Would you be locked up for thought crimes?
- Thread starter Dicer
- Start date
For this hypothetical scenario to work you'd need a way to regulate how people think, because thoughts are like options, you'd need to artificially limit your thinking in order to actually prevent someone from being arrested due to a thought crime.
No, it's realistic, normal behavior. You pretending like you've never had an irrationally angry thought doesn't make your insane stance true.
You need to relax a little, and have a violent thought every once in a while.
Not that I have, of course. (You ain't got nothin' on me, pigs.)
No it's really not. At all. Unless you're implying because my mind has dark thoughts sometimes and I dismiss them, that makes me a bad person. People are good or bad by their actions, not their thoughts. And it's not like I sit there and entertain them for fun, I realize what they are and dismiss them. And really, even if you don't personally have bad thoughts, judging by this thread, I would argue most do. Unless you're going to start being afraid to go out your door because people are having bad thoughts, I'd just come to terms with it that the human brain is a complicated thing.
You've never wanted to deck your irritating boss on a hot, particularly stressful friday afternoon?
It's one thing to have violent thoughts, it's an entirely other thing to act upon them. Your morality shouldn't be determined on what you think but rather what you do.
what, do you think humanity came to the top of the food chain by hugging everything else?
we're the most violent, deranged species on the planet.
You are incredibly confused. Having thoughts in the heat of the moment isn't the same as acting them out.
You're also a huge liar if you're saying youve never had any thoughts of those sort.
I'l give an example of a dark though I had the other day. I was in a car and there was a semi truck behind me. And I was thinking, man if that truck just flipped over, imagine all the cars that would crash, imagine what a sight that would be. Immediately I then thought, dude, you should feel bad, there are people in those cars like you, and children. You wouldn't want that. I agree with that thought process and move on.
This thread makes me wonder how many people ever thought about beating the shit out of me. Hmmmmmm
I didn't mean to judge and I apologize for the psychopath thought but I really didn't think having violent thoughts was the norm.
I've been angry at my boss several times obviously. Not once have I thought of harming him because of it. If it's normal then I am glad to be abnormal in this case. I've always thought of violence as completely illogical in this day and age.
I've been angry at my boss several times obviously. Not once have I thought of harming him because of it. If it's normal then I am glad to be abnormal in this case. I've always thought of violence as completely illogical in this day and age.
The future I'm fascinated in seeing one day...
You know how Google and federal security networks store your personal data and bookmarks and browsing history? And just how easy it is for autcomplete to bring a website to light to an unsuspecting person you lent the computer to, or your employer to evaluate you partially off your social networking presence, or for the universality and connectivity of your credit cards, online purchases, e-mail accounts, cameras, and so on make tracking your whole life more than fathomable and deducible, like the silent Big Brother? The nervous chuckling!!
Hypothetically, if this were to be all straightened, if it could just be cut to the chase with this kind of information acquisition being the norm for actual bona fide thoughts -- years ahead with advanced tech where neural patterns could be visualized and transmuted coherently (aka, sci-fi trope #85) -- connected to a cloud, perused by mind monitors, observing each citizen on an international scale. It would be too much morality in the hands of man.
The world is rotten. Human nature embraces it. Most people go their whole lives in self-deception... some people own it. And some people are genuine saints. Everyone's imperfect. But the abyss tends to rub off on the best, most active of us, particularly the ones trying to gaze into it. It is probably for the best that the thought doesn't always 'count'. :p
You know how Google and federal security networks store your personal data and bookmarks and browsing history? And just how easy it is for autcomplete to bring a website to light to an unsuspecting person you lent the computer to, or your employer to evaluate you partially off your social networking presence, or for the universality and connectivity of your credit cards, online purchases, e-mail accounts, cameras, and so on make tracking your whole life more than fathomable and deducible, like the silent Big Brother? The nervous chuckling!!
Hypothetically, if this were to be all straightened, if it could just be cut to the chase with this kind of information acquisition being the norm for actual bona fide thoughts -- years ahead with advanced tech where neural patterns could be visualized and transmuted coherently (aka, sci-fi trope #85) -- connected to a cloud, perused by mind monitors, observing each citizen on an international scale. It would be too much morality in the hands of man.
The world is rotten. Human nature embraces it. Most people go their whole lives in self-deception... some people own it. And some people are genuine saints. Everyone's imperfect. But the abyss tends to rub off on the best, most active of us, particularly the ones trying to gaze into it. It is probably for the best that the thought doesn't always 'count'. :p
You seem more like a 13 year olds version of what they think an adult is.
How do I know the people that never had the urge are even capable of controlling themselves if the situation arrives in the future? No there lie the real liabilities to society!!
I frequently fantasise about killing people *cough* *Trump* *cough* so absolutely.
It's perfectly normal. How do you even go through life not secretely wanting people who terribly hurt others get the same in return? You must be very zen. It's not unhealthy as long as you never act on it, obviously. You should try it. I'm doing it to you right now, I'm picturing pushing you out of a highrise window. And behold, no true damage was done to anyone.
It's perfectly normal. How do you even go through life not secretely wanting people who terribly hurt others get the same in return? You must be very zen. It's not unhealthy as long as you never act on it, obviously. You should try it. I'm doing it to you right now, I'm picturing pushing you out of a highrise window. And behold, no true damage was done to anyone.
maybe you should stay away from tall buildings for a while though. just in case
Anyone saying no is dangerous because they don't understand what they would be arrested for and too ignorant to understand that they easily could. The reason thought crime is scary is because laws are interpretive and correspond to normative culture not how humans actually work. Literally anyone can be thought crimed. Even without thought crime you can do this which is why privacy is a big deal. It prevents excess enforcement. Otherwise people would go crazy from cognative load try to police thier everything.
I mean whether I actually want to do things or not, I have random thoughts fly into my head for no reason all the time. I don't have to actually want to do somethign or even have the slightest urge to simply think about it lol.
Hey, me too. Well, she set clear boundaries on how specific I could be when telling her about my suicide plans before she'd hospitalize me, and I had to couch the discussion of my depression in such a way that I was just within the boundaries. In reality I was 15 minutes away from doing it at any given time. Still am some days. Went and scoped the building I planned to jump off of and looked at all the sides to see which one would be best a couple weeks ago. Most of the time I don't wanna do it, but something is broken that means that some times I do.
We're already heading down a bit of an Orwellian path but in the cliche logical conclusion scenario where thoughts are used an excuse to lock up undesirables, absolutely. Anyone claiming not to have even minor, brief impulses of entertaining ideas of violence or other crimes is probably full of shit. If not, some such person might have some form of autism or be misinterpreting the difference between a thought and an intent, but they're probably just full of shit. They're certainly not the parody of faux maturity that they'd want you to think they are. I'd bet my life on that.
In fact, recognizing these thoughts as normal and that the important aspect is that they don't evolve into plans is much healthier for society than pretending they're abnormal, and it also would make it harder in theory to implement any form of thought criminalization without the pretense that there's something wrong with you if you have them.
In fact, recognizing these thoughts as normal and that the important aspect is that they don't evolve into plans is much healthier for society than pretending they're abnormal, and it also would make it harder in theory to implement any form of thought criminalization without the pretense that there's something wrong with you if you have them.
I'm very thankful for the fact that we humans do not verbalise our every thought. I likely wouldn't have any friends. Then again, if everyone said everything they thought, we might be more lenient.
It certainly doesn't make you inhuman or even atypical. Humans seem to have the greatest capacity for malice of any known form of life. To suggest violent thoughts aren't normal, especially in the heat of the moment seems absurd.
I think an interesting follow up question is: Where do you think hints of thought criminalization will crop up first in the future?
I'm doubtful that we'd reach a scenario where thoughts are cleanly scanned and interpreted and grounds for arrest, but we're already looking down that path. Simple AIs are being used to estimate "risk of recidivism" in criminals for aspects of sentencing and conditions of bail. This is basically using a guess of how criminally inclined they expect a person like you might be to inform your punishment. That's only a step away from scanning your brain (or analyzing your genes) as part of that equation. I think we're relatively likely to see the first hints of thought crime under such a guise.
I'm doubtful that we'd reach a scenario where thoughts are cleanly scanned and interpreted and grounds for arrest, but we're already looking down that path. Simple AIs are being used to estimate "risk of recidivism" in criminals for aspects of sentencing and conditions of bail. This is basically using a guess of how criminally inclined they expect a person like you might be to inform your punishment. That's only a step away from scanning your brain (or analyzing your genes) as part of that equation. I think we're relatively likely to see the first hints of thought crime under such a guise.
