> jonesr@gatwick.geco-prakla.slb.com wrote:
> > > I can give you electric shocks that you'd find quite unpleasant for
> > > long periods of time without any physical harm befalling you.
> >
> > Wahey, so tell me, where do you live ;P
>
> Atlanta. Hey teach us all to be professional torturers in the South,
> y'know.
I think I must move to America :)
> > But if I do know that existance is virtual, and the way out is death, then
> > I'd kill myself, and start the game again, knowing that the best way to
> > survive is to be utterly ruthless.
>
> An argument can be made that there's considerable weight to that
> argument whether it be virtual or /not/. On the other hand, if `killing
> yourself' drops your score, you might not have `earned enough points' to
> get back in the game.
So then the pain would stop anyway, presumably.
>
> > Withdrawal symptoms can kill. If it is severe enough, heart attacks follow,
> > the body dies....
>
> That's true. We just have to keep you on the narrow edge where you
> /think/ you're going to die and wish you would but don't get that
> lucky. :)
But on drugs, and in a desparate state, I may react violently, and in the
process of restraining me, I might end up injured, or even dead. This
would be one point to me, WRT to killing myself.
> > Seriously, though, I take your point, and adjust /my/ point of view to
> > compensate. I think, though, that many people wouldn't.
>
> It really comes down to what you're trying to avoid. If you're trying
> to avoid inflicting undue pain, then whether or not the world is virtual
> you'll avoid the same behaviours.
I suppose, yes. Unfortunately, there'll always be those people who don't
care about the well being of others, and will just use it as an excuse
for extra violence. And what is there to stop them? Prison? Just hack
your way out, and if you die in the process, so what? Just start from the
beginning again, presumably.
Perhaps, there are even "levels" in this "game". Mayhap you start as, say,
an amoeba, then get upgraded to something like Plankton, then up to being a
worm or maggot, the a politician, then up to a domestic pet, culminating
in passing through being human, and becoming an Angel. The last level is
heaven, and the final gaurdian is God !
>
> > Unless you can bring the whole games computer to a crashing halt, and
> > drop everyone back into reality.
>
> We don't really know if everyone are real people. What if your best
> friend is just a bad special effect? If you crash the game system, he
> ceases to exist. You've `killed' him.
Freaky idea. Can you imagine the simple shock if, one day, you're walking
down the road, doing your shopping with your friends, and suddently, everything
stops happening. You can't hear a thing, the birds have frozen in the skies, and
the people around you have stopped also. The only thing you can hear is the
15KHz hum. Then a voice: MALFUNCTION... SYSTEM SHUTDOWN. Then blackness ...
Drakir
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Richard Jones "We are the New Breed
jonesr@gatwick.geco-prakla.slb.com We are the Future."
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