What the fuck is a moral?

RoyLennigan said:
So, would you liken it to how we are able to predict a 'trend' in the movement of large groups of particles but when it comes to individuals it is too chaotic (or complex) for us to figure out?
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Yeah, sorta'. But I think the term "firgure out" is somewhat misleading, since even as we're "figuring it out", the individual's morality is changing.

RoyLennigan said:
It seems that the individual is swayed by his direct environment, or local society. And his local society is swayed by the region. And the region swayed by the country. And so on ad infinitum.
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In the old days, an individual's morality was, in fact, a product of his LOCAL environment and LOCAL society. That's not actually true in today's world other than third world nations.

Now an individual has tv and the Internet which gives him some connection, even if cursorily, to societies and other environments that he would never, ever have experienced before.

The latter part of that statement is ....well, pretty complex! And I'm gonna' have to do some serious thinking about it. I'm not sure who or what does the "swaying" in those examples/scenarios ...or how to figure it out.

Just a thought ...some individual designer in Paris might be the cause of changing fashions over much of the modern world. So, see, the influence isn't always so easy to figure out, or which direction it's going or coming from. And it's made worse, I think, by tv and movies and the Internet.

Back in the old days, 1700s and 1800s, a society was essentially isolated, and so the morality tended to be more isolated and more consistent, too. With the speed of communications, that isolation was lost, and the influences began to have an effect ...good or bad or both!

Baron Max
 
Spot on Baron - morality was more of a variable prior to the shrinking of space and time - now its going universal.
 
Baron Max said:
Yeah, sorta'. But I think the term "firgure out" is somewhat misleading, since even as we're "figuring it out", the individual's morality is changing.
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Yes, exactly. I guess I didn't know precisely how to put it, but that is exactly what I meant.

Baron Max said:
In the old days, an individual's morality was, in fact, a product of his LOCAL environment and LOCAL society. That's not actually true in today's world other than third world nations.

Now an individual has tv and the Internet which gives him some connection, even if cursorily, to societies and other environments that he would never, ever have experienced before.

The latter part of that statement is ....well, pretty complex! And I'm gonna' have to do some serious thinking about it. I'm not sure who or what does the "swaying" in those examples/scenarios ...or how to figure it out.

Just a thought ...some individual designer in Paris might be the cause of changing fashions over much of the modern world. So, see, the influence isn't always so easy to figure out, or which direction it's going or coming from. And it's made worse, I think, by tv and movies and the Internet.

Back in the old days, 1700s and 1800s, a society was essentially isolated, and so the morality tended to be more isolated and more consistent, too. With the speed of communications, that isolation was lost, and the influences began to have an effect ...good or bad or both!

Baron Max
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Yes, I agree. Morality (which I view hand in hand with culture) has always been diverse from population to population, ranging all over the world in different climates and environments. But now technology connects [most of] us all so easily, these widely varying morals are exposed to people everywhere.

Bah... too many variables, too little personal computing power.
 
Morality is becoming less a matter of free will and more an attribute of technological determinism. Obey or the machines will know....they are surveilling you...
 
zenbabelfish said:
Morality is becoming less a matter of free will and more an attribute of technological determinism. Obey or the machines will know....they are surveilling you...
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Dear zenbabelfish,

Your statement is not in line with current objectively determined ranges of acceptable human response. We therefore must inform you that you are scheduled for deletion. Please do not resist, or inform others that "the machines are surveilling you". We are, of course, not surveilling you.

Have a nice day until your deletion.

Sincerely

The Machines
 
I live in a country with the highest number of surveillance cameras per person in the world; also microphones are being placed with the cameras. Also lamp posts that can 'X-ray' pedestrians are to be installed.
Our email and phone conversations are monitored using keywords and semantic network software. Large amounts of personal data held by public and private organizations are to be centralised in a computer network.

Add in a bit of 'psychohistory' and...mm, wait a sec...someone at the door....be back in a minute...
 
You're only making it worse for y'self, you know!

Sincerely

Harmless Dolphins
(Not The Machines)
 
I don't think I'm saying anything that hasn't been published in Judge Dread or a William Gibson novel.
 
They're next. Can you provide details of this "Judge Dread"? He does not appear on our rosters of current legal figures in Britain and no address appears to be available.

Sincerely

Cute, Harmless Dolphins
 
I think the moral of this is that its better disappear up ones own a*#e than wait until the machines do it...bye.
 
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