Is It Okay to Eat Babies?

J. Alden Page — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:01:43 +0000

Three World’s Collide is one of the most interesting short stories I’ve ever read. The author Eliezer Yudkowsky has been posting the eight parts of the story on a daily basis. Today he posted the first part of an alternate ending. It’s a quick read, and it brings up some interesting points.

In this story, the survival of two sentient species depends on how a spaceship full of Humans prioritize three factors: survival of the unmodified Human species, survival of sentient life, and being happy. I think the choice the shipmembers are faced with is very representative of the present. We are already running into situations where we have to pick which of these factors prioritize, and the importance of choosing between these factors is only going to magnify over the next few decades. I touched a little bit on why it’s important to pick whether Human survival or sentient survival should prioritize in “Gods and Monsters“.

The Setting

Mankind has recently begun traveling long distances into space, and a Human spaceship accidentally bumps into two alien ships. Both alien species have been around roughly as long as Humans.

The first alien race we meet ends up being nicknamed “The Babyeaters”. This crystalline race bases their morality on the fact that they eat their own babies. The Babyeaters produce hundreds of babies when they mate. In order to maximize the number of children that survive, most of these babies are eaten. The weakest children are selected, and the most fit children are allowed to survive. These babies are sentient and even act much like Human children, and will run from their parents in an effort not to be eaten. Additionally, because of their anatomy the heads of the children are slowly digested and undergo excruciating pain for months before they are killed. Their species has been doing this for over a million years.

The importance of this moral is what has brought this species out of a divided and weak past, and into being a unified and strong civilization. Babyeaters who do not eat babies are killed, it is considered the worst possible offense. Over this million year tradition “To eat babies” has become synonymous with “Good”. Along this vein, “mercy” is synonymous with “evil”. Their morality prioritizes their own species survival, and has no qualms whatsoever about killing sentient life or undergoing pain in order to survive. While this may make the Babyeaters sounds like a supremely evil race, they are on the whole a polite species who wish to make friends not enemies.

Shortly after meeting this first species, a second ship arrives with a race who we end up nicknaming “Superhappies”. This race is essentially blobs that float around in liquid. Their basis for morality is that everyone should be happy. Pleasure is good, and pain is the equivalent of evil. The Superhappies view Humans as immoral, because they have the ability to eliminate pain through genetic engineering but have not done so. The Superhappies wish to modify both the Babyeaters and Humans so that both species are happy and free from pain.

The Choice

If being happy prioritizes, then Humans should ally with the Superhappies. Both the Babyeaters and Humans would be modified, so that all three species would be pain free and perfectly happy. If the survival of the Human species prioritizes, then Humans should cause the sun to go supernova. This would destroy all three ships and kill billions of Humans, but many Humans would survive and their would be a chance of the Human identity remaining intact in the future. If the survival of sentient species prioritizes, then once again Humans should ally with the Superhappies. That is if you assume that the technological superiority of the Superhappies would increase the chances of survival for both the Humans and Babyeaters. Allying with the Babyeaters isn’t really an option, because the Babyeaters are so technogically inferior that they would likely lose to the Superhappies.

So Humans have two outcomes to choose between: 1. Ally with the Superhappies, causing both the Babyeaters and Humans to become happy and pain free 2. Cause the star to go supernova, preserving the individuality of the Human race. Which of those two would you choose and why? Can you think of another option that leads to a different outcome?

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Is It Okay to Eat Babies?