Random Stuff IV

[Zathoth]

If hypothetical characters can become real I am slightly creeped out, which is great, now to write something about that, later, when I can think.

 

According to Kaymyths theory of art A and B are actually already real people in an alternate universe which we have brought into ours by thinking of them.

 

Actually A and B are probably the most fleshed out characters in the world because we use them so much...

[Orlion Blight he/him]

What if characters in hypothetical situations became self-aware entities with actual sentience? Would we have a moral obligation to make all of our hypothetical characters well fleshed out and happy? Would it be immoral to create a hypothetical scenario in which one person suffers, even for a moment? Would we be morally obligated to spend all of our time dreaming up as many blissful utopias as possible, to increase the number of happy people in the metaverse?

 

What is actually good for characters? Is their eventual hypothetical fates what are important, their utility to non-hypothetical persons, or their ability to live on in the hearts of non-hypothetical persons? 

 

And does the hypothetical fates have to be "printed", or would the author's mere intent that they "hypothetically live in a state of hypothetical perpetual bliss" be enough? Would a reader's cynical view that "they are absorbed by the nothingness of the void" cancel out this intent? I'm a really just about to talk about "multi-universe theory"? (Hint: Not in this universe )

[Zathoth]

Orlion, stop. Im out of philosophy fuel.

 

Actually I ran out of philosophy fuel a couple hundred kilometers back, Ive been pushing the philosophy mobile all this way.

[Kobold King he/him]

Actually I ran out of philosophy fuel a couple hundred kilometers back, Ive been pushing the philosophy mobile all this way.

 

 

I have a philosophy plane.

 

[Orlion Blight he/him]

And I am simply quite mad 

 

[Zathoth]

We should have a madness contest, you and I.

[Elbereth she/her]

That sounds like a terrible idea for the sake of the sanity of anyone else.

Also, while I was typing my Idril post (to be fair, between classes and stuff), you guys added two or three more pages of philsophy.

[Zathoth]

Dont be silly, thats a great idea.

 

 

And... my bad... sorry... Good news is I wont have enough philosophy for anything like this in months.

[Mistrunner]

I MADE IT

I READ ALL FIVE BILLION POSTS ON PHILOSOPHY

Now I have a few discussion points.

A ) When someone said something about laws being constructs of moral absolutes, all I could think of was that one law in Arkansas where it's illegal to mispronounce Arkansas. And the other one somewhere where it's illegal for a chicken to cross the road. That there's a moral absolute. Chickens crossing roads are morally wrong.

B ) Morzathoth mentioned wanting chips. Did he mean American chips or what would be American French fries?

[Curious Anamaximder he/him]

I MADE IT

I READ ALL FIVE BILLION POSTS ON PHILOSOPHY

Now I have a few discussion points.

A ) When someone said something about laws being constructs of moral absolutes, all I could think of was that one law in Arkansas where it's illegal to mispronounce Arkansas. And the other one somewhere where it's illegal for a chicken to cross the road. That there's a moral absolute. Chickens crossing roads are morally wrong.

B ) Morzathoth mentioned wanting chips. Did he mean American chips or what would be American French fries?

 

One of those question's is very important 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

*sticky smile* "This is the second time that's happened this month."

Yeah, you go, Customer! Complain to the one person who can't do a thing to fix your problem! That'll show 'em!

[Kobold King he/him]

*sticky smile* "This is the second time that's happened this month."

Yeah, you go, Customer! Complain to the one person who can't do a thing to fix your problem! That'll show 'em!

 

 

You should keep a bunch of smiley face stickers on hand to pass out to disgruntled customers. Make sure your smile is just as sticky, if not more so, as theirs when you pass them out.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

You should keep a bunch of smiley face stickers on hand to pass out to disgruntled customers. Make sure your smile is just as sticky, if not more so, as theirs when you pass them out.

I once had a guy say "Can I lodge a complaint?" before complaining. My first instinct was to say "Is this the Complaints Department? If you see a sign, go for it."

[WayneSpren he/him]

You should tape the sign to your competitors.

Edited November 18, 2015 by WayneSpren

[WayneSpren he/him]

I did indeed. Especially the Ace Attorney references.

[Kobold King he/him]

You should tape the sign to your competitors.

 

 

It's like taping "Kick me" to someone's back, except instead it would say "Tell me about our lousy service."

[WayneSpren he/him]

Well, we could tape "Kick me" signs to them too.

[ThirdGen]

I think you get much more accurate and thus understandable results by not deriving morals from some kind of first principles or abstract logic, but from being aware of the processes that brought you the concepts.

 

The first place morality derives from is simple practicality.  If one person being able to kill another at any time makes a community impossible to have, it's declared immoral very quickly.  Being able to kill others, outsiders, that took longer to get fixed, if it ever got fixed at all.

 

Beyond that, morality derives from the parents' voice, the original model of morality as constructed in a child by Because I Said So.  Good stuff comes from here, but when nasty rules come from this process they tend to be very hard to remove.  Prejudice, limited perspective, and odd personal dislikes of the parents are things to watch out for here.

 

And then there's the social aspect, the fuzzier things that we tend not to personally encounter, but are decided by some combination of state fiat and community acceptance.  What's a moral rate to charge someone interest when you lend them money?  Ask a random person, and they probably haven't done the math.  What constitutes usury has changed over time as we see the damage excessive interest can do or, on the other side, we fail to see the damage when the powerful still benefit from it.

 

Morality being a human-created concept shouldn't bother anyone.  There's very little about culture that wasn't created by humans (most of it being the animal instincts we have left over from when our brain hardware needed to work for much dumber, more limited animals).

 

I too detest relativism, and especially sophistry used to justify whatever with dazzling and unquestioned wordplay.  If you're a functioning person, for the most part, you have empathy.  That empathy brings most of your morality with it.  This process that lets us emotionally sync with others allows society to happen at all.  It's why you don't die as a feral kid out in the woods scared of every shadow and unable to vocalize beyond grunts.

 

The kinds of tests philosophy classes use to judge morality use such restricted conditions they generally don't describe how your morals, or anyone's, work in the real world.  If you had to choose between killing 10 people or killing 5 people and yourself, etc. etc.  - Basically, what?  If you reached that position in the first place you either made some morally/ethically significant choices getting there or your situation is so random and unusual as to be meaningless.  If you saw a serial killer about to murder X, Y, or Z, you would shout for help and not engage the killer yourself.  You might chastise yourself afterward for not jumping in and being The Big Hero yourself, but unless you have the specific skills to deal with that situation, you're not going to jump in and attack the dangerous killer who will likely just kill you and then continue on killing whoever.  Noone should expect you to.  There are specialists for this.  The difference between who the victims are is mostly meaningless to you, the observer.  If I told you you had to choose between killing X, Y, or Z, you should immediately call me out on the implications of the question, and question those who try to make you OK with theoretically murdering someone.

 

Understand your actions.  Understand what the implications are of making your actions what everybody should do, and how you should adjust your expectations as a result.  You can basically trust average people's senses of right and wrong, up until the point where they start accepting some external authority as The Real Judge.  That way leads to justifying anything.  And I include all religions here.  Every single religion has aspects that preach peace and being the nicest, best person imaginable.  But they also include ancient instructions of when and why war and all sorts of nasty things are acceptable.  In many cases, these were written as hidden knowledge readable only by the educated classes in a, let's face it, less advanced society.  We advance historically by putting up with less of this.  And we regress by surrendering our more refined awareness of what people are like and what they can do to a faceless tradition beholden only to a series of ancient kings.

 

Oh, and, uhh... rape is bad.  Duh.

[Kobold King he/him]

This is a ladypug.

 

[Allomancy she/her]

This is a ladypug.

 

Can has?????

It is ADORABLE!!!!! I want one

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I hate customers.

To the one who promoted this: I hope the resale value of your car is $5. And that your next burrito is actually a swarm of bees wrapped in a flour tortilla.

[Kobold King he/him]

I hate customers.

To the one who promoted this: I hope the resale value of your car is $5. And that your next burrito is actually a swarm of bees wrapped in a flour tortilla.

 

 

Did you see the ladypug, or do I have to post it again?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Did you see the ladypug, or do I have to post it again?

I saw the ladypug. And I know a certain Protector Pug who would love a costume like that.

[Kobold King he/him]

I saw the ladypug. And I know a certain Protector Pug who would love a costume like that.

 

 

On a scale from 1 to 10, how horrifying would it be if Chimera made a line of them?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

On a scale from 1 to 10, how horrifying would it be if Chimera made a line of them?

Actual ladypugs? 11. Ladybug costumes for pugs? -11.