EdgedThesis

Leaving behind genes and continuing your bloodline is less important than passing on what you have learned. What you have experienced.

Sentinels seemed to go better here.

I've been reading up on various solutions to this problem. I believe IBM is working on a computer project involving artificial neocortical columns, which imitates a layer of brain matter in information transfer. Perhaps Faith can be the first to have a fully functioning brain of silica? If she survives long enough, of course. Though the Blue Brain project is a long way off, still. And I don't know how up-to-date this book in my hand is.

Rape? What the hell? Anyway, the post about the primitive brain is interesting. Since Faith has access to a pure human larynx, her consciousness/consciousness of animals sharing mental capacity might be able to be gauged. She can... speak (or maybe try and form words. Depends on her brain development. This would disprove the biological machine theories and all of that mechanistic thought) Any details about her brain? Hmm, maybe she'll turn out to be 'productive' after all. I guess the word anencephaly in title is now... false?

[hide=] Have you considered none at all? Not everybody who is deluded about one thing or another must suffer from a mental disorder. Are you f***king kidding me?! People who are pyschologically dependent on cigarettes or other drugs may not be very capable of making a "rational" decision regarding drug use, but that doesn't mean it's the government's job to force Nicotine patches and rehabilitation on them against their wishes. What you are suggesting is essentially attempting to improve society's well-being by deciding for them what is best, and then forcing that decision on them regardless of their wishes and legal rights. This entire thread has been a revolting display of Off-Topic's dark side. Nazism has been brought up a number of times not because of Goodwin's Law, but because some of the views expressed here mirror those of Hitler and other totalitarian regimes. Delusions do not "evolve into schizophrenia." :thumbdown: It's absolutely laughable to assume that this individual must have an unsurfaced case of schizophrenia -- something that is nearly if not entirely undetectable given what little information we have about her -- and then to assume that the realization of her own delusion -- assuming it ever occurs -- will trigger this underlying schizophrenia. I encourage you to stop trying to diagnose this woman before you make yourself look any more foolish. [/hide] What is the point of this thread if we cannot speculate and offer our viewpoints on what should be done? Obviously we are not there to physically administer psychiatric tests or terminate the child ourselves. But we are going off information that we have now and trying to come to conclusions. We are discussing. Sure, some would say it is foolish to speculate without every detail of a situation, but that is what this thread is for. Some show their pity for all parties involved. Others show outright hatred of the unnatural. Others try to objectively weigh the situation and come up with a long-term solution, and others show their dismay. Either way, we're expressing our thoughts at that very moment. Of course we cannot judge with absolute certainty. We are not omniscient. But we judge anyway, because it is what our brains our designed to do. We know that there is a chance that we are wrong, but we say what we think anyway. That's the point, remember? Saying that-- your thoughts are acknowledged, as they should be.

Stab? Oh, nothing quite so visceral. Maybe something as cold and impersonal as I am. A lethal injection, perhaps. Tell me, are you so blinded by anger right now that you cannot see this text, and cannot realize that that was a test? As you've said, we cannot 'judge' the mother's future. But we can speculate. And we can conclude with certain facts based on observed past human behavior.

Agreed. Though this is a man-made purpose, in agreement with the rest of the thread. We exist to perpetuate ourselves. And when we gather in groups and have a species identity, that existence increases in magnitude to 'perpetuate the species'. And then ever-broader: 'perpetuate sentience--sapience'. And so on.

No it isn't. It's sad to hear. Sad to know how much an individual's mind can break when under strain. Sad to know that meanings, feelings, emotions and soulfulness are being attributed to the random muscular twitches and mechanical processes of the dead. And even sadder to know that this dream that she is trying keep holding up for herself will eventually fall to pieces, and with it, whatever sanity she has left. I can already see her muttering under her breath about the wonderful things her daughter has done and the grades she has been getting to white-coated pill-dispensers and bespectacled therapists. If she is already creating a false life, one that her imagination is using to inflate that husk of a baby's body, then she will probably fabricate false memories, false first words, false baby steps, false everything. To inflate the hollow of her life.

Wait, a machine that gives you the same work-out as a weighted squat (as in, you extend your legs while they take the pressure of weight) is nowhere near as difficult, right? Since you don't have to stabilize or anything. What would, say, 380 pounds on a machine equate to?

Those of you speaking about the baby not being productive... You don't need to be 'alive' to have a purpose. Hell, Faith has made me go over all that I think of as 'life', and has sparked a raging debate on a gaming forum she will never be able to read. I'm not productive right now. I'm just a student--sure, I submit some excellent papers and do well on tests, but that isn't worth [cabbage] to society. Kill me. And those arguing about Faith's status as living: I have to say that she isn't alive in the human sense. She's 'alive' in the same sense as a machine being 'alive'--in motion, and seemingly autonomous. The truth is that we could probably recreate her twitches and responses with a few smart programmers and some top-of-the-line circuitry. This hypothetical product of silicon, copper, and steel would be 'alive' in the same way. Which is to say, not at all. The reason why I want her delusion weaving arm movements and joy-bringing reflexive smiles terminated is this: The more happiness and bonding that grows between the mother and the object of her love (in the most literal sense), the harder she will crash when she realizes that there can be nothing for her daughter. The greater the love, the greater the loss. The quicker she dies, the less chance the mother wastes away with her tears.

Skydive. Would seem more serene than the sudden drops and stops that you get from climbing buildings. And then come the trials: Get shot. Just to know that my body could withstand the trauma. Become addicted, quite cold turkey, and go through withdrawal. Just to know that my will could withstand the trauma. Hold a position of power in which I am expected to be immoral--and refuse. Just to know that my principles could withstand the trauma. And then I'd get started on impacting the world enough that it shifts onto a better path. After which I'd die happily.

If you were replying to me-- I already agreed with that point. I used those afflicted with Down syndrome as a foil to those with anencephaly.

If what the religion believes was real; ie for greek zeus and such actually existing. Honestly, all religion can't be real. Muslims believe that Allah is the one true god, whereas Hindus believe in like 3,000? They have one, with several avatars.

Rationalize what seems irrational you mean? Haha-- the purpose for undertaking such quests is because you can. I sure as hell don't research, explore, learn because I have to. It's because I want to. Its the very, very 'irrational' desire to seek knowledge that gives you purpose. Irrationality fueling rationality. Yay for the paradoxical.

I think less 'productivity' and more 'it cannot feel'. As of now it is an object, the kidney stone you keep in a jar to remind you of your operation. And the pain will be greater once that object of sentimental value simply disappears. When it comes to those with Downes syndrome, the main cause of keeping them alive is that they can emote. They do not 'know', but they do feel. They respond. They show affection. They form bonds. Anencephalic children are the equivalent of ultra-tech animatronics: They are a symbol of weeks of work, they perform reflex responses, you can say they are created with the greatest detail in mechanism and circuitry--but they have no brain.

I do not feel for something that cannot feel, but I do for the mother. She has been crushed by circumstance in to a state of such pitiful denial. Her faculties have been eroded by tragedy, and there is no doubt that her sanity will be destroyed upon discovery that no, her child does not function, cannot function, and will not function. I anticipate one moment of enlightenment, in which all the implications of this will hit her at once. No pride over school drawings, nothing to be boast of in terms of school, no prospective son-in-law to await. Any life that sparkles in her eyes will wink out, returning only with intensive therapy (or if she's so devout, force of religious will). I anticipate all of this--and I grieve for her now.

Tomato bisque is the perfect temperature to conceal the warmth of newly introduced urine. Sweet, porous meringue is the perfect absorber of all types of gases... and smells. And clam chowder has the perfect color and texture to... Well, you know. Bon apetit, everyone.

We can move through time. But we can't go back upon events that have already occurred. Hey, we, relative to the rest of the Universe, may even be going back in time right now. Of course, we don't see things go in rewound motion because this is the natural state for us. Time, as an absolute dimension of the Universe, can be curved and traversed. But events that have already occurred? Well... They've already occurred.

Hinduism is monistic. Everything is a manifestation of the one divine: Brahma, the formless core of all life. The Force is the same way. Its is an obscure source of... everything. All that you see are protrusions from this one entity. We are the different spokes of one Universal wheel of being.

It is a religion. It places heavy faith upon the Force and all beings linked by it. It cannot be studied through empirical means--it is wholly intuitive. Though the groups Jedi and Sith are artificially created philosophies--two groups trying to rationalize something that the Universe feels should be ambiguous. Or at least, this was so until damned Lucas introduced midi-chlorians! Damn you, Lucas! But also, thank you for the greatest Universe ever.

Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was re-designed to this: the peak of your civilization.

They can't, it's "unethical". I'll volunteer! For free! Its the clone that we're worried about. Not the person being cloned. He will have a life spent in a scientific prison, being prodded and injected, probed and examined. It'd be a hell of white walls and stainless steel. And if human rights are conferred upon clones, companies doing the cloning will have nothing to gain. They will have to set their projects free.

Sweet. Instant admiration. Though the best act I've seen has to be the bhangra/jackson dance routine. Cultural pride, y'see.

"If I was gay, your dead, repeatedly violated body would have been found amongst the other pieces of organic garbage behind the school dumpster by now. Though, I could always arrange the murder without the rape."

Enjoy it while you can? Hm. I say it is to uplift the next generation of humanity and keep ourselves going. Contribute to the body of knowledge and progress the race. We have to keep Intelligence alive. Even if it means to suffer ourselves. Hey, once we create A.I we can pack up and go. (This is an Agnostic speaking.) As long as a Universe in existence, there should be someone to admire it.