Lots of thinking is being done of late. Maybe I shouldn't have put down in words my thoughts of finally departing Austin. Its not really a pleasing thought, bonds with people here have become much too strong to leave with any ease. "I'll cross that bridge when I get there.", I keep telling myself.
So the thinking on another topic of late has been the whole value of human life issue. I was talking to a friend earlier in the day about how its horrible that people are voluntarily allowed to die in battle. How true it is, we train our soldiers to essentially kill or be killed during battle and there are "acceptable losses" too.
However humanity works so hard to save lives. We spend huge sums of money towards the research for the cure of deadly diseases, granted to some degree we save lives out of an instinctual desire to keep the human race going. There is however such a large segment of medical research devoted solely to keeping bodies alive, even when there is very little person left in the body. The value of human life is just priceless, we take care of our disabled our sick and our weak, yet we sacrifice all that for an endeavor such as war. Even though we are willing to sacrifice, what is otherwise very precious, human life freely at the altar of war, people tend to cringe should human life be lost in the quest of furthering science. For example the United States' entire space program halts when 6 people are lost in the quest to further science.
Sure you can throw out the argument that those 6 people were highly trained scientists who were foremost in there field with accolades and awards and discoveries in their name from here to Bombay, but then wouldn't that argument also be saying that some human life is more valuable than others. Bluntly stated it's saying we don't care if "grunt" soldier become cannon fodder, but educated scientists are too important to lose. Human life is either important or it isn't, you can't introduce a grey area because then the whole argument will implode.
Then working off the assumption that people view human life as valuable why is it then that we're so willing to sacrifice this assumed valuable resource often when other methods would work just as well. Yet humanity as a whole recoils when human life is lost to further the boundaries of science. Science is the one discipline out of all that can actually help us understand ourselves better than any other at all. Science is the only real contender in the debate to answer that one question, "Why are we here?" Maybe humanity just needs some time, to sort this sort of stuff out. Maybe we're not really wired to sort this stuff out, however it's massively interesting to peer over that cliff of possibility and imagine the valley below. Maybe someday far in the distant murky future we will have people as willing to die for science as people are willing to die for their nation/ideals/beliefs today.
Quoteses:
"Damnit, why are you leaving Austin?" - The Captain
"I've decided not to post here anymore unless it's really necessary to get information out about something." - Parker D.
Linkses:
Onward Christian Soliders
American ingenuity hard at work!
A tragedy of curvaceous proportions
Just lose the pants man, no need to go that far.
About time someone found a use for Nokia phones.
The reason space deaths are such a big deal is that they are so public and you are right they people are values more than others. You don’t even have to try to look to see that in almost every civ/society ever there’s some sort of varying level of importance attached to different people. The death of a leader or hero impacts more people than the death of a field worker. I don’t think that says anything bad about humanity, it’s just a fact. The relation of impact on others to importance is debatable I suppose, but I see it as straightforward. In a small village the death of the doctor could mean a lot of trouble for the rest of the people. In our country the death of the president would be a huge blow, despite what the cynics might say about the office of the president. You could bring in examples with the value of the lives of your loved ones vs random people. Which life is ‘worth more?’ worth more to you? worth more to everyone? Enough examples…
Ideally, we were all created equal, and we should stay equal, but we just don’t. We never will.
And about you leaving Austin, I’ll forgive you as long as you come back and visit every so often…at least every few years.
Posted by: Ram at April 16, 2003 06:06 AMThat first sentence is supposed to read:
The reason space deaths are such a big deal is that they are so public and, you are right, people value the astronauts lives more than other people.
Posted by: Ram at April 16, 2003 06:08 AMok that kitty phone thing is sick. i know its a logical step and there are lots of jokes about turning something into a vibrator, but this time someone has actually done it. sick. still, i hope they get at least one person to buy the service/product.
Posted by: Akash at April 16, 2003 11:38 AMWhy are you congratulation shlep?
Posted by: G at April 16, 2003 03:55 PMyeah, i speak the english
Posted by: G at April 16, 2003 03:56 PMShlep recently graduated from the “Keyur Academy of No Pants Wearing.” Congrats Shelp. Enjoy your freedom from the restraints of cloth around your limbs.
Posted by: Ram at April 16, 2003 05:10 PMYes Sheelpi has in fact graduated from the school of no pants and moved on the school of being whipped!
Posted by: Keyur at April 16, 2003 07:10 PM