Jakeyjake wrote:This thread is inspired by an old thread I made about whether or not it is wrong to step on bugs, but with a different subject. There is an episode of the Twilight Zone called the Little People where a couple astronauts get stranded on a distant planet and while repairing their ship, they stumble upon a tiny civilization of intelligent, almost microbial-sized people who are at least sophisticated enough to build houses, boats, trucks, cities. They appear to be identical to humans in all aspects except their size.
What happens next is an alien version of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. One of the astronauts decides he's going to be their God and begins to dominate the little people through fear and cruelty, based on no godly qualities except the advantage of having evolved to be massively bigger than them. It was a cool episode.
Anyway, what's interesting (at least to me)and possibly shocking to some, is that I don't think I'd act very differently from that guy in his circumstance. If I somehow came across a planet of tiny little aliens that were the size of fleas or smaller to me, I don't think I'd have much of a problem with taking advantage of the size difference. I would love the chance to be revered (or even feared) as a god. Why let them have self-determination if through sheer force, I could make them engineer their society in my own image?
In spite of what I'd do in the above situation, I wouldn't consider myself to be evil, immoral, or unethical. Rather, I'm generally considered to be an all-around great guy by friends and coworkers. I help people all the time for nothing in return, have donated to charities, given people rides, and I even volunteer as an EMT when I can. I run competitively, coach track for no pay. I've never been arrested, vandalized property, or wanted to hurt anyone.
What do you think of the behavior I described? How would you behave when in a situation where you gain absolute power over others? Would you be kind or cruel? Or would you walk away from the situation? Try to stay respectful of one another!
Jakeyjake wrote:This thread is inspired by an old thread I made about whether or not it is wrong to step on bugs, but with a different subject. There is an episode of the Twilight Zone called the Little People where a couple astronauts get stranded on a distant planet and while repairing their ship, they stumble upon a tiny civilization of intelligent, almost microbial-sized people who are at least sophisticated enough to build houses, boats, trucks, cities. They appear to be identical to humans in all aspects except their size.
What happens next is an alien version of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. One of the astronauts decides he's going to be their God and begins to dominate the little people through fear and cruelty, based on no godly qualities except the advantage of having evolved to be massively bigger than them. It was a cool episode.
Anyway, what's interesting (at least to me)and possibly shocking to some, is that I don't think I'd act very differently from that guy in his circumstance. If I somehow came across a planet of tiny little aliens that were the size of fleas or smaller to me, I don't think I'd have much of a problem with taking advantage of the size difference. I would love the chance to be revered (or even feared) as a god. Why let them have self-determination if through sheer force, I could make them engineer their society in my own image?
In spite of what I'd do in the above situation, I wouldn't consider myself to be evil, immoral, or unethical. Rather, I'm generally considered to be an all-around great guy by friends and coworkers. I help people all the time for nothing in return, have donated to charities, given people rides, and I even volunteer as an EMT when I can. I run competitively, coach track for no pay. I've never been arrested, vandalized property, or wanted to hurt anyone.
What do you think of the behavior I described? How would you behave when in a situation where you gain absolute power over others? Would you be kind or cruel? Or would you walk away from the situation? Try to stay respectful of one another!
Fixed Cross wrote:Jakeyjake wrote:This thread is inspired by an old thread I made about whether or not it is wrong to step on bugs, but with a different subject. There is an episode of the Twilight Zone called the Little People where a couple astronauts get stranded on a distant planet and while repairing their ship, they stumble upon a tiny civilization of intelligent, almost microbial-sized people who are at least sophisticated enough to build houses, boats, trucks, cities. They appear to be identical to humans in all aspects except their size.
What happens next is an alien version of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. One of the astronauts decides he's going to be their God and begins to dominate the little people through fear and cruelty, based on no godly qualities except the advantage of having evolved to be massively bigger than them. It was a cool episode.
Anyway, what's interesting (at least to me)and possibly shocking to some, is that I don't think I'd act very differently from that guy in his circumstance. If I somehow came across a planet of tiny little aliens that were the size of fleas or smaller to me, I don't think I'd have much of a problem with taking advantage of the size difference. I would love the chance to be revered (or even feared) as a god. Why let them have self-determination if through sheer force, I could make them engineer their society in my own image?
In spite of what I'd do in the above situation, I wouldn't consider myself to be evil, immoral, or unethical. Rather, I'm generally considered to be an all-around great guy by friends and coworkers. I help people all the time for nothing in return, have donated to charities, given people rides, and I even volunteer as an EMT when I can. I run competitively, coach track for no pay. I've never been arrested, vandalized property, or wanted to hurt anyone.
What do you think of the behavior I described? How would you behave when in a situation where you gain absolute power over others? Would you be kind or cruel? Or would you walk away from the situation? Try to stay respectful of one another!
Lulz whats the point of being feared by microbial sized beings?
Id take advantage of the powers Id have to help them though, that would be cool. Be a friendly giant.
Arcturus Descending wrote:Can you name anyone in history who had absolute power over everyone who did not at some point live to regret it?
You are a great guy you say and yet you would not hesitate to exercise power over those tiny little aliens. simply because of their tiny stature. Never judge a book by its cover.
You realize, do you not, that power does corrupt, depending on the individual. There are even those so-called individuals who believe that they are incapable of being made corrupt and yet ….there they go … down the drain. "Know Thyself."
If you would chose to be different on another planet than on our own, ask yourself then "How ethical am I really?"
Do you step on or step around little bugs which you find when you are out strolling? Can the mandate to do no harm be eradicated simply because you are in deep space somewhere?
I might say that it takes greater inner/outer power and intelligence to work with these little guys, to get to know them and their culture, et cetera.
"Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions.” – Marcus Aurelius
Jakeyjake wrote:Arcturus Descending wrote:Can you name anyone in history who had absolute power over everyone who did not at some point live to regret it?
You are a great guy you say and yet you would not hesitate to exercise power over those tiny little aliens. simply because of their tiny stature. Never judge a book by its cover.
You realize, do you not, that power does corrupt, depending on the individual. There are even those so-called individuals who believe that they are incapable of being made corrupt and yet ….there they go … down the drain. "Know Thyself."
To your first question, I can't name anyone but that is because I can't recall anyone in history ever having absolute power over anyone in the way that I'm talking about. The people in history who derived their power through unquestioning military loyalty or political influence still had to work within the system to maintain and utilize their power. No matter how strong their military assets and political capital, ultimately their power still came from other people. They couldn't hold on to it, which led to their downfall. In the example I'm giving in my OP, the astronaut was an unstoppable giant. He didn't need political influence or military might to rule, because he could simply crush their cities... which as I recall, he did.If you would chose to be different on another planet than on our own, ask yourself then "How ethical am I really?"
Do you step on or step around little bugs which you find when you are out strolling? Can the mandate to do no harm be eradicated simply because you are in deep space somewhere?
I might say that it takes greater inner/outer power and intelligence to work with these little guys, to get to know them and their culture, et cetera.
"Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions.” – Marcus Aurelius
I think the ethics might change depending on the circumstance, but that's justifiable. For example I'm not unethical in my daily life, but in my daily life I'm just an ordinary guy. But if I were on an alien planet and a tiny civilization looked up to me like some hulking titan, I would want to assert my dominance.
To your last question, no, I don't step around bugs. I step on them. What do you expect though? I am a guy, after all.
Meno_ wrote:
To put it mildly.
I think the ethics might change depending on the circumstance, but that's justifiable.
For example I'm not unethical in my daily life, but in my daily life I'm just an ordinary guy.
But if I were on an alien planet and a tiny civilization looked up to me like some hulking titan, I would want to assert my dominance.
To your last question, no, I don't step around bugs. I step on them. What do you expect though? I am a guy, after all.
How about the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima? I suppose that sometimes ethics is like morality - in the eye of the beholder.
The killing of innocents - Japanese men, women and CHILDREN who were bombed. Was that really justifiable? Were the lives of those non-military people less important than the lives of our American soldiers albeit they say that many of our soldiers lives were saved because of that. Were they simply the spoils of war? But was that truly justifiable or just in the eyes of the powers that be? Was that ethical? What does Jakeyjake think about that?
What is the most ethical thing which we can say? Perhaps to do no harm at least insomuch as we are able to.
Are you just considering the big actions when you say that? Can there be little incidents where you might be just a bit less than ethical?
:lol: You are being facetious here, right? Big guy, little guys, where is the dominance? But then again, if there were more than enough of them, you would probably go down!
I wonder - if they could speak to you - what they would say about the value of their lives.
I am not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill here... just trying to delve a wee bit deeper.
Karpel Tunnel wrote:The idea is scary, actually. Not because I would worry about being evil or in my terms doing things that now I would rather not do to people, but because I wouldn't know what the hell to do, at least in terms of the big stuff. I would certainly make my own situation more comfortable right off the bat. Little decisions might be easy, but what to do about suffering, mortality, people I hate, vicious people, certain metaphysical issue, the destruction of nature, carnivores and their prey, that is things that seem built in to the current situation that bother me, I don't know. I guess if I had absolute power, this would mean that I could grant myself absolute knowledge, so then I could make the right choices. But the idea of filling myself with absolute knowledge is also rather frightening. I mean, right now I am sure there are things I don't want to know about myself and people around me. I certainly strive to find that stuff out, in increments, but to have all knoweldge pour into me so that I could not make monkey's paw wishes in relation to general problematic issues, fuck, that's some scary shit.
Urwrongx1000 wrote:Make sweet love to WendyDarling
Karpel Tunnel wrote:The idea is scary, actually. Not because I would worry about being evil or in my terms doing things that now I would rather not do to people, but because I wouldn't know what the hell to do, at least in terms of the big stuff. I would certainly make my own situation more comfortable right off the bat. Little decisions might be easy, but what to do about suffering, mortality, people I hate, vicious people, certain metaphysical issue, the destruction of nature, carnivores and their prey, that is things that seem built in to the current situation that bother me, I don't know. I guess if I had absolute power, this would mean that I could grant myself absolute knowledge, so then I could make the right choices. But the idea of filling myself with absolute knowledge is also rather frightening. I mean, right now I am sure there are things I don't want to know about myself and people around me. I certainly strive to find that stuff out, in increments, but to have all knoweldge pour into me so that I could not make monkey's paw wishes in relation to general problematic issues, fuck, that's some scary shit.
Meno_ wrote:Of course, those tiny little people could, conceivably possess tiny little nukes to eliminate You with .
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