From: john grigg (starman125@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Dec 21 1999 - 18:40:29 MST
Robert Bradbury wrote:
c) Aside: since Greg & I haven't resolved the problem of whether
behaviors in VR are immoral, I can only hope that when the rest of
you get through raping and gaming and uploading and uplifting and
"becoming" human and transhuman and resolving the meaning of Q*,
that you will ultimately devote a few of those excess CPU cycles to
the question -- if you are arrested or raped or killed in someone
elses dream, do you really care?
(end of reproduction)
I felt that Bryan Moss' comment was very inappropriate but perhaps he can
explain himself.
I found the comments on whether raping in a VR simulation is in some way
criminal very thought-provoking. I would think unless the simulated person
were self-aware that it might be seen as permissable though frowned upon.
And yet it does say something about the person who would run such a program.
And with a highly advanced VR sim the experience for the user could seem
very real and over time might have an effect on behavior in the real world.
This has already been argued in terms of if hardcore porn has such effects.
But advanced VR would start the discussion anew. I could see future law
enforcement profiling individuals who use such entertainments. In a world
where profiling is being done with increasing computerized sophistication I
find this very likely.
I could see popular VR sims where a person can mass murder while he plays
the role of Genghis Khan in totally realistic fashion but does not rape. At
least with the American view I would say killing is seen as tolerable in
mass media while fortunately rape is not. With murder (I am not talking
self-defense) you take the life and future of that person but with rape you
may let them live but violate that person's body and mind, leaving them a
psyche so ravaged it may take years to recover if ever. As permanent as
murder is I find myself often more enraged and concerned when I hear of rape
being done to either men or women. Evolutionary psychology and sociology
gives reasons why we see this as such an outrage. So even a VR simulation
of the act of rape is a very charged thing.
sincerely,
John Grigg
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