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There are going to be some very curious ethical issues in the near future. Most have been covered pretty well in science fiction but not in reality. These may include:
* The rights of clones and robots. Are high grade robots people?
* Crime by clones.
* What do with the workforce when there are no jobs. (Already happening)
* Global contamination by alien life (like what happened in Australia with rabbits etc), genetically engineered life or cybernetic life.
* Total surveillance.
* The rights of off world colonies.
* Communication with ETs.
I somehow get the feeling that the LDS will be slowest off the mark with clone and robot rights.
nibbler wrote:
If computers are ever able to delete our thoughts I bet the first thing they’ll do is delete the thoughts that care whether computers can delete our thoughts… so I think we’ll be okay.
I’m still trying to decide if I’ve really seen Inception, and now you bring this up too…
NightSG wrote:
nibbler wrote:
If computers are ever able to delete our thoughts I bet the first thing they’ll do is delete the thoughts that care whether computers can delete our thoughts… so I think we’ll be okay.
I’m still trying to decide if I’ve really seen Inception, and now you bring this up too…
I can go one better. I know someone who worked on Inception from my schooldays. Haven’t seen him for years but then again maybe I’m supposed to think that.
It just occurred to me that social organizations we belong to already require us to censor our thoughts, on pain of rejection when our true thoughts are discovered. They even get us to modify our memories by relating them as they should be understood in terms of the organization’s values. And it isn’t just the Church – it’s every one of them we belong to – though the Church is particularly explicit about it. Reuben wrote:
It just occurred to me that social organizations we belong to already require us to censor our thoughts, on pain of rejection when our true thoughts are discovered. They even get us to modify our memories by relating them as they should be understood in terms of the organization’s values. And it isn’t just the Church – it’s every one of them we belong to – though the Church is particularly explicit about it.
I’m glad you say this. There are a lot of people who take against the church/criticize it, but fail to realize that its worst characteristics are not exclusive to it.
Think of how many of these you have seen
elsewhere: * Unconditional acceptance of authority, criticism of anyone who questions it. (In the office as much as political spheres etc).
* The idea that when your lot does something, it is okay but when the other lot does it, they are wrong.
* Your favorite ____ [sports club, rock band, film star etc] can’t do wrong, and you still think that when provided with evidence to the contrary.
* You are given a false reason for attacking/hating ____
* Historical heroes turn out to have feet of clay.
* Historical documents turn out to be biased and/or mostly false.
* People are led on by someone who makes them feel good.
SamBee wrote:
* Historical heroes turn out to have feet of clay.* Historical documents turn out to be biased and/or mostly false.
This has happened FAR too often. It broke my heart when I found out…
*Christopher Columbus was a sex slave trader of children.
*George Washington’s dentures were made from teeth pulled from live African slaves.
*Thomas Edison bought the lightbulb patent from Heinrich Goebel’s impovershed widow for pennies on the dollar, and took credit for it.
*Charles Schultz had an affair while married with children, at age 48, with a woman half his age.
There aren’t any heroes. The farther we get into the Internet age, the clearer it gets. That’s not to say that people don’t do heroic things. Most of us pull that off a few times in life.
All too true. I have even heard some dirt on Mother Theresa. Tell me it isn’t true! There is a lot of dirt on Mother Theresa, but I feel some of the attention she is getting is merely a means to attack religion. But if you compare her to women like the early birth control advocates – Marie Stopes etc – who are secular saints to some people, you find many of them held racialist views and she didn’t. * Winston Churchill was an anti-Semite (but not to the extent of Hitler)
* Gandhi said the Jews should have thrown themselves off cliffs to avoid the Holocaust.
* JFK was famously a womaniser.
* Nelson Mandela delegated power to corrupt members of his family.
* Boris Yeltsin was a drunkard who weakened Russia and handed it over to criminals.
* One of my favorite writers, Patricia Highsmith (who wrote the Talented Mr Ripley etc) had horrific political views.
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