The Dalai Lama is not talking about the sciences themselves, but more as the implications of what could happen

• E.g. the atomic bomb had a slight chance of cracking the planet in half but the scientists still chose to go ahead and test the bomb anyways

The urgent problems that the Dalai Lama talks about are so complex that it is hard to predict the outcomes of what possibly could happen. In order to predict these things, they would require having specialized knowledge. They have so many factors to them it is hard to take all of this in and it is hard to be confident in what the outcome could be. This can pose many risks when it comes to making decisions. They are also part of an interdependent web.

The next piece to these urgent problems pertains to decision making.

Who is part of the decision making?

• Experts/ scientists
  • they are the ones who decide what can and cannot be in certain foods and what can be modified
• Consumers
  • things are marketed to appeal to them and their needs
  • they can also decide what they do and do not want to buy which effects what can and cannot be made to a degree
• Political
  • self-interest tends to get in the way of people like this

What can a non-specialist’s role play in making ethical decisions? An expert needs the knowledge plus the values in order to make a decision. People who are non-specialists do not have the scientific knowledge, but they possess the values that drive them to make certain decisions. The role of a non-specialist is to

Principles

• Compassion
  • caring and being able to see the other person as fully human, showing empathy
• Revulsion
  • Trust it! The Dalai Lama argues that it can lead to atrocities if we do not listen to our instincts
  • Herzog may say that our relationships with animals are very logic-defying
  • trusting revulsion can be up for debate in the sense that it may depend on the situation
• Don’t trust commerce
  • commercial motives and values