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Topic: Choose your brain damage. (Read 1013 times) |
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MoEnzyme
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Choose your brain damage.
« on: 2005-03-21 12:33:40 » |
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I like to look at conversations as games. Indeed, couldn't we simply say that an argument equals a conversation game. I have one that I enjoy, which I call "Evil or Pathetic?" Sometimes I refer to it as one of my "evil arguments" as I always take the opposite view of my partner, which ever one they choose and argue it as passionately as possible.
The case of Phineas Gage inspired the original question in a conversation with a good friend, now deceased:
You will soon suffer a brain injury . . . perhaps a bullet speeds toward your head and friendly high level magic user (or nanotech dimensional warp drive . . . etc) has intervened to give you a little more time to help you. But a hitch! This isn't an omnipotent time stop. Its effects remain so limited and local scope that the spell caster has selectively limited its effects to your nervous system only. Giving you what feels like an eternity to contemplate, plan, and finely tune your response to this inevitable catastrophe, but leaving you otherwise physically incapable of responding until the timestop ends. Also your friendly intervenor has figured out and informed you that you will suffer some pretty nasty brain damage. Who knows how it will affect you in the long run, but he has managed to figure two possible trajectories by which you will maintain a fair amount of higher functioning. He of course models the trajectories for you helpfully substituting his body and a holographic bullet trajectory for yor own situation, and it comes down to this: "If you turn this way you get A, and if you turn this way you get B."
So what's the difference?, you think. "Either way you lose a lot of social functioning, however A turns you into a sociopath, possibly prone to violence, and generally destructive of relationships and people around you. Many would call this the 'evil' option." Demonstrating the necessary head turns for you again, he continues. "B, on the other hand, turns you into a passive, irresponsible person - seemingly able to interact in a higher capacity with people, but generally incompetant to manage important issues." He looks at you gravely now. "Perhaps you will turn out lucky enough to have a relative or spouse to act as your guardian (a considerable job no doubt), or lucky enough to end up in a home or other institution designed for such purposes. Who knows?, but many would call this the 'pathetic' option."
Surely there are more than two options, right? "Of course thats only two choices, but I haven't had the time to figure out any more, so I don't really know," he continues, helpfully predicting your concerns. "Maybe you can figure something out . . . or perhaps you can just roll the dice and see what happens," he begins playing aimlessly with the holgraphic bullet and turning his head around, "but I'm guessing most of those rolls end in some form of vegetablehood. Remeber, this is a very fast bullet and you can only turn your head so much before the impact."
"Ooops, my time is up, but yours is just begining." Your intervenor fades away. So what do you do? Evil? Pathetic? or roll the dice?
-Jake
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I will fight your gods for food,
Mo Enzyme
(consolidation of handles: Jake Sapiens; memelab; logicnazi; Loki; Every1Hz; and Shadow)
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DJ dAndroid
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Ballet Mechanique
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Re:Choose your brain damage.
« Reply #1 on: 2005-03-21 16:13:28 » |
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That's interesting! For myself I would roll the dice and attempt something... unexpected. I would trust to luck and/or the simple chance that "he" may not know everything, may have missed something, or there may be a third option he left out simply to see if you can find it for yourself.
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Shouldn't robots have the same right as humans to have gender and express their sexuality?
_Clayton Bailey_
http://www.claytonbailey.com/monrobot.htm
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MoEnzyme
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infidel lab animal
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Re:Choose your brain damage.
« Reply #2 on: 2005-03-21 18:18:25 » |
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Yes,
Of course Borg has predicted the high likelyihood of such a response. Question the credibility or authority of the one providing invormation. Indeed Lucifer predicted this response in the begining of all things. Sure, why not just reject all rules and some unnamed or otherwise needlessly selfish entity name the rule? The non-choice? Does not that reflect a certain unacceptable level of apathy? Okay, so you choose vegetablehood over having control?
Okay just to provide optimal customer service to all would-be revolutionaries, let us pretend that we have a third "Terry Schiavo" option of low-deuterostome functionality. Should we continue to force-feed a morbid bulemic regardless of conscious functionality (even though all scientific indicators point to "no"). Some reasonable individuals may justifiably find this a form of torture regardless of the consciousness of the bulemic involved. Even if I did actually believe in an immortal soul, I would still think that Terry would prefer a release from her eating disorder rather than a barbaric force feeding of the bulemic despite the decision the most legally relevant person, her husband? IMO Terry Schiavo's parents are just political footballs for the Bush family dynasty to cruelly kick in their perverted and hypocritical claims of moral superiority.
So now that I have managed to illustrate the vegetable response (with a current events example, no less!), would you still like to just roll the dice? Would you want to further prioritize? Certainly all reveries remain open for consideration as we seem to have a surplus of that if nothing else. Even if it really isn't free, talk can seem just about that cheap. At that price one might even find it joyous, so let us hear the possiblities! Anyone?
-Jake
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I will fight your gods for food,
Mo Enzyme
(consolidation of handles: Jake Sapiens; memelab; logicnazi; Loki; Every1Hz; and Shadow)
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