Mike Smirnoff:
Hi all,Thanks for all your responses.
Che:
Thanks for your experience that you share. It helps me. If I take such a job, I will constantly have to see
rats and constantly have to remember that my livelihood is directly dependent on these killed rats and there
will be constant remorse. As much as I could rationalize that I'm not killing them, if I were honest, I would
accept that there is direct dependence of my livelihood on killed rats.Yes, they will not stop killing or experimenting
if I did. But that does not mean that I become a part of their system.
Terry:
Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, it all depends on where I draw the line. We all live and we all kill or are
responsible for killing (through breathing, walking, eating), that is a truism of life. But what you say,
not sacrificing an animal for science, that makes sense to me. I kind of think the same way. Neuroscientists
rationalize that progress in understanding the brain could not be made without animal experiments. Firstly,
I doubt that. Secondly, maybe there is no reason for such progress. Neuroscience is just another industry now
and animals are just commodities which are shipped worldwide.
Bardo:
Thanks. My concern is not about developing any identity. My concern is with doing the right thing. There is
some relativism in these things, but for some things, I like to believe that it is better to have them black
and white. Yes, my concern is with achieving Nibbana, but morality would be my concern even without the
possibility of Nibbana. I think morality is something one would have to develop even after attaining
Arahatship (a guess, I'm not there). There's a mathematician named Aleksandrov who said, towards the end of
his life "I'm not interested in Mathematics, I'm interested in morality." Always rung to me. Not to make any
identity.
Jim:
I would like to believe that rats are given decent treatment in the lab. Or so I was told. No, the research
is intended as fundamental research to understand auditory systems, not for curing anything. Even if it were
for curing anything, I'd wonder, why humans could not be used for the same. There may be another employment
option, that would be working for a communications company developing 5G systems -- and all these companies
care about is making money with no concern for higher frequency radiations on the human mind. No one depends
on me financially currently but that is a feedback loop: I don't have much money, so family is not an option,
and because I don't have family, I can keep myself in low-paying jobs.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I have told this particular professor that I'll not be working on research
which uses animals. Thus, this job opportunity is gone.
This will take me to the next question: working in a company which develops 5G mobile systems. I may or may not
be involved with development of those systems. It's possible I may be able to steer myself just to the irrelevant
math side of things. How do you all think of morality questions related to some thing like this.
I've heard bad things about 5g, too. I was informed the other day by a vendor at the kona pure farmer's market that 5g neworks will be used to implant thoughts in your head. He was also the first one to tell me you could get the corona virus by drinking corona beer. And that megadoses of vitamin c would prevent infection with said virus.
My elder son has a company selling light bulbs. Actually, they used to sell them but now they put in whole systems, stadium lighting and municipals. The problem is, the municipals want him to put in added hookups for surveillance cameras. He is uncomfortable with this, but may not be in a position to say no.
There are ethical jobs. Try work with bacteria. Perhaps the uberization of science will make you rich. The scam is called, "intellectual property." Did you know they patented the human genome? (Is that ethical?)
You can do cloning and dna sequencing in your garage at room temperature for under a million bucks nowadays. I'd pay good money for a elephant 18 inches tall.
terry
