Category: highly speculative

I thought it’s probably worth noting some sci-fi ideas that I remember…

The Ameglian Major Cow (or, Dish of the Day), was the cow in Hitchhiker’s guide book 2, (Restaurant at the end of the Universe), that has been bred to want to be eaten, and when Zaphod Beeblebrox, etc., order steak, the cow goes off to shoot itself, and tells the protagonist, Arthur not to worry: “I’ll be very humane.”

The other thing was chairdogs, that show up in one of the later Dune books. The Tleilaxu are known for taking genetic engineering a bit too far, and one of their exports is a dog that’s been bred until it has become a chair, which massages you. Real ‘creature comforts’. It’s generally used for world building and character development, maybe insinuating that the characters with guilty-pleasure chairdogs, are getting soft.

Interesting, because the artificial selection or genetic engineering leading to these creations is questionable, but the final product is something that inverts or sidesteps morality.

The Ameglian Major Cow is a common thought experiment, as it postulates a question to vegetarians, whether they would eat meat, if it were intelligent, and wanted to be eaten. It’s very hypothetical though.

Chairdogs are closer: if chickens of tomorrow, or other domesticated animals, are ultimately evolved or engineered into simplified protein vats, their ‘souls’ (i.e. CNS) removed, perhaps we’re left with something less problematic, despite the apparent abominating of nature.

Side note: Alex O’Connor, Cosmic Skeptic, has a lot to say, on the philosophy of ethical veganism. Here he answers a question: “Do Animals have a “Right to Life?” – (tl;dw: no. but you should eat less meat)