The Morality of Nerve Stapling

SLAM: debunk creationism, pseudoscience, and superstitions. Discuss logic and morality.

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Invictus ChiKen
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Post by Invictus ChiKen »

Here's a scary thought. Imagne if some of those fundie re-education camps got hold of the technology. Bring in there Wiccan Bisexual daughter. One quick treatment and she's now a by the Bible striaght good little girl going into the industry Mommy and Daddy want her to be in.
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Darth Wong
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Post by Darth Wong »

Invictus ChiKen wrote:Here's a scary thought. Imagne if some of those fundie re-education camps got hold of the technology. Bring in there Wiccan Bisexual daughter. One quick treatment and she's now a by the Bible striaght good little girl going into the industry Mommy and Daddy want her to be in.
How the hell is selective memory erasure going to turn her into what they want her to be?

PS. As for criminal rehabilitation, it wouldn't work unless you go right back to early childhood and wipe out everything. Criminal impulses don't suddenly appear in an otherwise decent, morally upstanding person at the age of 18. You go to any of these youth gang members and interview their grade-school teachers; they've been disasters waiting to happen for a long time already.
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wolveraptor
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Post by wolveraptor »

They could implant memories in too, remember? What if they have memories of non-existant miracles that happend to them after being recieved by the Lord Jebus? What if they only remember being a Christian all their life, and they remember how much support it has offered them? All of these memories could be manufactured and implanted, and no one would be the wiser.
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Zero
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Post by Zero »

wolveraptor wrote:They could implant memories in too, remember? What if they have memories of non-existant miracles that happend to them after being recieved by the Lord Jebus? What if they only remember being a Christian all their life, and they remember how much support it has offered them? All of these memories could be manufactured and implanted, and no one would be the wiser.
They would still have their basic biological tendencies, which would eventually lead them back to their "life of sin!"
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wolveraptor
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Post by wolveraptor »

They could implant memories in her that instill a strong hatred of homosexual relationships. Being bisexual, she wouldn't be as hard to maintain. Needless to say, it's still incredibly risky and painful for the staplee.
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."

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The Jester
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Post by The Jester »

I would question how you would actually be able to delete one memory, or that memories even occur discretely like files or rows and tables in a database. But to make an analogy to a database, suppose you were able to isolate every instance of data stored in mind associated with the incident, what other information would you remove unitentionally due to the way it may be linked in the persons mind? Furthermore, how would the mind adapt to the information that has been removed and associations that exist are suddenly removed?

Of course, I'm not an expert in human memory structure, and I don't have any scientific evidence to support my position, but I would have concerns over what sort of unintended side effects such an operation will create.
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wolveraptor
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Post by wolveraptor »

The hypothetical scenario deals with the ethical questions, not the scientific possibility. It's quite clear that a thing like this is patently ridiculous, due to the reasons you brought up. However, that's obvious, and would merit only a pageful of "You retard that could never happen!"s.

So forget that shit and focus on the ethical question itself.
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."

- Herb Bowie, Reason to Rock
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Solauren
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Post by Solauren »

This could also be useful for education.

Anyway.

I have no problem with it being used to remove stuff with peoples consent or court order (i.e crooks)

PTSD removal has been mentioned. Just tell them the truth, and 'you decided you didn't want to know the details'

With crooks, as it's been pointed out, some are so 'hard core', you'd have to wipe away alot of there mind.

In some cases, assuming you could read there entire mind, you might be able to 'pick and choose' which to delete to elminate criminal impulses (i.e was good at home, bad crowd outside and hide it well, if that were to even be the case)

Hell, a complete mind-wipe, you could build them a new life.

Education wise, you could get all the theortical stuff uploaded instantly into your mind, then just have to do 'understanding', 'application' and so forth. (Rapidly accelerated book learning)

However, unless it's selective and specific memory deletion, I have a problem with wiping out 6 years of memories to elminate 1 bit of knowledge. (i.e to get that 1 bit, you have to wipe out all after it)
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