{"commentics_url":"\/\/leavingthecradle.com\/comments\/","page_id":105,"enabled_country":false,"country_id":0,"enabled_state":false,"state_id":0,"enabled_upload":false,"maximum_upload_amount":3,"maximum_upload_size":5,"maximum_upload_total":5,"securimage":false,"securimage_url":"\/\/leavingthecradle.com\/comments\/3rdparty\/securimage\/securimage_show.php?namespace=cmtx_105","cmtx_wait_for_comment":"cmtx_wait_for_comment","lang_error_file_num":"A maximum of %d files are allowed to be uploaded","lang_error_file_size":"Please upload files no bigger than %.1f MB in size","lang_error_file_total":"The total size of all files must be less than %.1f MB","lang_error_file_type":"Only image file types are allowed to be uploaded","lang_text_loading":"Loading ..","lang_placeholder_country":"Country","lang_placeholder_state":"State","lang_text_country_first":"Please select a country first","lang_button_submit":"Add Comment","lang_button_preview":"Preview","lang_button_remove":"Remove","lang_button_processing":"Please Wait.."}
So far the only thing I don’t like about this comic is this head scientist guy. Coming from a biological background myself, I can say that the amount of people who would have the job he has and also be unethical vivisection fans is very very small. People tend to go into zoology/xenobiology because they’re huge nerds who love animals, not creeps who want to tear them apart. Rest of the comic is super cool (that x-ray picture is fantastically realistic), but I just really hate the “dissection creep scientist” stereotype.
Eh, prof didn't want to do vivisections specifically, but I guess when you've done everything you can with no effect, even "maybe if we poke it with a needle we'll finally get a reaction?" can start to look like an option.
Well, the trope subversion of the military and scientist perspectives is very deep I see.
Towards the Major's point, I think it's prudent to treat the prisoner in the "of war" sense, because, they did attack them, and there was blood shed, property destroyed, and so forth. And it's clear that they come from an advanced spacefaring power. If that culture is also advanced in a civic and social sense, they are likely to value the treatment of their people decently well, given the sort of aggressive contact they're in. That will be a boon in brokering latter developments if further contact is to be had. Some reparations likely demanded, but overall not too much beyond that.
Even if the aliens were hostile, it would either be over very quickly, or take some significant time to mobilize forces, properly scout the enemy, and plan an invasion, or get forces in place to glass the world thoroughly. In which case, they have time to break through with their prisoner and develop a means of communication, and study the implants and other technologies they have to figure out how they work. It's not like humanity could easily integrate any learned technology or secret overnight. Production of advanced alien materials would need the planetwide proliferation of tools to work them. And that will also take time.
So really, there is no need to rush. You either will have the time to glean many interesting secrets, or you'll be dead. Unethically treating the prisoners is more of a risk than not, and may inhibit your learning of this secrets.
so it's better to try [to] avoid touching them large pieces of the carcasses, [such as/particularly] torsos were attempts at establishing [] contact [successful] I [] placed [those] restrictions
People tend to think a guy like that (the scientist) is really horrible, but usually, with that type, if he found out that humans had been dropped in a situation like this (the prisoner) and were mistreated in the kinds of ways he's been suggesting, he would be fine with it... the *science* of it is what drives him. In fact, if the aliens in the flip-scenario *didn't* do the kinds of things he's talking about, he might well have exactly the same kind of exasperation with those aliens as he is expressing here.
Or he's just horrible. Horrible people are not remotely in short supply, of course.
I'm not sure your scenario is any better anyway. A bad person who sees nothing wrong with having their target direct the same bad attitudes back at them is still a bad person, even if they are appreciably different from a bad person who expects immunity for themselves.
{"lang_button_processing":"Please Wait..","lang_button_notify":"Subscribe","lang_heading_notify":"Notifications","lang_text_notify_info":"Notify me of new comments\u003Cspan class=\"cmtx_info_extra\"\u003E via email\u003C\/span\u003E","lang_title_cancel_notify":"Cancel this notification","lang_link_cancel":"[Cancel]"}
{"commentics_url":"\/\/leavingthecradle.com\/comments\/","page_id":105,"is_permalink":false,"lang_text_view":"View","lang_text_reply":"reply","lang_text_replies":"replies","lang_text_replying_to":"You are replying to","lang_title_cancel_reply":"Cancel this reply","lang_link_cancel":"[Cancel]","lang_text_not_replying":"You are not replying to anyone","lang_button_loading":"Loading..","lang_button_more":"More Comments","date_auto":true,"show_pagination":true,"pagination_type":"infinite","timeago_suffixAgo":"ago","timeago_inPast":"a moment","timeago_seconds":"less than a minute","timeago_minute":"a minute","timeago_minutes":"%d minutes","timeago_hour":"an hour","timeago_hours":"%d hours","timeago_day":"a day","timeago_days":"%d days","timeago_month":"a month","timeago_months":"%d months","timeago_year":"a year","timeago_years":"%d years"}
Comments (11)
So far the only thing I don’t like about this comic is this head scientist guy. Coming from a biological background myself, I can say that the amount of people who would have the job he has and also be unethical vivisection fans is very very small. People tend to go into zoology/xenobiology because they’re huge nerds who love animals, not creeps who want to tear them apart. Rest of the comic is super cool (that x-ray picture is fantastically realistic), but I just really hate the “dissection creep scientist” stereotype.
Eh, prof didn't want to do vivisections specifically, but I guess when you've done everything you can with no effect, even "maybe if we poke it with a needle we'll finally get a reaction?" can start to look like an option.
I do agree that prisoner of war isn't really the right classification here, but it's not exactly a situation that fits easily into normal categories.
Well, the trope subversion of the military and scientist perspectives is very deep I see.
Towards the Major's point, I think it's prudent to treat the prisoner in the "of war" sense, because, they did attack them, and there was blood shed, property destroyed, and so forth. And it's clear that they come from an advanced spacefaring power. If that culture is also advanced in a civic and social sense, they are likely to value the treatment of their people decently well, given the sort of aggressive contact they're in. That will be a boon in brokering latter developments if further contact is to be had. Some reparations likely demanded, but overall not too much beyond that.
Even if the aliens were hostile, it would either be over very quickly, or take some significant time to mobilize forces, properly scout the enemy, and plan an invasion, or get forces in place to glass the world thoroughly. In which case, they have time to break through with their prisoner and develop a means of communication, and study the implants and other technologies they have to figure out how they work. It's not like humanity could easily integrate any learned technology or secret overnight. Production of advanced alien materials would need the planetwide proliferation of tools to work them. And that will also take time.
So really, there is no need to rush. You either will have the time to glean many interesting secrets, or you'll be dead. Unethically treating the prisoners is more of a risk than not, and may inhibit your learning of this secrets.
"I has placed these restrictions"?
so it's better to try [to] avoid touching them
large pieces of the carcasses, [such as/particularly] torsos
were attempts at establishing [] contact [successful]
I [] placed [those] restrictions
I can't wait to hear what his suggestions were. He may go down to -2 status.
People tend to think a guy like that (the scientist) is really
horrible, but usually, with that type, if he found out that humans had
been dropped in a situation like this (the prisoner) and were mistreated
in the kinds of ways he's been suggesting, he would be fine with it...
the *science* of it is what drives him. In fact, if the aliens in the
flip-scenario *didn't* do the kinds of things he's talking about, he
might well have exactly the same kind of exasperation with those aliens
as he is expressing here.
Or he's just horrible. Horrible people are not remotely in short supply, of course.
Nah, he outright said that he just doesn't think nonhumans deserve the same ethical considerations.
I'm not sure your scenario is any better anyway. A bad person who sees nothing wrong with having their target direct the same bad attitudes back at them is still a bad person, even if they are appreciably different from a bad person who expects immunity for themselves.
Thats sounds a lot like what a vivisector would say doc