Q&A: Wikileaks, Utilitarianism, Peter Singer, Animal Rights, Baroque Opera

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Nykytyne2

Vivica Genaux Baroque opera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTpIRFiKTqo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVDG_SqS2zc

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• wikileaks
• julian
• assange
• utilitarianism
• peter
• singer
• animal
• rights
• vivica
• genaux
• baroque
• opera
• monteverdi
• orfeo
• farinelli

[Gaawachan]

Thank you so much for the recommendations, Nyk! Oh, and I'm a girl.

I'll try and think of another question...

[Nykytyne2]

@Gaawachan Ha, I suppose I could have figured that out if I had gone to your profile, but I was only looking at the usernames when I made the video so I had to guess....

[brooksbeast22]

Your Ego is way bigger than Assange's.

[thelastholdout]

As for the diplomatic cables, they've revealed some more important issues like the United States and Great Britain striking a deal which allowed the U.S. to smuggle cluster bombs through the latter country, breaking international treaty by doing so. Also, the other Muslim countries surrounding Iran all secretly think that Iran is dangerous-meaning they have less sympathy for Iran's stances than Iran ever thought.

[MousseTauChocolate]

it doesnt have to do with intelligence what we eat but with species.

[DogsneedpIeasuretoo]

I agree, humans should either start to kill and eat human children, or stop killing and eating animals that are as smart as human children. We either treat animals equally or we treat humans equally how we treat animals, it is only fair to do that.

[tempo3rd]

I don't know whether you're planning to do another of these, but if you do, I'd like you to comment on free will vs. determinism. This is a topic that bugs me because 1) I think the distinction is pragmatically useless, either way the future is unknowable 2) I think some developments in modern physics rule out determinism 3) I think that when people say they believe in free will, they're really just saying they believe they have the power to control what happens to them. Your thoughts?

[tempo3rd]

@brooksbeast22 mmmwhy?

[DissenteensInRevolt]

Ah, maybe we need an egomaniac in charge of such a high risk organization as WL. At least he's more or less on our side. (Kind of.)

[BitterLad]

Do you have a favorite Band, Rapper, Electronic Musician, Producer, etc... ?

[meowmix0901]

animal intelligence should never be compared with human intelligence because the tools of measuring human intelligence are specifically designed by humans for humans, and are incompatible with truly understanding animal mental capacities and animal rationalities. many animals express forms of solidarity among their species that can be seen as highly moral and ethical that mentally disabled humans will not be able to perform (e.g. a dog saving another dog, or a member of another species)

[StabbyRaccoon]

The problem with the Monkey=Dumb baby argument is that all of us, the moral agents with regards to each other and we might want to agree to afford considerations to the mentally retarded in case we are ever rendered mentally retarded and might want those considerations for ourselves. Or for our friends and family, etc. Thus all in agreement benefit indirectly.

Ain't no good giving animals rights. If you can show how my rights are more secure if animals have rights, I would be in.

[d34d23]

I was wondering how much your upbringing has affected your interests in music, art and philosophy if at all.

[pralmanack2010]

Nyky, I look forward to your further comments on utility theory. I consider most familiar utilitarian models as instances of limited or "special" utility where the set of quality-of-life parameters is artificially constrained. Omitted parameters are "externalities". "General Utility" is the effort to continually and progressively define & measure more parameter species for more entity species and minimize any externalities not imposed strictly by the current limits on available information.