In my post yesterday, I briefly mentioned the problem with simulations
as a replacement for animal testing. But I’ve gotten a couple of self-righteous
emails from people criticizing that: they’ve all argued that given the
quantity of computational resources available to us today, of course
we can do all of our research using simulations. I’ll quote a typical example
from the one person who actually posted a comment along these lines:

This doesn’t in any way reduce the importance of informing people about
the alternatives to animal testing. It strikes me as odd that the author of
the blogpost is a computer scientist, yet seems uninformed about the fact,
that the most interesting alternatives to animal testing are coming from that
field. Simulation of very complex systems is around the corner, especially
since computing power is becoming cheaper all the time.

That said, I also do think it’s OK to voice opposition to animal testing,
because there *are* alternatives. People who ignore the alternatives seem to
have other issues going on, for example a sort of pleasure at the idea of
power over others – also nonhumans.

I’ll briefly comment on the obnoxious self-righteousness of this idiot.
They started off their comment with the suggestion that the people who are
harassing Dr. Ringach’s children aren’t really animal rights
protestors; they’re people paid by opponents of the AR movement in order to
discredit it. And then goes on to claim that anyone who doesn’t see the
obvious alternatives to animal testing really do it because they
get their rocks off torturing poor defenseless animals.

Dumbass.

Anyway: my actual argument is below the fold.

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