unmagical
@unmagical@lemmy.ml
- Comment on Why have we as a society just accepted the increasingly blinding bright lights of cars? 1 day ago:
Politicians are a million years old and don’t drive themselves.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 day ago:
That is fair.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 day ago:
I must admit, I know less of Islam than I do of Judaism or Christianity (being an agnostic atheist former nondenominational protestant christian myself); though I can understand coming to the conclusion that bioengineering is one of the moral tests in a world where humans are allowed to be but lack a specific dominion or subjugation over.
Unfortunately, I don’t have concrete resources for you at this time, as my understanding is borne of years of passive interest rather than specific study.
Do you believe that your moral opposition to this field of study should forcibly be respected by all people or that is a personal guidance you alone must follow?
- Comment on [deleted] 1 day ago:
A component of a component of a living thing is not inherently alive. We know neurons are alive not because they are part of the composition of the brain, but because they exhibit properties of life. Neurons being alive doesn’t mean that atoms are alive, for instance. Similarly the brain also contains water and fats which are definitely not alive.
You’ve touched on a very old question in biology: “what does it mean to be alive?” and the answer to that is going to change somewhat on who you talk to and what your subject is. Cells are alive, but in a completely different way from both “simple” multicellular life and “complex” cellular life, but I’m not really aware of a clear boundary existing.
Like all fields of study, there are orders of magnitude more information available at higher levels of research than what most people are taught in school. Clinging to the simplified views of biology organized for university or lower grades as being the end all be all of the field is a great way to harbor ignorance and bigotry.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 day ago:
I encourage you to learn more about the subject and close some of your knowledge gaps. You still may not agree with myself on the matter, but you’ll hopefully be able to elucidate your concerns more concretely. As it stands now, however, “idk” and “it rubs me the wrong way” seem like a fear of the unknown which is an insecure basis upon which to construct a belief system or guide your principals.
I’m curious which greater religion you espouse. I’d argue that virtually any human action is one of alerting, and while predation, gathering, locomotion, and vocalization could be ascribed to alter in a manner consistent with a god given design, every action from cooking onward directly alters “creation” in a manner not inherent to our biology. That is to say, once we adopted tools and fire we ascended above the actions of other animals.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 day ago:
It’s just another frontier of science with its own risks and rewards. Sure there are ways to use or produce it immoraly, but it’s not inherently immoral.
DNA is just a polymer, one we have some capabilities in manipulating. It is not inherently alive, nor do it’s instructions necessarily have to relate to something living. When processed by living things they contain instructions on producing proteins, but they don’t need to be processed by living things and could be used to store arbitrary information in a dense environment.
Neurons, while cellular are not alive in and of themselves. They require a full host to operate, but are essentially weighted dynamic switches (interneurons), environmental inputs (sensory neurons), or outputs (motor neurons). Devoid of a host they are inert, but provided the right artificial environment they can function. “Function” just means operating in that input, switch, output mode though–it doesn’t mean being alive as a macroorganism, being sentient, or having feelings. Using a handful of farmed human neurons to play Doom is more an exercise in controlling the dynamic environment needed for the switch connections to be made, therefore, than an exercise in enslaving a conscience person.
Nature has been the source of inspiration and development since before the dawn of humans. I see no reason it should stop at the doorstep of biology–especially when the extent is cultured environments developed in a lab to be a facsimile of a part of a living thing. A part of living thing does not a living thing make.
- Comment on Put your seat back or no? 3 days ago:
If it bothers you [pay about five times as much].
That’s a very grounded and reasonable take.
- Comment on Whites-Only Community in Arkansas Sued for Discrimination 3 days ago:
“I was hoping I would be accepted. I see myself as a white woman,” she said. “I wanted that land.
Sounds pretty white to me.
- Comment on Put your seat back or no? 3 days ago:
I’m 6’4" (193cm). The seat in front of me reclining means my knees are pressed into the seat back, and that’s uncomfortable for both of us. I don’t want to do that to anyone else so I never put my seat back.
- Comment on Lastest Riot Vanguard Update Can Brick Your Hardware (If You're a Cheater) 1 week ago:
That’s definitely too heavy handed. It’s not uncommon for anti cheat to flag someone erroneously, and to just hand an executioner the ability to nuke your computer without any form of redress is asinine and anti consumer, if not criminal.
- Comment on Rejecting Cookies 1 week ago:
We and our 19,324 legitimate business partners use cookies to offer you the best experience possible!
- Comment on When there are news stories of people drowning in UK canals (which are waist-deep) why are there so few people showing scepticism? 2 weeks ago:
People can drown in like 1 inch of water. Falling can be startling, even more so if you’ve got a brief drop, are suddenly wet, and you broke something.
My friend pulled a guy out of a canal after he’d absentmindedly walked off the edge. The guy was severely bloodied up and broke multiple ribs, and had my friend not pulled him out, the guy very likely would have drowned.
- Comment on Chad 5 weeks ago:
American dad lookin mutherfucker
- Comment on Should I tell my dad that his mistake almost cost me a fortune? 5 weeks ago:
You can absolutely bring this up super casually. I don’t know how often y’all talk specifically about work but even as a response to a “how you doing” a “just hanging in there, visited the [customer name] house for a follow up recently.” is sufficient, informative, and blameless. Your dad can ask for more deets if he wants, and you can go all the way to “one of the joints failed.”
- Comment on Anon has a very specific goal 1 month ago:
Step one would be to meet some twins.
- Comment on Are there any good protest songs from the past few years? 1 month ago:
- Comment on When you block someone on Lemmy, does it stop them from seeing your posts? 1 month ago:
Guess they’ll just have to block and move on with life.
- Comment on When you block someone on Lemmy, does it stop them from seeing your posts? 1 month ago:
Why do you want to violate other’s autonomy?
Do you try to control the actions of other people to conform to your personal will in real life to?
If you don’t like what someone is saying it doing you always have the option of ignoring it and moving on with your life.
- Comment on 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡 1 month ago:
Which one is Preston?
- Comment on 謝謝（不,我沒有精神分裂症） 1 month ago:
The US also has reams of data on every American. The difference is America is using to control, capture, and kill people.
- Comment on How do I actually find a job that isn't retail? 1 month ago:
Know people.
It’s literally the only way.
Go to job fairs, talk loudly about your skills when out and about and with anyone who’ll listen (I know a literal expert that does this. He works in multiple sectors including a couple different governments, has like 8 jobs making an absolute killing), meet people online, go back to school, attend a church, anything that let’s you get in front of people and talk about what you (can) do.
And if something is in your ability, but not your professional experience lie a little.
- Comment on How do I actually find a job that isn't retail? 1 month ago:
There are worse things than saying “no.”
Companies aren’t hiring people without experience, and it’s cheaper to not bother upscaling your employees and just leave them trapped in their current job.
No one cares if you show up in person to ask for a job anymore, and if their hiring system is all online it can even be a bad impression because it indicates that you can’t find information from their website and follow instructions.
This seems like the kind of boomer advice my dad thinks still works and hasn’t worked in decades.
- Comment on This keeps me up at night 1 month ago:
The rotation is partly actively maintained by muscular action from the cat. This is a chemical process that requires fuel and releases heat. This also eventually tires the cat.
Given the relatively low mass involved this really doesn’t have much potential for large scale generation. An Ox mill would be more practical in most cases.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
The Jewish delegation reflected a broad cross-section of rabbinic and communal leadership.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Executive Vice President of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in Washington, DC, was joined by Rabbi Chaim David Zwiebel of Agudath Israel, the mayors of Kiryas Joel and New Square, Rabbi David Niederman of Satmar in Williamsburg, Rabbi Moshe Margaretten of the Tzedek Association, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of New York’s Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.
Also in attendance were Holocaust survivor Jerry Worski, Council Member of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Jonathan Burkan, investor Paul Packer, Holocaust Memorial Council Chairman Jeff Miller, Matt Brooks of the Republican Jewish Coalition, and Rabbi Harold Loss of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, recently targeted in an antisemitic attack.
Joining them from New Jersey was Edan Alexander, a released hostage from Gaza, who attended together with his parents.
Now you know.
- Comment on 1 month ago:
He didn’t.
- Comment on Do "rich" superheroes have to be rich in order for the story to work? 1 month ago:
Lewis Robinson
- Comment on Ficken Zodiacs 2 months ago:
Was the Argentinian flag not enough of a hint at the original message of the meme that we had to append a separate meme specifically to call out a prominent omission?
- Comment on Working outside 2 months ago:
There’s some sadistic undertone to bringing your artificial brain made from pumping lightning into rocks to a field of underlying building blocks.
- Comment on Explain it like I'm 5: Why is everyone on speakerphone in public? 2 months ago:
People use speakerphone in public because they want you to join in their public conversation.
- Comment on ⛪💥🤓🍆 2 months ago:
FWIW there’s also a map showing relative interest per geographic region, so if that was you, well, I know what state you connected to the internet from.
