An odd time of year to be talking about Valentine's Day....
Nicholas Thompson wrote:
the following passage caught me eye:
Half the never-ending hurt in this world seems to come from our
thinking we know what other people's intentions are from their actions...
Talk to me a bit about what an intention is to you, what an action is
to you, and how they differ.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>)
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
<http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/>
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Steve Smith <mailto:[email protected]>
*To: *The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:* 6/21/2009 5:51:13 PM
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Nick and dishonest behavior
I am way too animistic in my instincts to go for most of this.
Eric said:
/Nick's ethical stance would be based on treating things that
act in certain ways as equal to all other things that act in
certain ways, and it wouldn't get much more prescriptive than
that. The acts he would be interested in would be very
sophisticated actions, or combination of actions - such as
"contributing to the conversation". This may seem strange, but
again, it is really, really, really, not that different from a
stance that treats all things that "experience in a certain
way" as equal.
/
Yes, I abhor the killing of people (but can think of circumstances
when I would endorse or practice it) and by extension abhor (or at
least get really queasy at) the killing of things that look
anything like people. Apes and Monkeys are obvious candidates for
the not-kill. Ditto for things that know how to mimic humans in
any way... or have been selected for these traits (think most/all
pets, many domesticated animals, etc.). And add in the things
that tweak my parent feeling (all creatures exhibiting neotony,
big eyes, large head/body ratios, etc.). Then add in the
creatures who may not overtly (or recognizeably) remind me of
humans (think Dolphins and other Cetaeceans... little gray
creatures from UFO's, etc) that I intellectually (if not
intuitively) ascribe intelligence and emotions.
But I can feel the same way about cherished possessions or even
coveted possessions of others. Who hasn't gone to the dump and
wanted to pull that "perfectly good armchair" out of the pile of
trash? I am particularly a sucker for machinery, electronic or
otherwise. Just *try* to throw a "perfectly good"
printer/computer/bicycle/chainsaw away in my presence. I have a
boatload (technically a parking-lot-full) of cars that I fell in
love with and had to rescue... most of them 20+ years old... and
once you rescue them, you can never abandon them, and you can't
even foster them out... after all, who is going to love them as
much as you? And yes, they all drive... though I'm not so sure
about the old tech in my shed (computers, printers, etc.) but I
suspect they do... why not?
OK... I'm sure this is totally off-topic... excepting that I claim
that we *project* so much onto inanimate (or barely animate or
animate but barely/hardly human) objects that surely we do the
same with people? I don't trust people who claim they can
determine my (or anyones) intentions by our actions... it is too
fraught with the risk of projection. Half the never-ending hurt
in this world seems to come from our thinking we know what other
people's intentions are from their actions... and the other half
seems to come from the resulting feedback loop of revenge.
- Steve
PS... I think it is "OK" to kill Nick, but there are many, many
reasons I do not. Not the least of which is that I've become
quite fond of him. So don't anyone else try killing Nick to make
the point, I would take it personally, project onto you my own
ideas of your motivations and seek revenge based on that
projection. (OK... I know... I'm being disingenuous here...)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
