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'Soylent' Dawkins? Atheist mulls 'taboo against cannibalism' ending as lab-grown meat improves
What if human meat is grown? Could we overcome our taboo against cannibalism?"
- @RichardDawkins - 6:15 AM - 3 Mar 2018
https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/969939225180364805
https://archive.fo/kSmgi
"Lab-grown 'clean' meat could be on sale by end of 2018, says producer"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/clean-meat-lab-grown-available-restaurants-2018-global-warming-greenhouse-emissions-a8236676.html
"'Soylent' Dawkins? Atheist mulls 'taboo against cannibalism' ending as lab-grown meat improves"
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/6/richard-dawkins-mulls-taboo-against-cannibalism-en/
and:
https://www.nationalreview.com/blog/corner/richard-dawkins-eating-human-meat-cannibalism-taboo/
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday March 10 2018, @03:27AM (10 children)
Cannibalism isn't exactly uncommon in the animal world. Technology could allow us to come full circle.
Ok, why really? First, for the amusement of Altered Carbon-style future trillionaires/quadrillionaires. Second, for the actual cannibal fetishists [theguardian.com] that are among us. I expect their ranks would... swell if the lab-grown/cultured human meat option becomes available, since there would be not need to be any death and suffering involved, and legal issues are either resolved or avoided (nobody to tattle on you if you grow and eat your own human meat). Third, academic study. We could emulate what it's like to be trapped on a ship and eating your crew mates. Fuck it, we'll hand out a PhD or two for that.
None of these reasons are very compelling for most people, but there would certainly be some individuals who would be into this.
What Does Human Flesh Taste Like? | Secrets of Everything | Brit Lab [youtube.com]
Always Sunny - Human Meat [youtube.com]
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(Score: 1, Troll) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday March 10 2018, @04:11AM
The old ones don't get to enjoy their golden years
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Saturday March 10 2018, @06:15AM (4 children)
If you read the article you linked to, you'll learn that at least for this cannibal, the killing part was an integral part of his fantasy, so lab-grown human meat would certainly not have satisfied him.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday March 10 2018, @07:24AM (3 children)
Key words being "this cannibal" and "fantasy". They could play pretend, but with human meat. I linked that case to show that cannibalism is still happening these days, making headlines, despite an abundance of calories, and because in that case, the cannibal apparently only killed the "victim" because it was consensual. For every one extreme "ethical" cannibal that wants to end someone else's life, there are probably a larger number of others who would settle for eating a non-criminal amount of someone else's flesh, and even more who would readily jump at the opportunity to try lab-grown human flesh. And of course, some plain folks would try lab-grown human meat just so they could say they did.
We could say there are opportunistic, homicidal, situational, etc. cannibals. Is lab-grown human flesh a gateway to cannibalistic murder? Or a way to control the urge the kill? Why can't cannibals just eat some raw pork instead of lab-grown human meat to get their jollies off? Maybe because even though they would know the experience is synthetic and without a victim, just knowing the flesh has an authentic taste and is genetically human can fulfill the desire for the "forbidden fruit".
And you can apply everything above to "vampires" as well. I can see it now: an entrepreneurial biohacker creates a synthetic "True Blood" that can be safely imbibed by sanguinarians [wikipedia.org] without giving them AIDS or something, and sells it for a tidy profit. I'm thinking $250 a pint. Beats peddling kombucha or cold-brewed coffee, as long as you can reach enough customers on etsy or patreon.
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(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @06:25PM (2 children)
It still happens, but why would this be any different from rape? Anybody who would make use of the pretend version already is. Humans probably taste like pork or chicken, but there's not very many folks out there willing to say and few are willing to try.
There are folks that do enjoy role playing rape, it's a very different situation. Same goes for people that are willing to pretend to be eating people, there's no reason to use meat that's got human DNA as you're probably not going to be able to tell the difference without a DNA test.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday March 10 2018, @06:46PM (1 child)
Like a placebo effect, except that knowing it's real could make it more effective in satisfying the fetish.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @09:25PM
No. Some people just need to be locked up.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday March 10 2018, @06:53AM
Is that what the kids are calling it these days? A "rank"?
I can't keep up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @10:50AM
Oh I great, now I am just waiting the movement against systematic oppression of cannibals in our society.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @02:06PM (1 child)
Cannibalism in nature means exposing oneself to the full array of pathogens afflicting the one you eat; none of "we're different species!" protection whatsoever. The danger outweighs the gain except in the direst of circumstances (a probable early death from disease is still preferable to a certain immediate one from hunger).
With the disease factor excised, meat is just meat.
But having said that, once the novelty factor wears off, there is absolutely no reason synth-human meat would sell well on taste alone. The evolutional pressure has been all for DISpreferring same-species meat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @06:28PM
In general, eating animals that eat other animals leads to that sort of problem. When it's humans it's even worse because humans generally have the same diseases that other humans can get. Plus, there's the issue of our agreement that if I kill you for food, I can reasonably expect that you won't either.
Considering that the only way to know what man meat tastes like is to actually eat somebody, I fail to see how creating lab grown human meat for consumption makes any sense outside of a philosophical puzzle. I can see it being made for medicinal reasons like replacing damaged tissue, but for consumption I don't see why people would want to eat it badly enough to pay the production costs on what's likely at best a niche interest.