Would you Eat Yourself?

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As you might have heard, Singapore has become the first place on earth to approve the sale and consumption of lab-grown meat.

Before I move on, It's a good idea to clarify a few things:

Lab-grown meat is not playing with God. Yes, the idea is new (well, not that new; Winston Churchill predicted it in the 1930s), but that doesn't mean God-like. The Fax Machine was new once. The principle is fairly simple. Take, say, a cheek swab of saliva and grow it in a nutrient-rich, burger-shaped petri dish, throw on some herbs, job done. there's plenty of in-depth science and explanations online if you want to delve more into it.

Obviously, there will be some hurdles to overcome but this has been in the making for many years now with me as a frequent observer of progress, and most hurdles are already done with.

The main issue is price, which has been driven down drastically already from tens of thousands of dollars, to $50 per chicken nugget, to 'the same as a fairly nice restaurant'. Once mass production really gets going, you can expect the price to be driven below your standard meat products.

The next thing I want to address is this: Singapore is not China.

Singapore is one of the wealthiest, most developed, least corrupt, cleanest, and culturally diverse places on the planet. It has an emphatic reputation for taking care of its ecology and wildlife and has a range of religions and beliefs working under the same roof.

I repeat. SIngapore is NOT China. I have seen many comments on news articles saying things like 'I ain't eating anything from that part of the world', or 'I ain't getting another virus from dog meat farms' and so forth.

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Ok now I got those out the way. Onto the main question:

Would you eat human meat?

Would you eat yourself?

Think about it. Conceptually, we're simply taking cells and growing them into a burger. This removes all our ethical woes about slaughtering living creatures for our luxury. It removes almost all health & safety issues regarding cramped battery farm environments, overuse and inevitable immunity to antibiotics, the destruction of millions of square miles of forests and biodiversity.

It removes the crime of murder altogether in any sense of the word (unless you're particularly sensitive to the death of individual cells, wiped out in the billions every second before they're even aware of what's going on, moments before they were about to split off into a beloved twin sister).

So, if we remove the ethical problems with cannibalism, why not eat someone?

Why not culture your own cells in a petri dish, and have yourself with fries a few weeks later?

Granted, I wasn't the first to ponder this - credit goes to Richard Dawkins on Twitter several years ago. But the posited question is extremely interesting to me.

What about your pet dog or cat?

I can pretty much guarantee 80% or so people would refuse. But since the reason is no longer ethical, it can only be our disgust reflex making us gag at the very idea.

But that is one of the biggest problems.

One of the greater solutions to our food woes is insect farming. Insects are substantially more beneficial in many many ways compared to traditional meat by having more protein per square... inch?, taking up far less space, less capacity (if any) to feel pain and suffering, less water required, and so forth.

Grind them into a powder and squeeze them into a snack bar and you have yourself a substantially improved ethical meal. But insects? Gross (Let's ignore that the cows you eat literally live in their own shit, fed on basically the same shit until their throats are slit with a rusty knife)

This, by the way, already exists:

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But there is an extremely long journey for these entrepreneurs to become mass-marketed to any degree of notoriety, because of our cultural disgust reflex, which has been selectively manipulated to feel completely numb and dehumanized to the torturous lives billions of cows, sheep, and chickens live every day - as long as it doesn't look like an animal when it's on your plate!

If we could learn to overcome this really rather a daft concept, the demand for these things would explode because let's face it, it. just. makes. sense.

Now, Americans have the biggest leap to make here. Their lives are so unbelievably wasteful and selfish, that it's going to take a ridiculous leap to get from that comfort zone to anything even slightly varied to what they're used to.

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It would therefore be an even larger leap to get Americans eating themselves. Especially given how religious they are. I'm sure there's something in the bible along the lines of 'thou shalt not grow one's own cells (whatever they are) in a laboratory into a nugget of meat to be eaten by oneself'

But it should be done. Imagine living in an impoverished society. You're disabled, your state has become a prison state and you fear leaving your own property.

Thankfully, you have a mini-lab set up, rainwater, and your own spit. You can survive the 4th Reich in your bunker indefinitely by simply eating yourself. You can even shape it into a mold of your own arm to really get into the spirit.

You could even put chunks of human steak on your little firing range for target practice to get the real meaty experience, never needing to see another Commie Nazi until they're wiped out by the British Forces.

I don't know where I'm going with this post.

Just answer the question.



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25 comments
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Hmmm.
Am in awe of what to say I first thought about placentology and cannibalism, then try imagining what it will be like to eat my own flesh, that's gross 😂.
I already find it difficult eating an animal as meat when its slaughtered in my presence then talk of watching my own cell grow for me to eat?...

Except I don't know what it is, am not sure of a bit.

Thanks for sharing this huge work in science, kudos to the intelligence used to create this

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I do my best to be vegetarian and occasionally take a month off meat entirely to get the right mindset. I certainly eat less meat now than before but it still invades me. But I fully support these alternatives. I would definitely eat my own arm in this way.

That being said, Human meat is extremely red, far more so than any other meat we have, so I'm not sure it would be nice...

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In a complete sci-fi scenario:

Imagine being able to cultivate human flesh. Then, civilisation collapses due to some crazy calamity. Future generations read about people having said flesh.

Either cannibalism ensues or it becomes one of those “dark secrets” due to misconception.

And now, I’ve gone way off topic.

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I think you opened a rabbit hole which only needs a conspiracy theorist to dig shit up.

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We're on the right platform!

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Where's all those pizzagaters we used to have. Surely they can't resist such beautiful bait.

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Makes me wonder what whacky things we've adopted to be normal due to things we learnt from past civilisations...

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If eating myself proved healthier, I'd probably do it. Just add a little bit of salt n pepper!

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I suspect it's the key to eternal life, like that jellyfish that lives eternally by returning to its youthful form, then growing up again and repeat. Just keep eating and renewing our own innards. Sounds pretty scientific to me

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I repeat. SIngapore is NOT China. I have seen many comments on news articles saying things like 'I ain't eating anything from that part of the world'

Love this. Love that you have to add it just to make sure. Even more so because the company who created the licensed cultured chicken are American.

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Haha yeah. Sometimes I think we're getting closer and closer to be able to comment on things at the same speed as our neural reflex if we just keep omitting as much thought and consideration as possible

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Hi mobbs,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

Visit curiehive.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.

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WTF?! O.o'

This is kinda crazy.

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Voting rights for women were crazy once upon a time. THINK ABOUT IT sheeple (sherson?)

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Ugghh nah I'll rather just kill animals and eat them instead. All that artificial stuff will most likely lead to some side effects that nobody will talk about because it doesn't suit the agenda, whatever the agenda is.

However, it is a nice, slightly disturbing concept but that's just how science do. It is all about probing and asking questions. So, no, I won't eat myself.

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Shame, you're missing out. I already tried a finger. Not much meat but good greasy flavour.

Not sure what artificial stuff you mean though

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Go damn it, I want to taste my liver now. If that's what processes all the beer I drink then I bet it is going to be a tasty adventure

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I ain't getting another virus from dog meat farms' and so forth.

when i read i laugh, i admit it, especially after checking the map below. You need to understand that people that saying this consider the map you showed as this
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Why not culture your own cells in a petri dish, and have yourself with fries a few weeks later?

if i am nutritious heck yea! This was something i wanted to address. The meat they produce is as nutritious as the common ones out there, similar to biological ones, even better or worst? Do we have that kind of information?

Also is there a discord channel for the tribe?

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Haha yes, that map I'm very aware of lol. This is especially bad for those people because they by and large hate the Chinese government...

As for the meat, well, there's only muscle fiber to start with rather than things like blood vessels and whatnot. But they are, or have already worked on adding the nuances into that too. It's not relevant to health I guess, but I think the nutrition will be different somewhat.

I suspect only in positive ways though, since livestock are polluted, fed all kinds of drugs, exposed to all kinds of diseases and whatnot. Lab meat will just be... sterile.

Maybe something like this is short and sweet enough for a good general overview

Discord, well... STEMSOCIAL of course but I didn't think to ask if they were pro-cannibalism or not yet

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