Prelude to the Apocalypse

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Iran War. When.

2021
3
6%
2022-2025
15
28%
2026-2030
7
13%
2031-2040
3
6%
2041-2050
0
No votes
Never
25
47%
 
Total votes: 53

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Sima Tuna
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sima Tuna »

BryanM wrote:
Vanguard wrote:Anyone who still thinks the Democrats aren't just Republicans with better branding is a fucking moron.
Anyone who still believes "capitalism is just voluntary interactions" is a fucking moron.
Anyone who still thinks working class people can get what they want from 90 year old pedophiles who control both the government and big business by simply voting or asking nicely is a fucking moron.
I feel ya, man.

... it's only going to get worse before it gets worse. Fashier and fashier.

One of these days they're probably going to abolish money, but not in a good way, like you'd want. Money for the few, ole timey monopoly money for the rest.
It's been done, famalam. Those old mining towns paid the miners in company scrip which had no value outside of the company stores. Just... Take that labor and funnel all the wages back to yourself. Sounds fucking good! :roll:
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

If memory serves, one local chain of McDonald's restaurants was going to pay with Wal Mart cards and charge employees if they wanted a real check. :mrgreen:
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BulletMagnet »

Vanguard wrote:Anyone who still thinks the Democrats aren't just Republicans with better branding is a fucking moron.
In a number of ways, yes, unfortunately, but not all. Sorry, but only one side of the aisle is saying things like this - and, even more alarmingly, offering reactions like this, or being persuaded by "journalism" like this. Some issues are genuinely "both sides" in nature - but I don't think you out yourself as a rabid partisan by qualifying that with "...but not all of 'em", and acting accordingly.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Air Master Burst »

Yeah, as a hardcore leftist I have disdain for both parties, but I'm not gonna try and pretend they're the same thing. I've voted for a few decent democrats over the years in local elections, but I've never voted for a republican.
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

Jesus, the Walker runoff's tomorrow. The way everything was talking about it made it feel like today...


Anyway, a heartwarming comment on MTG Arena:
Here’s a story, kids:

Way back when I was young, my high school was proud of its diversity. It served students from 76 different countries. The school was so pleased, that it renamed one of its cafeterias as the, ‘Flag Café’, and put up flags on the walls from each of the 76 countries.

And then a student truthfully claimed that they came from Occupied Palestine, and asked for the PLO flag to be hung on the wall.

And then all the flags disappeared. The End.
XtraSmiley
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by XtraSmiley »

Vanguard wrote:
XtraSmiley wrote:Anyone who generalized groups of people and wants to distill complex issues is a fucking moron.
What a silly thing to say. Of course one must generalize groups and distill issues to make decisions and function. There's not enough time in the world to learn every facet of every issue or to get to know every single human being on earth. For example, it is quite clear that the billionaire class is collectively very bad for the poorest 95% of the world and I do not need to memorize the name and life story of every single billionaire to know that.

Furthermore, the DNC and RNC are privately owned entities, whose owners are wealthy and powerful, which are funded by the wealthy and powerful, and which serve the interests of the wealthy in powerful. This could not be further from a complex or nuanced issue. It is simply the truth. One can reason, that since it's rich people paying rich people, that these systems are probably intended to benefit rich people, and you'd be right. You could also observe their actions and outcomes, and correctly conclude that yup, these guys want to further impoverish the working class. You might also try asking yourself "why don't the democrats make any attempt to pass any of the pro-worker policies which they've promised us, which a supermajority of their base supports (and sometimes even a majority of republican voters), even when they have both the presidency and majorities in congress?" The only sane answer is "because they don't want to pass those policies."

You don't need to know that every congressman is your enemy to know that congress is your enemy. And indeed I'm certain that a tiny irrelevant minority of them are not. Sanders seems like an alright guy. He's far too weak, far too willing to tolerate bad behavior from his own side, but I know better than to let perfect be the enemy of good. Likewise I don't have proof that every cop in the USA will start firing their guns wildly upon being spooked by eg. a barking dog or some kids playing with brightly colored, plastic water pistols, but I do know that it isn't a good idea to test your luck. I'm sure that not every billionaire on the planet is a pedophile. JK Rowling and the Minecraft guy probably aren't. Doesn't change the fact that there sure are a lot of big names on Epstein's old contact list, none of whom seem the least bit interested publicly discussing the matter to try and defend their own reputations, let alone find out which of their peers were among his clients. You'd think you'd want to clear that up, right? If a normal person found out that several of their associates were part of a pedophile ring, they'd want them exposed, wouldn't they? From this we can reasonably conclude that any given billionaire has a very high chance of being a child predator.

I hope this has illustrated for you a bit of the usefulness of rational generalizations.
You're being an argumentative jerk online, or really believe nonsense like this:

"From this we can reasonably conclude that any given billionaire has a very high chance of being a child predator."

Or that most government is out to impoverish the working class. I mean, you must admit that there are laws today that protect the working class the didn't exist 50, 100, 1000 years ago right? I wonder who made those "rules" into things like "laws?"

In any case, I actually feel sad for you and the world you live in, in your mind.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Air Master Burst »

XtraSmiley wrote: Or that most government is out to impoverish the working class. I mean, you must admit that there are laws today that protect the working class the didn't exist 50, 100, 1000 years ago right? I wonder who made those "rules" into things like "laws?"
I don't know about most government, but this is definitely been the function of the US government since at least the 80s. Also, 50 years ago was 1972, and american workers had more protection back then than they do today.
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Hoagtech
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Hoagtech »

BulletMagnet wrote:
Vanguard wrote:Anyone who still thinks the Democrats aren't just Republicans with better branding is a fucking moron.
In a number of ways, yes, unfortunately, but not all. Sorry, but only one side of the aisle is saying things like this - and, even more alarmingly, offering reactions like this, or being persuaded by "journalism" like this. Some issues are genuinely "both sides" in nature - but I don't think you out yourself as a rabid partisan by qualifying that with "...but not all of 'em", and acting accordingly.
Vague "destroying constitution parrot point" followed by more opinion objection.

Lets oppose the latest liberal crybaby points in these latest revelations:

The Twitter files proved that government associations knowingly prohibited the smear of the Biden laptop and even twitter employees asked if they "were allowed to do this" before effecting the minds of the populous during the election. It was a decided choice to take down the presence "by any means" but how dare you question election interference..

Meanwhile FTX proves how democratic ethics can garner your dollars. (even donating them to democratic government {On false Ukrainian war donations nonetheless} to the point where your ethics is your point of sale)

I think FTX is the perfect example of garnishing ethics to personal gain. It embodies the the core of Democrats fetching "virtue for spending habits"..

But even then the voting grabs of Student Debt forgiveness will obviously fail in court after midterm votes (Right on queue) along with making Union activism unlawful.. (Good Thing you got to shame your your friends for a hot minute)

I wish you could could see the ironic wolfs tail poking out from the "Spirit of Halloween's" sheep costume but I find it unlikely because your minds are melded to the latest spin.
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

XtraSmiley wrote:Or that most government is out to impoverish the working class. I mean, you must admit that there are laws today that protect the working class the didn't exist 50, 100, 1000 years ago right? I wonder who made those "rules" into things like "laws?"
.... literally communists and socialists in the 1930's.

I mean, at the bare minimum the United States really should get around to abolishing slavery, you know? I heard a couple voter initiatives in a state or four did just that this year.

Good guy voters. Doing what the corpos don't want.

Thanks for reminding me the Supreme Court declared the creation of the minimum wage "unconstitutional" (for mysterious reasons we'll never be able to figure out). None of that stuff would have happened if a majority of the ruling class weren't convinced a revolution was imminent.

Thankfully tempers simmered down and they were able to repeal the Glass–Steagall act and friends a few generations later.

Here, read some actual history in wiki crib note format. It's typical of hundreds of other incidents, like the Grenfell Tower fire or that guy who made a buck off putting lead in the town's water supply or the cheapass power company which didn't put the backup generators in an elevated location in Fukushima. There is no such thing as a "good billionaire", nothing was ever handed down to us. Every single thing people had to fight and die for decades for shit to change.

Man, just lol at the idea a capitalist was totally cool with giving us weekends and little kids being allowed to keep their fingers.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BulletMagnet »

Hoagtech wrote:I wish you could could see the ironic wolfs tail poking out from the "Spirit of Halloween's" sheep costume but I find it unlikely because your minds are melded to the latest spin.
Sorry, but literally nothing in your post has anything whatsoever to do with the point I was making, i.e. "the parties are the same in some ways, but not all" - moreover "the right would rather abandon democracy than lose an election" isn't a "parrot point", it's not only literally what Trump (among others long before him) has been saying non-stop for years now and literally what the rest of the right, with pretty much zero exceptions, has been lining eagerly up behind all that time, but literally what they are arguing before the Supreme Court this week. AGAIN.

Next.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Mischief Maker »

Hoagtech wrote:The Twitter files proved that government associations knowingly prohibited the smear of the Biden laptop and even twitter employees asked if they "were allowed to do this" before effecting the minds of the populous during the election. It was a decided choice to take down the presence "by any means" but how dare you question election interference..
Looking at Hunter Biden's dick pix is the god-given right of every Republican.

How dare they report accounts posting revenge porn, which was already a TOS violation?

The tree of liberty is watered by Republican cum tributes!

Also:
Spoiler
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Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by XtraSmiley »

Air Master Burst wrote:
XtraSmiley wrote: Or that most government is out to impoverish the working class. I mean, you must admit that there are laws today that protect the working class the didn't exist 50, 100, 1000 years ago right? I wonder who made those "rules" into things like "laws?"
I don't know about most government, but this is definitely been the function of the US government since at least the 80s. Also, 50 years ago was 1972, and american workers had more protection back then than they do today.
The function of the US government? Is there an eye roll emoji available here, in XL?

Come on Duder, you're just as bad as the other guy (take your pick).

American workers had more rights in the 1970s than today? Hmmm, did you mean white males, because if so, you really miss-typed it.

People are working, and working hard, to help improve the lives of others, it's not a goal that will ever cross a finish line because there are people who work against that goal as well. It's never ending, it ebbs and flows.

The "US government" (geez what a broad term) has never been (and will likely never be) perfect. It can only do what the people who support it make it do. There are bad politicians but there are also good ones. Generalizing large swaths of anything is not the way to make a strong argument.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Air Master Burst »

XtraSmiley wrote: American workers had more rights in the 1970s than today? Hmmm, did you mean white males, because if so, you really miss-typed it.
Well, for starters, the PATCO strike was in 1981. Are you actually familiar with labor history in the US? This isn't a racial thing. Jesus, liberals are fucking exhausting. At least republicans are honest about their desire to keep the working class oppressed.
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

The number of "good" senators is up to arguably three, with Fetterman's victory. It's really hard for a normal human to look at a body that's 97% vampire and feel a burning need to defend its honor.

Unless you happen to be a vampire yourself. Or someone who has a personal vore fetish, I guess.
Jesus, liberals are fucking exhausting. At least republicans are honest about their desire to keep the working class oppressed.
Bullshit is a necessary glue to hold together an incoherent ideology. It flows like a river in conservative forums as well, they're just a little less irritating since they actually admit conflict exists (instead of pretending that it doesn't) and that they're on a side in it.

.... argh, the other day I read a commenter who thought Bill Maher was the closest thing we had to George Carlin. I made a couple jokes that he must have meant Bill Moyers or Bill Burr, both Bills much closer to George than Maher. But he replied to reaffirm he meant who he said.

The lazy bitter old bastard that's angry he has to do work to keep up with the times, and can't just wear buck teeth and do a "me so sally" bit for eight hundred straight years.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by XtraSmiley »

Air Master Burst wrote:
XtraSmiley wrote: American workers had more rights in the 1970s than today? Hmmm, did you mean white males, because if so, you really miss-typed it.
Well, for starters, the PATCO strike was in 1981. Are you actually familiar with labor history in the US? This isn't a racial thing. Jesus, liberals are fucking exhausting. At least republicans are honest about their desire to keep the working class oppressed.
I'd ask you the same thing. US History? You're arguing that things have gotten worse in the US, and saying Democrats are just like Republicans by referencing PATCO, a famous case where, yup, the Democrats (Carter!) rolled in and fucked the unions!

Your "Democrats are just like Republicans" schtick is exhausting, as is the "US is so bad and getting worse!" and by extension, so are you.

But, but, maybe I'm sort of political shill, sneaking into the shmup forums to trick you into voting!
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Air Master Burst »

XtraSmiley wrote: Your "Democrats are just like Republicans" schtick is exhausting, as is the "US is so bad and getting worse!" and by extension, so are you.
Air Master Burst wrote:Yeah, as a hardcore leftist I have disdain for both parties, but I'm not gonna try and pretend they're the same thing. I've voted for a few decent democrats over the years in local elections, but I've never voted for a republican.
ETA: also, it was Reagan who fired the air traffic controllers, Carter hadn't been president for almost a year.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by XtraSmiley »

Air Master Burst wrote:
XtraSmiley wrote: Your "Democrats are just like Republicans" schtick is exhausting, as is the "US is so bad and getting worse!" and by extension, so are you.
ETA: also, it was Reagan who fired the air traffic controllers, Carter hadn't been president for almost a year.
Yes it sure was. Let me know when the rest of what I said clicks.
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

XtraSmiley wrote:as is the "US is so bad and getting worse!" and by extension, so are you.
Ah, there's the nationalism.

No wonder the rise of fascism, nor the outsourcing of misery, doesn't bother you in the slightest. Thanks for adding your perspective, we've been told these things every day of our lives by authority figures already, please don't make a surprised pikachu face when you find out gasoline isn't an infinite resource that would be embarrassing.

In this thread, some people actually read books, and care about history, social systems, and/or engineering. Sorry : (
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Air Master Burst »

XtraSmiley wrote: Yes it sure was. Let me know when the rest of what I said clicks.
Don't hold your breath. You keep telling me I'm equating the two parties and implying I don't vote when I literally said the exact opposite of that RIGHT BEFORE you started trying to ineptly argue at me. Clearly this sort of expression isn't your strong suit.
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Blinge
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Blinge »

So they've arrested 25 members of a suspected coup in germany?
I sure hope they let them into art school afterwards.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Mischief Maker »

Blinge wrote:So they've arrested 25 members of a suspected coup in germany?
I sure hope they let them into art school afterwards.
Am I serious or am I joking when I say their the far-right fascists' leader was named Heinrich XIII?
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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JBC
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by JBC »

Fascism is cool. I hope Judge Dredd becomes a real thing and we just start rekking people who don't behave. "Shut the fuck up, citizen." *BAM* Problem solved.

Then when the media starts mass riots we run down the media with bulldozers like the Communist Party ran over those students with tanks back in 89, except justified.

Just act right or get culled

*shrug*
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cave hermit
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by cave hermit »

Thought experiments:


If ALL the ceos, executives, billionaires, and world leaders/legislators were all gathered at a single location under a false pretense, before a nuclear payload was detonated there, would the human condition improve or worsen?

If you could choose to have your brain removed from your body, prefrontal cortex and any other parts of the brain responsible for higher thought completely destroyed or excised, and have the remaining intact brain tissue put in some type of life support tank that electrically stimulated dopamine reward pathways continuously, would you do it?
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Mischief Maker »

cave hermit wrote:If ALL the ceos, executives, billionaires, and world leaders/legislators were all gathered at a single location under a false pretense, before a nuclear payload was detonated there, would the human condition improve or worsen?
No, under the current material conditions, new assholes would take their place. You need fundamental systemic change because all the awful things the ruling class does right now are encouraged by existing incentive structures.
cave hermit wrote:If you could choose to have your brain removed from your body, prefrontal cortex and any other parts of the brain responsible for higher thought completely destroyed or excised, and have the remaining intact brain tissue put in some type of life support tank that electrically stimulated dopamine reward pathways continuously, would you do it?
No. You'd get used to it eventually and get bored.
Last edited by Mischief Maker on Thu Dec 08, 2022 3:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

BryanM wrote: In this thread, some people actually read books, and care about history, social systems, and/or engineering. Sorry : (

Man, just lol at the idea a capitalist was totally cool with giving us weekends and little kids being allowed to keep their fingers.
Thanks Bryan. Your posts actually give me a sliver of hope. :-) Just seeing someone else say it helps.
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

I think there's probably a reason the press is so incredibly eager to sell me stories about justice in Peru. Could it be that the president leaned to the left? This is about money.

:lol: Justice prevailed and Peru restored their fantastic and fair government? :lol: Shit.

https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/20 ... al-crisis/

Tell me another one. The propaganda is all about money--and it's also about how much foreigners will pocket from the government in Peru. That's just reality. So, keep that in mind when you hear how Peru just beat corruption.

Practically everyone in their government is corrupt. It's just a matter of rather or not foreigners get their cut.

I don't know a whole lot about modern Peru, but I am willing to guess it's no different than most of the southern Americas. There's no path away from corruption. It's just an endless cycle.

Anyhow, hooray for justice!! What the fuck ever.
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

The congress-critter crying over the marriage protection bill is quite risible. I'm aware terminal values differ, but jesus.
Mischief Maker wrote:No. You'd get used to it eventually and get bored.
You'd actually be in the garbage with whatever else the ice cream scooper scooped out : (

The parts of your brain that make up your qualia is a very small part of our brains, all told. Once the meat is gone, what happens to the qualia is the realm of batshit speculation. Oblivion, reincarnation, looping, isekai, etc. Throw enough universes together long enough, and maybe you do make another brain with continuity just like that.

Also by definition you can't get bored of wire-heading. It's the most fun you can possibly have.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Hoagtech »

The mothafuckin “Merchant of Death” really?!?

What a good trade Biden..

You trade one of the the worlds most dangerous men who supplied weapons to Columbia drug cartels to gun down US marshals for a black, gay, female athlete? I guess it checks all the voter boxes..

I’m so glad drugs that kill people and the cartels associated with them have their buddy back.

Let’s all watch a WNBA game and take a knee during the national Anthem to celebrate this progressive victory..
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sengoku Strider »

cave hermit wrote:If you could choose to have your brain removed from your body, prefrontal cortex and any other parts of the brain responsible for higher thought completely destroyed or excised, and have the remaining intact brain tissue put in some type of life support tank that electrically stimulated dopamine reward pathways continuously, would you do it?
Nope. You've asked a question that comes up a lot around my work.

1. Consciousness is embodied; by tossing the body you'd lose most of "you." You're not just a brain being chauferred around by a torso and a pair of legs, "you" are a full-body sensorium.

2. Consciousness is environmentally situated. If you toss yourself in a jar and get rid of the environmental stimulus, you'd go insane for the same reasons people who spend too long in anechoic chambers or sensory deprivation tanks do. Your experience of yourself is one of reactions to, interactions with, and anticipations of the world; take out the world, there's no you.

3. Not that those things matter here, since the prefrontal cortex is where consciousness is largely generated. It functions as a neural synecdoche of experience, allowing us to blend and contrast the experience of one part of the brain - say the auditory cortex - with another, such as hippocampal memory. This allows us to have singular but complex experiences drawing from multiple domains, and to reflect upon them. Without the anterior prefrontal cortex you'd be a vegetable who wasn't even aware of being blissed out in this scenario.

4. But even ignoring all that, don't fall for the social media pop-neuroscience stuff about dopamine being "the pleasure chemical." Experiences of pleasure are more varied and complex than that, there'd be no such thing as poetry otherwise. Neurotransmitters are effectively just keys, which unlock different actions depending on which neural keyhole they're put into. Dopamine has more to do with the motivation/arousal system than anything; its most powerful "rewards" are found in anticipatory situations, which is why the gambler waiting for that last card to turn or the kid on Christmas Eve experience such powerful emotions. Except in this scenario you're not doing anything, so Christmas never arrives. It would get extremely frustrating if you had any consciousness left.

So that's a hard pass on the lobotomy. But even ignoring the neurology, there's a big distinction between hedonic pleasure: sex, chocolate, Gunstar Heroes - and eudaimonic happiness: seeing your kids grow up, reaching a career milestone, etc. Eudaimonia involves experiences which might be difficult and not at all fun, but result in the greatest self-satisfaction precisely because they sit within a larger context of effort, sacrifice and validation. An orgasm is a more intense and immediate pleasure than seeing a community centre you worked hard to build open its doors, but the latter will provide far more lasting meaning to your life.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

Ha. A righty complaining about too little gun control. :lol:
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