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Originally posted by kpo:
Err, not knowing anything about the 2 other alien species' intelligence, nature, history, culture; my first loyalty goes to my own kind

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
I'm disinclined to give them a whole new planet. I'll maybe armwrestle 'em for it. 'Sides, if I lose, it's not like my whole planet's going to hate me forever - after all, they've only got a very short time left to live, so what do I care? :)

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
would you argue that there's really a downside to scrubbing humanity off this rock?

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:


Ayep, that's about what I'd say to em.

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Originally posted by kpo:
Err, not knowing anything about the 2 other alien species' intelligence, nature, history, culture; my first loyalty goes to my own kind, my second loyalty goes to the race of aliens that already inhabits a planet - I don't think it's right to supplant one group of aliens with another.

So I tell the Aliens that contacted me no dice.

Either that or I judge the two alien species on cute-ness, deeming the furry saucer-eyed ones more worthy of survival than the slimy bug ones.

All in all, a strange hypothetical.

Heads should roll

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Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:

Unless the Aliens are Jewish ?

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

What do I say ?
Hmm...

"Ok, lookahere you bug eyed freak, obviously you know jack damn all about earth or you'd go runnin in the other direction as fast as your drive can take you...

Allow me to enlighten you.

We're the most notorious darwinistic bastards ever, we make war for entertainment, we fling primitive fission devices at each other in our own biosphere, or just set em off for shits and giggles to watch the big booms.

We poison our world to weed out the weak, nailed our god to a wooden stick for kicks, and a substantial chunk of our entertainment involves the premise of finding, and then mercilessly kicking the ass of, some numerically and technologically superior alien species - you know, like YOU.

So you go riiiight on ahead and try us, we ENJOY that shit, don't you know, and when you and the rest of your nearly extinct race are crying out to whatever gods you have from under our boots while we pick our teeth with the bones of your friends and family, don't be sayin you weren't warned."

Ayep, that's about what I'd say to em.

-Frem

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Originally posted by chrisisall:

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Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:

Unless the Aliens are Jewish ?

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Hey! No PN baiting!


The laughing Chrisisall

"I only do it to to remind you that I'm right and that deep down, you know I'm right, you want me to be right, you need me to be right." - The Imperial Hero Strikes Back, 2010

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Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:

KPO came out against the aggressors here, but for Israel in the real world...

" I don't think it's right to supplant one group of aliens with another. "

thought that was interesting, and kinda telling of both situations...

Morally is quite flexable... even hypothetically

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Originally posted by chrisisall:
Aliens need a planet, they'll take Earth, or a planet in Andromeda with twice our population (oh, and everyone dies on the chosen world to make way).

The aliens contact YOU for the decision. What say you, oh logical ones?

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Originally posted by Hero:


Pardon me while I practice my evil laugh.

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Originally posted by Geezer:
Your advisors tell you that they have found, incontrovertably, that the only thing that will cause the terrorist to stop the bomb and surrender is to see his daughter suffering the pain of severe torture on TV....around dinner time. And he especially hates it if he sees your mother doing the torturing...in a bunny suit...what do you do?

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Originally posted by Geezer:
This is a lame one. Try The Terrorist and His Daughter.

You are the Mayor of Chicago. A terrorist has hidden a dirty atomic bomb somewhere in the loop and will detonate it in one half hour. No time to evacuate the city. Your advisors tell you that they have found, incontrovertably, that the only thing that will cause the terrorist to stop the bomb and surrender is to see his daughter suffering the pain of severe torture on TV. He doesn't care if she lives or dies, so driving her to the loop to be blown up won't stop him, but can't stand to see her suffer. He's also an expert at FX and CGI, etc. so will spot fakery. There are no other alternatives.

You can have one little girl tortured to save millions, or let millions die and keep your ethics intact.

BTW, this is the terrorist's daughter.


"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Originally posted by Hero:


Thats easy. I contact the leaders of our world and demand a hundred billion dollars in exchange for choosing the other world.

If they agree, I get a boatload of cash, save the Earth, and keep humanity alive, thus serving myself, my homeworld, and my species.

If they don't agree, I choose the other world to live thus dying a noble death sacrificing myself and all I hold dear to save many more lives. Needs of the many and such.

Both choices are morally correct and absolves me of blame since I placed the decision in the hands of our leaders, those unhappy few fate placed in position to make decsions on behalf of our entire planet. Cash is the bonus.

Pardon me while I practice my evil laugh.

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As to the second one, I reject it on the grounds that it wouldn't stop the terrorist anyway. Anyone who was what you described, especially if he didn't care whether she lived or died, would blow it. Plus there's all the complexity of "how do you stop torturing her and when, how do you make the exchange since the minute you stop torturing her" and on and on and on.

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Spoken like a true Republican - always willing to sell out anyone, anytime, anywhere, for the right amount of cash!

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I expect a response that will have equal or greater examples from Republicans bad behavior. But please don't give me that Republican only crap.

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Originally posted by Niki2:
the idea is absurd, and them coming to me to decide even more absurd.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

the Republicans have about 300,000 times as many scandals, felonies, lies, and treasonous acts under their belts

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Originally posted by Riverlove:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

the Republicans have about 300,000 times as many scandals, felonies, lies, and treasonous acts under their belts

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Only 300,000 times as many scandals, etc? Have you mellowed or something? Where's your unique talent for overkill?

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Originally posted by rue:
And making her white says more about YOUR prejudices than mine.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Exactly; it's so absurd a notion that the only way to respond is with further absurdity. This is the kind of fevered wet dream that Geezer and his kind love to indulge in - the ticking bomb scenario from "24", their favorite brand of right-wing torture porn.

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Originally posted by Niki2:
besides, everyone is "the One", yes?

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Yours was number 7.

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Originally posted by rue:
That doesn't mean that this HASN'T been used by neoCONS, not as a teaching tool but as a propaganda tool - to stampede people into ANYthing just to avoid terrorism "in the form of a mushroom cloud" (Oct 2002).

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Originally posted by rue:
This was number 4.



Yours was number 7.

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Exactly; it's so absurd a notion that the only way to respond is with further absurdity. This is the kind of fevered wet dream that Geezer and his kind love to indulge in - the ticking bomb scenario from "24", their favorite brand of right-wing torture porn.

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Wrong. "The Terrorist and His Daughter" (complete with a picture of the cute daughter, holding a guinea pig) was presented to me and others at a Smithsonian seminar on Philosophy by Mitchell Green, the NEH/Horace Goldsmith Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia.

I suspect that this scenario, or something similar, is presented in most Intro to Philosophy classes. First the prof rejects any other solutions but torture or bombs, and then asks the class members what they'd do - and no matter the response, questions it and asks the student to defend it. That's what happened in the seminar. It seems to be more a way of making the student think than trying to get to an answer.





"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by rue:
That doesn't mean that this HASN'T been used by neoCONS, not as a teaching tool but as a propaganda tool - to stampede people into ANYthing just to avoid terrorism "in the form of a mushroom cloud" (Oct 2002).

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Well, you apparently follow NeoCon literature more closely than I do (if you do have an actual cite and not just conjecture), since I never heard of that scenario until the seminar.

I could write a similar one where the crazy Conservative President was gonna invade Iraq and slaughter a bunch of folks, and the only way to stop him was to assassinate his VP, who was the real decider. Like that better?

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Spoken like a true Republican - always willing to sell out anyone, anytime, anywhere, for the right amount of cash!

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