The Value of Human Life (a poll for BigSooner)

[hmkpoker]

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The reason that I set up the island death ray scenario as I did is because it allows us to kill WITHOUT these negative reprocussions...the people will not reciprocate anything either way, and the method of killing is so depersonalized that it makes the emotional reprocussions much less.

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For me, it would be pretty hard for me to push a button and kill 200 innocent people if only to save the life of one loved one. I doubt I could be happy living with the knowledge of what I had done.

But, anyway...

Reciprocity needen't be given by those to whom you are inflicting the harm. Another person could find out what you did, and treat you with disdain for it. Or, kill you and your family because you inadvertantly killed one of their loved ones that was visiting the island. Or an alien race could wipe out the earth because we are in the way of their intergalactic highway, and failed their "humane" test because of your death ray episode. Thanks for killing the human race, man. Thanks a lot.

Also... just so you know... if I were to know you were going to use the death ray to save your loved one by killing 200 innocent people... I'd kill you before letting you do it. I think society would see it as justified, much like killing a terrorist trying to hijack a plane 9/11 style.

So, maybe there's your 3rd reason. Because someone might kill you to stop you from doing it, or punish/kill you after they find out you did it.

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No. The island Death Ray scenario is anonymous, inconsequential, hypothetical, and practically impossible. It eliminates the factors that otherwise deter us from killing people, and asks what we would do if these common factors were not an issue. No one's going to punish you for the Death Ray blast. That's the point.

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No one's going to punish you for the Death Ray blast. That's the point.

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OK, but the real world doesn't work like this. You and/or your offspring may very well be punished for such a heinous crime against humanity. If there is no correlation between the real world and a hypothetical scenario... then flying pigs can chop down trees in a sub-zero Hades and nobody would hear it.

[hmkpoker]

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No one's going to punish you for the Death Ray blast. That's the point.

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OK, but the real world doesn't work like this. You and/or your offspring may very well be punished for such a heinous crime against humanity. If there is no correlation between the real world and a hypothetical scenario... then flying pigs can chop down trees in a sub-zero Hades and nobody would hear it.

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...

Jesus Kip, take a philosophy class or something.

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No one's going to punish you for the Death Ray blast. That's the point.

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OK, but the real world doesn't work like this. You and/or your offspring may very well be punished for such a heinous crime against humanity. If there is no correlation between the real world and a hypothetical scenario... then flying pigs can chop down trees in a sub-zero Hades and nobody would hear it.

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...

Jesus Kip, take a philosophy class or something.

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LOL. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[purnell]

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I'd rather the whole african, american and asian continents to dissapear, with everyone in it, than to have my mother/father/brother dead. And it's not even close.

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Wow. I'd give up my own life, but I don't think I could take another. I guess we see this issue very differently.

[Solami17]

I get to save the one I love at the cost of 10 people children who may not even make it past early adulthood...thats a tuffy

[mr_whomp]

HMKpoker, theres two ways to go here. Utilitarian, (the greatest good); or deontology (outcome matters less than the morality of the action itself).

Actually 4 ways to go...

Utilitarian
deontology
virtue-based (should do whatever a person i look up to as a role model would do)
divine belief (should do whatever god says to do)

so your answer to this question depends on which of these you use to frame your ethical/moral belief system. I think also that a utilitarian (greater good) could go both ways on the issue.

[hmkpoker]

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HMKpoker, theres two ways to go here. Utilitarian, (the greatest good); or deontology (outcome matters less than the morality of the action itself).

Actually 4 ways to go...

Utilitarian
deontology
virtue-based (should do whatever a person i look up to as a role model would do)
divine belief (should do whatever god says to do)

so your answer to this question depends on which of these you use to frame your ethical/moral belief system. I think also that a utilitarian (greater good) could go both ways on the issue.

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No, there's more.

Feminist (that which most advances the equality of women in society)

PETA-ian (that which helps liberate the cute animals most)

Lollypop Guildian (that which helps promote the existence, and eventually hostil takeover of the world by midgets from Oz)

Discordian (five pounds of flax)

l337 h4X0rian (7h47 \/\/h1(h pWns t3h m057 n00bs!!!!!!!11eleven)

BigSoonerFan Mockian (that which furthers my plight to ridicule BigSoonerFan)

[nigelloring]

My colleague in the office said he's rather let his loved one die than use the death ray on even one individual. I said that he could prevent a bunch of random starving people from dying right now by donating $500 to a charity, which he promptly did right over the interrrnet.

[hmkpoker]

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My colleague in the office said he's rather let his loved one die than use the death ray on even one individual. I said that he could prevent a bunch of random starving people from dying right now by donating $500 to a charity, which he promptly did right over the interrrnet.

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Your man is quite a generous fellow ^_^