Landhund's recent activity

  1. Comment on I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up in ~life

    Landhund
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I am my own moral authority. My morals are not subservient to anyone or anything but me. I may take inspiration from different people or philosophies, but ultimately I get to decide for myself...

    I am my own moral authority. My morals are not subservient to anyone or anything but me.
    I may take inspiration from different people or philosophies, but ultimately I get to decide for myself what is and isn't moral to me.

    The only guilt I feel when fishing is when something happens akin to the one time when catching trout where my triple-hook got caught not only in a trout's jaw but unfortunately also in its eye, clearly causing it a lot of pain and stopping it almost completely from struggling.
    I felt bad for it, because that amount of suffering was unnecessary to my ultimate goal of eating a trout.
    That's what I mean by trying to minimize suffering. My ultimate goal is to eat the meat of an animal (for an affordable price) because I like how it tastes, not that it suffers. Its suffering is an unfortunate side effect. And yes, if I where to decide to never eat meat again, I personally would not cause that suffering, as inadvertent as it may be.

    But my goal is not minimize animal suffering. It's to have a trout for dinner.
    That is what you need to understand: we have fundamentally different priorities when it comes to the life and suffering of animals. I do not feel the need to create some sort of moral high ground for my decision of placing my desire for a baked trout for dinner above its desire to keep swimming in its stream.

    I do emphasize with its pain, its struggle to get away from the hook. I may not know how much exactly it understands about what is happening or how exactly it feels fear, but it is obvious that it is in distress.

    But ultimately it comes down to this: I don't care. At least not to the extent that it stops me from doing it.

    To you (I presume), this few view might be morally reprehensible. To me, it is not.

    It's as though they cannot abide that others may value the lives that they take with such ease.

    You are perfectly free to put such a high value on animal lives. What I don't abide is someone lecturing me on how they find my decision to not do the same morally reprehensible.

    They themselves are not eager to die a fearful painful death but allow others to do same.

    Like I already said, this tactic won't work on me. I am perfectly fine holding animals and humans in separate moral categories.

    7 votes

  2. Comment on I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up in ~life

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    The same way I do not feel guilt at killing billions of bacteria when disinfecting my hands, or squashing a moscito for trying to give me a mildly annoying sting: I value my enjoyment of eating...

    How does one not feel guilt at taking life when there was the easily available choice not to?

    The same way I do not feel guilt at killing billions of bacteria when disinfecting my hands, or squashing a moscito for trying to give me a mildly annoying sting: I value my enjoyment of eating animal products (be it dairy, eggs, honey, or meat) higher than I value the animals life. That doesn't mean I don't try to minimise animal suffering as much as I can. It's just that ultimately my desires trump theirs. It is as simple as that.

    How attached are you to your own consciousness?

    Considering that for all intends and purposes I am my consciousness, I am as attached to it as I am to my own life, which is to say very tightly.

    How much resentment and anguish would you experience at the prospect of losing it all?

    Sort of depends on the exaxt prospect in question. In general, I do not feel any resentment or anguish at the general idea of eventually dying, I've made my peace with that a long time ago. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I want to die, there's still a lot I want to do, but in general I don't fear death in the abstract. I do however have a general unease about the prospect of dying, as in being aware it's either happening or about to happen, but I suspect that's just my hardwired survival instinct doing what's it supposed to do.

    Factory farming all too easily hides us from the repercussions of these choices.

    Let's ignore the fact that factory farming wasn't a topic in my reply. A long time ago there was a post on Reddit asking how one would find a theoretical proposal that everyone had to kill and butcher an animal themselves if they wished to eat their meat. Would they then still want to eat meat?
    My simple answer: yes, hand me the knife, I'll do it myself if you want to. I already catch, kill and gut fish on a irregular basis in order to eat them. And I do so as quickly as possible in order to minimise the fishs suffering (Also the reason I'm against catch-and-release, btw. If you intentionally hurt a fish, it better be in order to eat it).
    It might be economically impractical for me to kill every cow, pig or chicken I wish to eat, but I have no qualms about doing it myself if I had to.

    By the way, now that I have answered your questions honestly and in good faith: this was another good example of guilt tripping that I really dislike about certain vegans.
    Swapping animals and humans in these types of arguments doesn't work on me because this tactic is meant to reveal a (presumably hidden) double standard. But there is nothing to reveal here. I'm well aware that I hold humans and (non-human) animals in separate moral categories. The same way we hold plants or bacteria in different categories. The main difference is where we draw the line about what we consider more important than our own desires.

    16 votes

  3. Comment on I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up in ~life

    Landhund
    Link
    Let's take a step onto this here landmine and see what happens, shall we. I really wish I had the time left today to go as deep into dissecting this article as I would like to, but unfortunately...

    Let's take a step onto this here landmine and see what happens, shall we.

    I really wish I had the time left today to go as deep into dissecting this article as I would like to, but unfortunately I'm pressed for time right now, so the abridged version has to suffice.

    My warning bells went of rather quickly while reading the article, without me being quite sure what caused it.
    But by the time I got to the part about "flipping the script on assumptions about plant-based life", I was able to give my suspicions a name: This article reads way to much like a recruitment speech for a religion/cult for me to ever take it seriously.
    And rightfully so, as the rest of the article showed.

    Just have a look at the following excerpts:

    • "My world has never felt so full of joy and purpose."
    • "It's my ethical North Star - the spiritual anchor that makes everything else make sense."
    • "My mom is still ambivalent about veganism, but she admires how important it is to me and often says she wants to try it."
    • "We can look to these traditions to build a more sustainable future."
    • "Veganism isn't just a diet or a way to lower carbon emissions. It's a philosophy of nonviolence toward nonhuman animals."
    • "Not everyone will experience this same emotional transformation, but I've come to see joy and grief as two inextricable sides of the same coin."
    • And last but most certainly not least, this one that could come almost one-to-one out of a speech of "How to Retain Your Cults Followers": "We share vegan foods and an unspoken understanding of how hard it is to go through life carrying such a heavy burden. What else can we do in this unjust world if not help each other live according to our values? We talk about how broken our planet is and about our hope for leaving it a little bit better."

    Then there is also this gem:

    [...] I don't want to sound judgmental or sanctimonious.

    Bull. Shit.
    This entire thing is filled to the brim with guilt-inducing judgement and sanctimony.

    I'll stop here because if I continue I'll probably start getting personal.

    Non of the personal benefits the author lists are in any way dependent on a vegan diet. You can expand your diet to foreign cuisines and mix/include a variety of different or new fruits/vegetables without turning it into a religion.

    If you want to make me consider a vegan diet, don't make me feel like I'm recruited by a cult.

    15 votes

  4. Comment on Google lays off hundreds of ‘Core’ employees, moves some positions to India and Mexico in ~tech

    Landhund
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I'd say it maps pretty well. Making money, i.e. maximizing profits, is what companies do, it's their raison d'être. It's what differentiates them from *non-*profits. And sure, there are obviously...

    Not sure how well this maps to completely man-made and controlled financial systems.

    I'd say it maps pretty well. Making money, i.e. maximizing profits, is what companies do, it's their raison d'être. It's what differentiates them from *non-*profits. And sure, there are obviously still people in charge of these companies, but that doesn't mean they don't take on a certain life of their own.
    I recently saw a comment somewhere here on tildes that made a very good point: companies are under evolutionary pressure to maximise profitability. Those that do not, get outcompeted by those that do.

    Your penultimate sentence is incidentally exactly the way I usually frame capitalism: as a fire, an energy source, an engine that we can use to drive our society. And like with any energy source, you need to control and contain it, you can*'t* [edited to be negated as intended ] just set it up with no limitations in place, leave it to its own devices and go suprised_pikatchu_face when it goes wrong.
    You wouldn't (I assume) call a burned down house an instance of "late-stage-pyrophilia" just because someone left an uncontained candle unattended. You would call it negligence.

    Same thing with capitalism. There will always be ruthless people that will use every available opportunity to maximise their profits, damn the human costs. As such it is the duty of the government to pass and enforce laws and regulations that punish those people who use those ruthless practices. And for all of us that live in a democracy, it is our duty to elect politicians that pass those laws and hold them accountable if they don't.

    11 votes

  5. Comment on Why do negative topics dominate social media sites, even here? in ~tech

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    One of my currently favourite styles of stories (or storytelling) is sometimes described as "competency porn", essentially stories about skilled (yet still human and thus flawed) people facing...

    Stories about people successfully solving problems can be interesting.

    One of my currently favourite styles of stories (or storytelling) is sometimes described as "competency porn", essentially stories about skilled (yet still human and thus flawed) people facing some serious issues or challenges and then using their skills and knowledge to work through them, often with other, differently skilled people.

    The works of Andy Weir (The Martian and Project Hail Mary) and Denise E. Taylor (The Bobiverse and Quantum Earth series) are good examples of this style of story.

    7 votes

  6. Comment on Why do negative topics dominate social media sites, even here? in ~tech

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    Thank you very much for linking that article about "Ugh, Capitalism"! It perfectly describes a big gripe I have with many social commentators. Especially this part: Soooooo many times I'm reading...

    Thank you very much for linking that article about "Ugh, Capitalism"! It perfectly describes a big gripe I have with many social commentators.
    Especially this part:

    The problem our hero is mad about [...] has virtually always been solved in some other country that the hero admires… which is also capitalist.

    Soooooo many times I'm reading something about some "big problem with/under capitalism" and just think "that's not a problem inherent to capitalism, the social policies in your country just suck."

    11 votes

  7. Comment on Wikipedia "AI" Chrome extension in ~tech

    Landhund
    Link
    That's an interesting and clever use of LLMs. I'm always disappointed to see many people treat ChatGPT and similar services as something like "truth engines", seemingly or even openly believing...

    That's an interesting and clever use of LLMs. I'm always disappointed to see many people treat ChatGPT and similar services as something like "truth engines", seemingly or even openly believing that if the model says it, it must/should be true, when every model that I know of has no concept of truth, facts or basic logic.

    But by using Wikipedia as a basis for a "truth evaluation", you could potentially sidestep that issue and treat those assessments almost as reliable as you see Wikipedia itself to be. Of course that depends on how accurate this project will be.

    I'll see if I can find some time tomorrow to try it out and test its limits.

    8 votes

  8. Comment on Hey, monthly mystery commenters, what's up with the hit-and-runs? in ~tildes

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    I've sometimes played with the idea of adding a "total time to write" counter to many of my replies, since I'm very often the exact same. Reminds me of the old quote: "If I had more time, I would...

    (Total time to write this comment: 57 minutes.)

    I've sometimes played with the idea of adding a "total time to write" counter to many of my replies, since I'm very often the exact same.

    Reminds me of the old quote: "If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter."

    19 votes

  9. Comment on Megathread: April Fools’ Day 2024 on the internet in ~talk

    Landhund
    Link
    The Lockpicking Lawyer shows off how his 36 Inch King Dick Wrecks Locks! I can also fully recommend his other April Fools videos (see the description of the linked video). They are always an...

    The Lockpicking Lawyer shows off how his 36 Inch King Dick Wrecks Locks!

    I can also fully recommend his other April Fools videos (see the description of the linked video). They are always an absolute masterclass of innuendo!

    30 votes

  10. Comment on Internet outage hits several African countries as undersea cables fail in ~tech

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    Quick heads up, that's not quite true, but a common and understandable misunderstanding. To compress a long story very short: DC is theoretically more efficient than AC for long transmission...

    AC is much better for distance

    Quick heads up, that's not quite true, but a common and understandable misunderstanding.

    To compress a long story very short: DC is theoretically more efficient than AC for long transmission lines, but since transforming DC up and down is both complex and less efficient, AC is usually preferable for most applications.

    See the Wikipedia page for High Voltage Direct Current for more info if interested.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Bobiverse book 5 (Not till we are lost) - coming Sept 5 2024 in ~books

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    Heavens River is very much a different story told, both in scope and style. I'm very happy if've know that before I've read it, because if you go into it expecting more of the same, you will be...

    Heavens River is very much a different story told, both in scope and style. I'm very happy if've know that before I've read it, because if you go into it expecting more of the same, you will be dissapointed. That isn't to say it's bad. Just differend. (Also don't worry, I'll keep this free of spoilers.)

    It has some slow parts towards the end, but overall it's still a good story. Although much more contained, both in scope and consequences. It mostly follows a single Bob, only sometimes jumping to a secondary or tertiary one, but all directly connected to the main story.
    It also sets up some interesting (potential) future conflict that was already brewing during the first trilogy.

    All in all I'd recommend it, just be aware that it will be a different story (but with the same Bobs).

    9 votes

  12. Comment on Ant geopolitics in ~enviro

    Landhund
    Link
    Kurzgesagt has made some videos about this topic as well, in case someone prefers videos over articles: Video 1: World War Ant Video 2: Ant Megacolony

    Kurzgesagt has made some videos about this topic as well, in case someone prefers videos over articles:

    Video 1: World War Ant
    Video 2: Ant Megacolony

    4 votes

  13. Comment on Finland used to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world – how the country halved it and saved countless lives in ~health.mental

  14. Comment on American Bar Association calls for US courts to find a different word than master, citing history and negative associations in ~humanities

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    Unfortunately no, the Euphemism Treadmill has been in high gear for the last 10 years (particularly in the USA) and shows no signs of slowing down.

    Unfortunately no, the Euphemism Treadmill has been in high gear for the last 10 years (particularly in the USA) and shows no signs of slowing down.

    4 votes

  15. Comment on American Bar Association calls for US courts to find a different word than master, citing history and negative associations in ~humanities

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    Not just degrees, I'm currently studying for my master electrician certification. What am I supposed to call myself instead? Although admittedly I am partial to being called "Thor". "Zeus" might...

    Not just degrees, I'm currently studying for my master electrician certification. What am I supposed to call myself instead?
    Although admittedly I am partial to being called "Thor". "Zeus" might be more thematically fitting, but I'm a lot less rapey than him, so there's that...

    3 votes

  16. Comment on Finnair is now weighing passengers to update weight and balance calculations – identity of the volunteers remains anonymous in ~transport

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    Assuming human psychology hasn't changed dramatically since the last time they did a volunteer-based survey, they still could get useful information: If the population as a whole has gotten...

    Assuming human psychology hasn't changed dramatically since the last time they did a volunteer-based survey, they still could get useful information: If the population as a whole has gotten heavier, what is considered a "normal" weight would have changed with it, hence people with higher weight would be less self conscious about it and more willing to volunteer. This in turn would result in a higher average weight of the volunteers.

    7 votes

  17. Comment on In search of approachable, readable philosophy (or philosophy-adjacent) books to help me navigate the world in ~books

    Landhund
    Link
    If you are open to podcasts, I would recommend "Philosophise This!" by Stephen West. He goes through the history of philosophy basically chronologically from pre-socratic all the way to the...

    If you are open to podcasts, I would recommend "Philosophise This!" by Stephen West. He goes through the history of philosophy basically chronologically from pre-socratic all the way to the multitudes of modern philosophical theories. He explains every author and/or philosophy in understandable terms and builds only on topics that were already covered in previous episodes.

    It might take a bit until you get to episodes that cover the branches of philosophy you mentioned, but by then you will have an understanding of most of what came before it, what it meant and how it influenced those branches.

    10 votes

  18. Comment on Why do some educators dislike teaching people who don't already know? in ~life

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    Funnily enough I was that student just a few hours ago. I'm back at school full time getting my master electrician certification. I've helped a few fellow students with various topics and some...

    Funnily enough I was that student just a few hours ago.

    I'm back at school full time getting my master electrician certification. I've helped a few fellow students with various topics and some even semi-jokingly asked if I've considered becoming a teacher after getting my master title.

    But every Thursday we've got a practical class where I've been paired with one of the lowest performing students in order to help them out. The guy is unfortunately a complete lost cause. So much so where I seriously wonder how he even got through the journeyman exams.
    If I where to take as much time as he would need to fully understand every topic, we could only cover about 20% of the syllabus in the available time. And ultimately I have to take care that I myself get through the exams.

    5 votes

  19. Comment on Steam Winter Sale 2023: Hidden gems in ~games

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    Even though it's already the topic of the main comment, I'll take this chance to just say that if you like Obra Dinn, there is a very good chance you'll also like the Outer Wilds, and vice versa....

    Even though it's already the topic of the main comment, I'll take this chance to just say that if you like Obra Dinn, there is a very good chance you'll also like the Outer Wilds, and vice versa. Both rely entirely on your ability to connect clues and context to figure stuff out and both tell a very engaging story.

    4 votes

  20. Comment on Steam Winter Sale 2023: Hidden gems in ~games

    Landhund
    Link Parent
    While I kinda see where that comparison comes from, I would liken Chants of Sennaar much more to Havens Vault (a game I can wholeheartedly recommend), since translating an unknown language is the...

    While I kinda see where that comparison comes from, I would liken Chants of Sennaar much more to Havens Vault (a game I can wholeheartedly recommend), since translating an unknown language is the main focus of those to games. In Outer Wilds the actual act of translation is done by the tool, your task is to figure out how the pieces of information all fit together.

    All that said, I hope you pick up Outer Wilds and enjoy it, playing through it for the first time and figuring out all its little secrets is an amazing experience!

    4 votes