Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Loud Whispers]

Idle question: is it more acceptable in some fashion (and if so, why) to create a slave race of smarter chimpanzees than to create a slave race of obedient, dumb human thralls?

Well humans would fall a lot closer to human empathy territory. Being humans and all. Chimpanzees would too I guess, but they're really hairy and not as close to humans as humans.
But for a slave race, if you really wanted people to not be concerned by it, you'd want them as far from humans as possible. Something like giant cockroaches maybe.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Poor guys down at district 9

[MonkeyHead]

CAT FOOOOOD!

[Karnewarrior]

No slaves, but a race of sentient dolphins would be awesome since they could trade underwater services like scouting for oil in exchange for man-made tools and such to build an underwater society. Dolphin Banana Republics.

[Adequate Swimmer]

Just how would they use their man made goods, i wonder?

[Cthulhu]

I'd like to say here that I'm extremely skeptical of the dolphin communication experiment listed earlier.  If it shows up in Nature or the like, call me.  Until then, I'm going to continue to think that dolphins are very smart, but not on a human level.

The tool use thing is also a big thing.  Even if they are smart, without graspers it'd be pretty tough to form a real civilization.

[Graknorke]

I'd like to say here that I'm extremely skeptical of the dolphin communication experiment listed earlier.  If it shows up in Nature or the like, call me.  Until then, I'm going to continue to think that dolphins are very smart, but not on a human level.

The tool use thing is also a big thing.  Even if they are smart, without graspers it'd be pretty tough to form a real civilization.

Well there's mouths for a start. They can at least hold things.
And I think someone I know once mentioned dolphins being able to carry things with their vaginal muscles but I'm pretty dubious of that claim.

[Flying Dice]

They could have civilization in a sense, just not one that matches our idea of it. Our conception of civilization is (naturally) centered on our own behaviors and norms; we build cities and use tools, therefore civilization is partially defined by tool use and citybuilding.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

From a theoretical standpoint, a civilization of sapient dolphins would be limited to hunter-gatherer organization unless some genius foolish, foolish human provided them with powered exoskeletons equipped with proper grasping appendages.

But no one would ever do that, no, I they am are not some stereotypical Bond villain.

[Kogan Loloklam]

Dolphins are tool users. They use australian sponges to handle spines of sea urchins while rooting in the dirt for food. They have also been trained by humans to use tools to accomplish other tasks. Their lack of thumbs is a big problem, but a dolphin chemist could, in theory, use stuff found in the sea to make a inverted depth charge to sink boats with. Something with metal destroying properties without the big boom that hurts poor dolphin organs. And without using their extra grasper too!

[Karnewarrior]

Well, we know that Neanderthals had Religion, or at least we're fairly sure they did, and we're fairly sure that Dolphins don't, so we know that Dolphins must be either less intelligent or less curious than Neanderthals. Or they somehow know SCIENCE without any kind of lead-up.

And we could probably make some tools developed especially for Dolphin use, what with everything becoming push-button. If Dolphins can figure out how to push buttons and pull levers, and they are dexterous enough to replace some medium-sized parts, we could make a little Dolphin Society, I think.

We'd need to breed them to be a bit less intelligent though and for some reason I think that would be seen as unethical. People are really weird about creating sentients.

[Hanslanda]

only on bay12 do we contemplate the strategies of a war against dolphinkind.

This made my day.

[Azthor]

General Ripper says we should nuke them into oblivion... Then again, he always says that.

[darkrider2]

General Ripper says we should nuke them into oblivion... Then again, he always says that.

He's never been wrong...

[Hanslanda]

General Ripper says we should nuke them into oblivion... Then again, he always says that.

He's never been wrong...

Except that one time, when we should have nuked them into annihilation. The Imperials REALLY didn't appreciate that time.

[Siquo]

General Ripper says we should nuke them into oblivion... Then again, he always says that.

I'm just glad there isn't a general Flipper equivalent.

Which makes me wonder, would the dolphins survive a nuclear attack against the surface-dwellers? I guess not, since they still need the same air to breathe...