RE: virus: Strange attractors and meta-religions (was God and
Wright, James 7929 (Jwright@phelpsd.com)
Wed, 02 Apr 97 10:15:00 EST
Tony Hindle wrote:
>David in fact ANYONE. if you could swallow a tablet right now that would
have the effect of making you believe the world got better and better
(imagine anything you like) would you? (you forget you've taken it
instantly etc)
What you would get in return for this one act of self deceit
(which you would not remember) would be a world free of
[starvation/wars/ignorance..you choose].<
I am interpreting this to mean that the pill would not create a world
free of [pick, ignorance] but only the illusion of one for me personally.
No, I would not take it.
On the other hand, if taking such a [admittedly magic] pill would create
such a world for everyone EXCEPT me, I'd probably take it in a minute as
a rational choice to reduce suffering for the world.
> I see nothing morally wrong with as much self deceit as one can
manage (my own sense of morality would prevent me from attempting any
self programing that would lead me towards behaviour I considered
immoral.)
Seriously if I am missing something here please tell.<
I see something recursively difficult; if you can change your own
programming through self-deceit, what would prevent you from telling
yourself (deceitfully) that a given act was moral? Rationalization is
just such a process; because I have a greater good in mind, a minor evil
is tolerable which progresses me toward that greater good.
The difficulty is that minor evils are also difficult to contain from
becoming greater evils, and self-deceit seems to increase exponentially
once its' accepted as a valid tool. This shows up in drama, literature
and real life fairly frequently.
I applaud your attempt, however.
Cheers!
james