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[Makrond]

Lol, guys, I was being sarcastic. There, I changed my signature to the one I use on every forum. A bit harsh, but almost necessary seeing how my fingers tend to accidentally ignite forum threads

Eh, there's ways to make a post look sarcastic by changing the wording, but in your example, it didn't leave much room to be interpreted as sarcasm. In fact, I'm not entirely sure it was; but I'm willing to take your word for it.

Anyway, I've never seen a carrot flinch. And I've cut a lot of them. Also, I've never seen grass try to get out from under my foot. Some people need to stop taking teh 8cid.

[DonerKebab]

More importantly, why is it wrong to eat someone's pet?  Or is it just a bad idea?  Dwarf Fortress rules that you may not eat a pet unless it's owner is dead.  Is this ethical?  Then again, why is it ok to eat someone's pet if the goblins kill it, but not if you kill it yourself?

Is it wrong to trade a dwarf bone amulet you loot off your enemy to other dwarves?  Why?

[Shurikane]

If you kill someone's pet, the owner gets an unhappy thought.

But then, it's easy to make a dwarf happy.  Nowadays I have to be a complete asshole to my outpost if I want 'em to actually become unhappy...

[Muz]

Lol, guys, I was being sarcastic. There, I changed my signature to the one I use on every forum. A bit harsh, but almost necessary seeing how my fingers tend to accidentally ignite forum threads

Eh, there's ways to make a post look sarcastic by changing the wording, but in your example, it didn't leave much room to be interpreted as sarcasm. In fact, I'm not entirely sure it was; but I'm willing to take your word for it.

Heh, there's no real point in trying to look sarcastic. I've learned to talk about ethics with a straight face, especially when using formal theories. I actually had a good presentation last week where I brought up the issue of whether humans should be forced to breed with certain other humans in order to produce better children. It's pretty obviously wrong, but the way people responded to it made it a great discussion


I saw one of my dwarves eat his own pet in one of my early games before I learned how farming worked. There was a very unhappy thought "He was angry that he had to eat his pet to survive recently" or something like that.

[Wolfius]

I actually had a good presentation last week where I brought up the issue of whether humans should be forced to breed with certain other humans in order to produce better children. It's pretty obviously wrong, but the way people responded to it made it a great discussion

Actually depends on how you balance long-term group needs against individual rights; especially in a modern society that's rather light in terms of evolutionary selection pressures.

Fortunately, genetic engineering should make the issue moot befor too much damage is done, as otherwise I'd fully support a voluntary eugenics program(with the right marketing an involuntary program shouldn't be necessary unless you waited until the gene pool had really gone to hell with accumulative negative mutations).

[Qmarx]

Anybody who thinks a plant can "feel pain" needs to seriously read up on neurology and remind himself that plants don't have any.

Plants do have a vascular system, and respond noticeably to having pieces of them cut off or burnt.  Whether or not they can "feel pain" is an issue about how much you can anthropomorphize plants.  Or, for that matter, animals.

[G-Flex]

A mechanical, vascular response is far-flung from the pain response in animals. It's completely apples and oranges.

A mouse trap reacts noticeably to getting hit with something; it snaps shut. I sure as hell am not about to say that mouse traps feel pain.

Pain is defined as the ability to suffer due to physical trauma, and if you don't like that definition, then come up with another one, but I guarantee you it's going to involve neurology.

In fact, I'm not even sure why I have to argue this. A plant having a mechanical reaction to being cut does not involve any sort of thought or neurological processes. Seriously, this is just getting silly.

[John Johnston]

I thought this was going to be a thread about "which foods is it best to feed your dwarfs on, and which foods should be avoided."  Personally I like to order in food from Giant creatures (especially GCS and Giant Toads) on the grounds that a) the more expensive the food, the happier it probably makes the dwarf and b) I like the idea that my dwarfs are commissioning the death of GCS.
I suspect a *gutter cruor biscuit* should probably be avoided, too.

IRL I'm a veggie, although more from a distrust of meat processing than from a desire not to slaughter hapless animals.  I don't think it's possible to live without causing harm to some creatures somewhere, but I also don't believe in wasting time agonising over guilt for something trivial like theoretically denying the right of a bunny rabbit to graze in the garden  .

As for DF, I personally try to cause the poor dwarfs the minimum harm practical (although as the Terminator once remarked after seeing a couple of dwarfs running around:  "It is in their nature to destroy one another"); I have no qualms about exterminating goblins and wildlife, but I won't (usually) kill dwarfs for kicks, and I won't murder traders either. 

I'd quite like to see the "thoughts" of dead dwarfs updated when they die, so that instead of reading "he has sustained major injuries recently" it might read something like "was killed by suchandsuch and is communing with insertworshippedeityhere in heaven" or "is in hell awaiting the arrival of stilllivingdemonworshippedbythedwarf" and things like that.  It would give more "closure" to the death than having them just listed as if they were still alive.

[Kidiri]

Schlock Mercenary has worded it perfectly: Food that talks isn't food.

[Wolfius]

Schlock Mercenary has worded it perfectly: Food that talks isn't food.

Ah, a classic.

Now you have be browsing the archives again. 

[Porpoisepower]

Anybody who thinks a plant can "feel pain" needs to seriously read up on neurology and remind himself that plants don't have any.

That depends on your personal beliefs.

Plants may not have neurons, but some people that they're spiritual entities are just as livid as a humans.

Besides ever watch the Mythbuster's Episode about the pschic plants?

They hooked up some house plants to some polygram equipment and directed mean and happy thoughts at it...  They actually registered significant responses.

To be fair when they locked the plant up in a steel box and some other insulating from external forces, the plant stopped responding.  However they were also isolating the plant from Tory, so... yeah... creepy.

In anycase it's more than nerves that make a person unique and self-aware.

Edit:

Schlock Mercenary has worded it perfectly: Food that talks isn't food.

A muffin and  cupcake are in an oven.
The muffin says to hte cupcake "Hey is it getting hot in here?"
The Cupcake says

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

AAAAAAA TALKING MUFFIN!!!!

[Duke 2.0]

Schlock Mercenary has worded it perfectly: Food that talks isn't food.

 Then again...