suffering” might be without having a way to determine how strong those “feelings” are in what can only be an anthropocentric analysis that cannot take into account experiences that humans would not be able to experience to begin with, and to which we would be biased towards protecting those who are most similar to us, not those who contribute the most to the sustainability of our ecosystem.
Imho, we should stop breeding animals for human purposes like crazy because that’s gonna destroy our ecosystem. Though I expect this might lead to compromises that don’t match the more extreme vegan ideas. but I’m not convinced that driving veganism to the extreme is something advisable anyway.
Also, note that in some cases this even applies to some plants. The Borneo island is more and more being overrun with palm tree plantations because palm oil makes so much money there… we are removing jungle and more and more ecosystems are being lost, disturbing a balance that is likely to hit us in the face… biodiversity is good for our own adaptability, and I would say that endangering so many species at this rate is gonna hit back to us at some point… it goes against our own interests to exploit nature this badly. And this can only get worse the more “developed” some countries that used to be rich in diversity & natural resources become. You used to be able to get all kinds of relatively rare tropical fruits for cheap in countries like Malaysia, but that’s becoming increasingly harder little by little, as the country “westernizes”.
Out planet is like one of those “ecospheres” that are left alone in the sun within an hermetically closed jar. You can keep it alive and well for a long time if you manage to hit a good balance… but any change that could destabilize it can end up triggering a chain of events that could devastate even the most evolutionary advanced creatures within it.
Ow… sorry (I think? :P). And I have to thank you too. I enjoy the conversation very much. It helped put into words some things, do some introspection and look deeper into how I think the world might work, trying to challenge my model of it. You have raised some reasonable points that have made me think deeper into some of its aspects, all the while keeping it very respectful.