Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman Ep114 "Would you eat a self burger?"
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Jul 28, 2025 What if you could eat a burger made from human muscle cells? This topic raises fascinating questions about ethics, morality, and societal norms. The discussion delves into lab-grown meat's implications for animal conservation and how it may impact our views on endangered species. Listeners explore the emotional dimensions of disgust and how they shape our culinary choices. Cultural identity and ownership of biological material come into play, challenging long-held beliefs about what is acceptable to consume and the future of food.
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Ethical Questions of Lab Meat
- Lab-grown meat can be produced from any animal's cells, including endangered and extinct species.
- This raises ethical and moral questions about eating such meat despite no harm to animals.
Disgust Connects Morality and Survival
- The brain's insula region triggers disgust for both physical contamination and moral violations.
- Disgust underpins how humans police morality and cultural boundaries beyond survival instincts.
Gut Feelings Drive Morality
- Moral judgments often arise from gut feelings rather than logical reasoning.
- People may feel something is wrong yet struggle to articulate why, revealing the power of intuition in ethics.