WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

author=Sated
(somehow)

Well, tallow in paper money seems like a pretty reasonable 'somehow' to be outraged at if you've ever pledged not to contribute to animal suffering at some point in your life.

I'm not vegan or vegetarian though so i can't relate.

author=Mirak
Everything can kill you, protest by not eating anything!

I swear vegetarians in my circle of friends used to be like 1 or 2 but the older i get the more converts it gathers. I wonder if i'll become a vegetarian in the future. I don't know yet, i still love a good grilled piece of flesh.

I get veganism and would be a vegan given the budget and good substitutes. Eventually we'll be able to create synthetic meat exactly similar to murdered animal meat so maybe I'll be a vegan then. (Assuming it happens in my lifetime.)

At the same time, most vegans I know hold that eating an animal that was at the end of its lifespan anyway is fine morally. I would do that too if I knew a good, cheap, easily accessible source of that. ^.^;

author=Gourd_Clae
Eventually we'll be able to create synthetic meat exactly similar to murdered animal meat so maybe I'll be a vegan then. (Assuming it happens in my lifetime.)

Star Trek predicted protein resequencer technology being developed some time around the late 21st to early 22nd century, though by 2150 people still complained that every dish created by it tasted pretty much the same. Eventually it was replaced with superior alien technology.

Vulcans invented and used more advanced food synthesizers before encountering humans, but were still vegetarian and would not eat even synthesized meat, for cultural reasons. In contrast, two hundred years later, humans had become vegetarian as a species but never stopped eating synthesized meat.

Question: If Star Trek style replicators existed, able to create any material by assembling molecules, and able to create the meat of a certain creature after simply scanning that creature's DNA, how many people would eat synthetic human meat? Would you be willing to eat molecularly replicated meat that was scanned from your own body? What about non-specific human meat that was not from any one person?

Yikes, those are good questions. My knee jerk reaction is to say ew that's too nasty to even think about.

With a more involved thought process: I'd say the only reason eating meat of any kind is morally wrong is if there is a consciousness attached to it that can experience death/pain. Following the general code of "Do unto others...", which is one I use to make most of my decisions, I really would rather not feel pain/be eaten. In that case, synthetic human meat (even from my own dna material) is fine to eat since it has no consciousness. Meanwhile an actual living human or animal with a consciousness isn't okay to eat.

That makes some heavy assumptions about consciousness though, and it's entirely possible everything has a consciousness and my moral imperative requires me to not eat anything and wither away and die. (Or the inverse, that I am the only living being with a consciousness and morals allow me to eat everything alive literally yes that babby too)

in before gourd's moral values allow him to be a cannibal I tried to answer it at least. ;w;

See, I feel bad about sentient things dying because of humans because, as a sentient being, I wouldn't wanna die. XD Though I understand humans are just animals, it seems that if we have the mental capacity to choose not to eat other sentient beings - and the means by which to feed ourselves without that food - that not eating other sentient beings is better.

(Not that I think humans are just doing what animals are is a bad argument necessarily.)

It's funny because we need to devour life to prolong ours, whether it's animal or plant life. Well no it's not funny it's kind of badass.

FEEL THE FURY

author=LockeZ

author=Gourd_Clae
Eventually we'll be able to create synthetic meat exactly similar to murdered animal meat so maybe I'll be a vegan then. (Assuming it happens in my lifetime.)

Star Trek predicted protein resequencer technology being developed some time around the late 21st to early 22nd century, though by 2150 people still complained that every dish created by it tasted pretty much the same. Eventually it was replaced with superior alien technology.

Vulcans invented and used more advanced food synthesizers before encountering humans, but were still vegetarian and would not eat even synthesized meat, for cultural reasons. In contrast, two hundred years later, humans had become vegetarian as a species but never stopped eating synthesized meat.

Question: If Star Trek style replicators existed, able to create any material by assembling molecules, and able to create the meat of a certain creature after simply scanning that creature's DNA, how many people would eat synthetic human meat? Would you be willing to eat molecularly replicated meat that was scanned from your own body? What about non-specific human meat that was not from any one person?

as a person who rarely strays from the beef, chicken, pork triumvirate, I doubt it.

It would be pretty silly of me to turn down human meat that has been replicated and nobody has to die for while I eat meat that animals do die for, so no, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

Would it taste good, though? Human meat is white meat, like chicken, so probably doesn't have much of a flavour on its own. But that might mean it's really versatile in cooking as well, just like chicken. Though the texture will probably resemble pork moreso than it resembles chicken, so that may be interesting.