Now, the most mindless epidemic we're in the middle of right now is this absurd battle between proponents of genetically engineered food and the organic elite. It's an idiotic debate. It has to stop. It's a debate about words, about metaphors. It's ideology, it's not science. Every single thing we eat, every grain of rice, every sprig of parsley, every brussel sprout has been modified by man. You know, there weren't tangerines in the Garden of Eden. There wasn't any cantaloupe. There weren't Christmas trees. We made it all. We made it over the last 11,000 years. And some of it worked and some of it didn't. We got rid of the stuff that didn't. Now we can do it in a more precise way. And there are risks, absolutely. But we can put something like vitamin A into rice, and that stuff can help millions of people, millions of people, prolong their lives. You don't want to do that? I have to say, I don't understand it.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Quote of the Day: science denialism...
From Michael Specter's lecture at TED:
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I enjoy that he's invoking the garden of Eden in a lecture defending advancements of science.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Specter, humans have been practicing selective breeding for thousands of years. This is just how we do it in the 21st century. People just don't like the idea of messing with nature, perhaps invoking creationist arguments.
ReplyDeleteHowever, ever since the first humans began planting crops and domesticating animals, we set foot on a path to changing nature for our benefit forever.
To paraphrase Francis Bacon: we must vex and torture nature, to get her to reveal her secrets, and then use them for our benefit! (not animals though!
ReplyDeleteAM: Two issues, first, is it wrong to selectively breed animals? Suppose I want a new breed of dog, and I mate a large Boxer with a miniature Poodle, is this OK for human advancement? Or am I enabling rape in the animal kingdom?
ReplyDeleteSecond, there are some who say the planet itself is one big organism, so to "vex and torture nature" would be exploitation of this organism, no?
RJ: I think animal rights people would argue that breeding is wrong because you are basically using animals for human benefit. Also, in a more concrete sense: animal breeding has seriously messed up some dogs and cats. For example, bulldogs that can no longer give birth naturally etc...
ReplyDeleteAs for the earth being a giant organism... I don't know what that means. Not to be dismissive, but I think you can make a distinction, ethically, between plants,rocks, rivers etc...; and animals. Nature is just a bunch of stuff; whereas animals have interests, feel pain etc...