This is the second time a text has brought tears to my eyes. The first was "Where the red fern grows". Read this, it's well written and worth the time.
24 karma · joined October 4, 2016
Background: For the record, it was due to defaulting on a student loan. It's taken care of now, but back then I couldn't afford the 10% interest rate.
While I can only speak from my own experience, many of my friends and colleagues (EE) have left the country already. There are lots of good arguments on both sides and plenty of stories to each end. That said, it comes to this, the people in my generation with real skill are leaving. Not all of them, but enough that it's becoming noticeable. Maybe it's always been this way, maybe not, needless to say my sample size is low so draw conclusions at your own risk. That's just my two cents on it (in reference to what it is like for under-30's).
The reality is that on our planet, even something as simple as a plant (or fungi) can have memory, communication, and the ability to anticipate results. Where do we draw the line? Is there even a line that can be drawn? This issue goes way beyond just animals and until we have a functional metric of intelligence, I can't see us getting any real answers past simply recording data.
A link to a researcher on this subject as well as some of her published work: http://www.web.uwa.edu.au/people/monica.gagliano
There are quite a few people, all more qualified than I, researching matters like this. Figured that this was something that most might not even consider and thus was worth mentioning.