Comic #3916: human-testing

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Description

Here’s the transcription of the comic:

Panel 1:

• Speaker 1: "Testing on humans is considered unethical."

Panel 2:

• Speaker 2: "This is because moral standing is assigned to other creatures based on how similar they are to average human intelligence."

Panel 3:

• Speaker 1: "Medical science would benefit from discoveries via human research, but it is wrong for us to experiment on our own kind."

Panel 4:

• Speaker 2: "So, we created a quantum ultra-brain."

Panel 5:

• Speaker 1: "It is as far above us as we are above ants."

Panel 6:

• Speaker 2: "To it, human suffering is meaningless. So, when it does randomized trials on us, it doesn’t consider itself to be doing anything unethical."

Panel 7:

• Speaker 1: "The ultra-brain is so complex, we can’t even conceptualize it. Thus, we must consider it to be a force of nature. And thus, when it kills, a sad thing has happened, but it is no more 'unethical' than an earthquake or a tornado."

Panel 8:

• Speaker 1: "And so, we can get the vast data that would come with human testing, without concerns about violating our principles."

Panel 9:

• Speaker 3: "What sort of questions does the ultra-mind ask?"

Panel 10:

• Speaker 2: "Yeah… that’s the one problem."

Panel 11:

• Text: "ELSEWHERE…"
• Speaker 4: "I wonder which humans squish best."