An... interesting hypothetical

[zombiestrangler]

Ask nicely. If that doesn't work... make it look like an accident.

 

[krugerrand123]

Eat the evil ones.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

Ok so not only do I magically know they are edible but they alone are edible on this planet, also due to magic I assume. Not only that but they also, by magic, they contain everything I?m going to need to actually remain somewhat healthy and not suffer from some deficiency somewhere down the line.

No I?m going to go somewhere away from as much as I can and kill myself and hope I haven?t contaminated everything beyond the point of no return. It will also save me from the whims of alien diseases. Actually no, that will probably be of little use, everything is already doomed, certainly it will be when I die and get my decomposing self everywhere. And if I?ve killed myself that?s probably only after I?ve gotten my blood everywhere. Naturally after my death the wildlife with find and eat my body thus will begin the spread of death.

 

[hittite]

Ok so not only do I magically know they are edible but they alone are edible on this planet, also due to magic I assume. Not only that but they also, by magic, they contain everything I?m going to need to actually remain somewhat healthy and not suffer from some deficiency somewhere down the line.

No I?m going to go somewhere away from as much as I can and kill myself and hope I haven?t contaminated everything beyond the point of no return. It will also save me from the whims of alien diseases. Actually no, that will probably be of little use, everything is already doomed, certainly it will be when I die and get my decomposing self everywhere. And if I?ve killed myself that?s probably only after I?ve gotten my blood everywhere. Naturally after my death the wildlife with find and eat my body thus will begin the spread of death.

... Little ray of sunshine aren't ya.

 

[Fwee]

I'd graft them into my skin and share their nutritious blood, because I'm immune to hypothetical questions.

 

[dragonslayer32]

If indeed as stated in other posts, the natives have special organs to filter out poison, I'd just have them transplant said organs in me, it says in the origional post that they are smart...

 

[GrinningManiac]

I'd man the f*ck up and eat the goddamn arsenic-based fauna

If I died, it'd be because I wasn't eating ENOUGH of the goddamn critters

NOM NOM NOM grrr

 

[hittite]

If indeed as stated in other posts, the natives have special organs to filter out poison, I'd just have them transplant said organs in me, it says in the origional post that they are smart...

I probably should have brought this up earlier, but hey, I forgot. Things don't have to be poisonous to be inedible. It could simply be that the chemical makeup of the organisms on the planet make them indigestible with human digestive enzymes. Meaning that anything that isn't toxic has the nutritional value of sawdust.

 

[cheese_wizington]

So what are the natives eating?

Alien planet. Alien biology is, by definition, alien. They can eat the native plant and animal life just fine, since it's their home planet. It's only incompatible with you because you aint from around there.

Besides, that's not the point. The point is what you would do.

Then aren't the natives incompatible with me also?


This makes no sense.

 

[thedoclc]

I thought this up a while ago, and I've been trying to decide how it would turn out ever since. For the life of me, I can't decide.

Imagine, if you will, that you're stranded on an alien planet. By some miracle, the atmosphere is breathable and the wildlife isn't trying too hard to kill you. Unfortunately, you're running low on supplies and there is only one single edible thing on the planet: the natives. They're intelligent, friendly, and peaceful. They have done you no wrong. So the question comes down to this: murder an innocent or slowly starve to death.

I want to think that I'd do the noble thing and die, but I simply can't know for sure.

actually, if the natives have tissue that you can eat that lets you absorb the nutrients that you need to survive as a human, then they had to get those nutrients through some means, which you could repeat and spare the locals.

I win.

No you don't.

For those trying to knock down the hypothetical, here's a hard-science version. The alien planet's life does not use an amino acid which is essential for human survival. Without this amino acid, you die. (Since there are eight to ten amino acids which humans beings cannot survive without, depending on which text you consult, it would hardly be surprising.) Now, it turns out that the planet's life forms do not use methionine, threonine, or isoleucine, three amino acids without which we humans cannot live. Eat these amino acids or die. The only beings who use these three amino acids are the alien's sapient species, who modify other amino acids to form them. These amino acids are used to make a protein inside the sapient being's cardiac muscle.

In order to get the amino acids you must have to live, you must eat the cardiac muscle of these beings. In addition, the beings have a feudal culture which forbids any desecration of their dead; under no circumstances will they give you their dead, and they will fight to the death to protect their dead. Neither you nor the alien sapients are able to synthesize these amino acids in the lab, in your case because you do not have any know-how, and in their case because their culture is not technological enough. Nor do you have the time or resources to try this on your own. Maybe a future expedition can study the biochem of these creatures and learn how they work, but you're just a lonely pilot who is -very- hungry and far from home.

There you go, a hard science version to get to the same question.

 

[dragonslayer32]

If indeed as stated in other posts, the natives have special organs to filter out poison, I'd just have them transplant said organs in me, it says in the origional post that they are smart...

I probably should have brought this up earlier, but hey, I forgot. Things don't have to be poisonous to be inedible. It could simply be that the chemical makeup of the organisms on the planet make them indigestible with human digestive enzymes. Meaning that anything that isn't toxic has the nutritional value of sawdust.

I see now, it is all about nutrition... Still, they have to get it from a source so I'd still have them put whatever they got to give it to them, into me (the previous statement is not to be taken in the wrong way...) I'd be the first hybrid, they shall call me Blade...

 

[JBojangles]

It depends on 2 very important things. Would I get in trouble? And what do they taste like? Beyond that it's me or them and I'd rather it wasn't me.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

... Little ray of sunshine aren't ya.

Well I?m already flung in a pretty miserable situation as it is. Optimism was left back on Earth.

 

[magicaxis]

i'd eat their dead, or their criminals

 

[Atmos Duality]

Then aren't the natives incompatible with me also?


This makes no sense.

Hypothetical questions about personal morality steeped in absolutist logic shouldn't make sense.

"Intelligent answers" aside, it's basically asking you "Are you murdering asshole, or a suicidal emo idiot?"

If we were to reword the moral question slightly, it could be "If you encountered other friendly, sapient life, would you purely take advantage of them to survive?"

My own choice: I value sentient/intelligent life (no matter how miserably worthless our species can be at times), so unless I'm going to leave my mark on them, I'll die alone.
I wouldn't be happy with the outcome (obviously), but at least I won't die a monster.

 

[WillCourt]

If it's tasty enough I'll put it in my mouth.

..
Wait..

 

[thedoclc]

Then aren't the natives incompatible with me also?


This makes no sense.

Hypothetical questions about personal morality steeped in absolutist logic shouldn't make sense.

"Intelligent answers" aside, it's basically asking you "Are you murdering asshole, or a suicidal emo idiot?"

If we were to reword the moral question slightly, it could be "If you encountered other friendly, sapient life, would you purely take advantage of them to survive?"

My own choice: I value sentient/intelligent life (no matter how miserably worthless our species can be at times), so unless I'm going to leave my mark on them, I'll die alone.
I wouldn't be happy with the outcome (obviously), but at least I won't die a monster.

Yay, someone who understands what a hypothetical question is!

Ahem. Agreed, except that my view of humanity is much more optimistic. We are neither saints nor monsters.

 

[Tsunimo]

Honestly,? It depends very much on how they would react.
Just because they are friendly and peaceful now, that doesn't mean they still will be when you start munching on some skulls(or whatever the fuck they have to support they're face equivilant.)
If they will react to the eating of them with violence, then I will simply live as an outlaw, on the run from the crazy alien bastards. If not, I guess it all works out.
So I guess, either way, I'd eat them, without hesitation.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

I would probably go insane from hunger and start kidnapping the natives. Become an urban legend.

 

[Dango]

I ask them to kill someone who's sentenced to death for me to eat. If they don't sentence people to death, ask them to give me someone who died recently.