Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I've now seen for the past couple of days on the news about a "remote-contolled roach." They use hissing cockroaches (those big ones) and cut off part of their antennae, then put electrodes into the antennae so they can shock the roach to get it to turn left or right. On the story, they said that some animal rights activists thought it was cruel, but according to the commentator, "entemologists say that though insects have nerves, they are not as complex as us so probably do not perceive pain in the same way." Anyway, it really aggravated me as I remember when people said that about any animal...I.e., you can hit your dog because it doesn't feel pain like you or me.

people used to think this about babies; infants underwent surgery with no anesthesia or analgesics into the 20th century. now there's some evidence that newborns might respond more strongly to pain than adults. "probably" isn't really good enough for me. if it retreats from pain or reacts defensively when you inflict it, it perceives pain; our judgment of the extent of that perception is sort of irrelevant. so, yeah, if this is a thing, it's a shitty thing.

what is the point of creating cyborg roaches?

What isn't the point?!

Science fiction spy purposes, duh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrHMBletjXg

On the news I watched, they said the purpose was to send the roaches into collapsed buildings to see if there are survivors since roaches can go places no people or dogs can fit.

Yeah, that's crappy too. I saw a study where after infant boys were cirumcised, they did not want to breastfeed and seemed to recover better if allowed to sleep. However, some also argued that babies don't remember the pain, so it's OK to inflict it. HUNH? Probably some people would argue that with the roaches too. I personally think even traumatic and forgotten occurences can cause psychological damage.