The Root of All Evil

[Weed]

If feelings are eliminated/we all become robots, what's the point of living? Everyone would be same as everyone else, no fun, no games, no friends, no love...
Everyday would look like: Wake up-Work-Go to sleep/recharge. Noone would have need to meet new people, do something amazing and funny, try to find new hobby...
Better solution would be to exterminate humanity/blow up Earth, seriously.

[Elite Peon]

Evil is a CHOICE and while you see VERY few humans who are not evil and selfish there are MANY who have denied there own lusts and have transcended to become very good people who are purly good in deed and intention . It takes a life time of self denial and living for others to achieve such a state though and VERY few humans will ever do so ...sadly .

[Nexxia]

Philosophy is mental masturbation, all discussion leading to a circle.

---------- Post added 2011-02-12 at 05:46 PM ----------

Evil is a CHOICE and while you see VERY few humans who are not evil and selfish there are MANY who have denied there own lusts and have transcended to become very good people who are purly good in deed and intention . It takes a life time of self denial and living for others to achieve such a state though and VERY few humans will ever do so ...sadly .

Preach it Jeexy

[trebor]

Good point. However, sadness can boil into rage. For example, your girl/boyfriend may break up with you, causing sadness, which develops into anger based on how your mind works.

As I see it, it doesn't really. You become sad AND angry, leading most people to believe the anger sprouted up from the sadness when, most likely, the anger was there all along.

[Balloons]

Evil will be around so aslong as man is. Humans are evil.

It is not exclusive to humans.

[312guiltyspark]

Is human emotions. Think about it. Fury, sadness, greed, vengeance, among others. They all push others to commit evil acts. Look at World War II for example. Germany was crushed, then Hitler took control of others emotions and pushed others to extremes. Thus war broke out. Even on smaller scales. People (see: girls) are very emotional. They stab each other in the back constantly because they FEEL threatened by others, when in reality nothing is wrong.

I would like to propose that to eliminate evil, we must eliminate human emotion. We must ascend and become robots. Science has proven to us through bioengineering that part of this process can be done in the form of mechanical limbs. We must push science to the limits, becoming completely mechanical beings with no emotions. No emotions means everyone gets along. Thus evil is abolished.

yes but you are assuming a world without evil is a better world which i dont think would be the case. you used the example of world war 2 as an ultimate evil act. yes that war was terrible in the fact that so many were killed and so much was lost - but look at the breakthroughs in terms of technology and medical science that came from that war. look at the art that has been created because of anger or sadness or jealousy. not all your percieved 'evil' is completely bad and as for living without emotions - it is our emotions that make us who we are; without them we would be nothing more than empty husks moving through a dry and boring world. when you think about it really why would you even want to live that way.
better to take the evil and good that comes with this life and learn to accept it. there will always be those individuals who for whatever reason differ from the norm of human society but for the most part, most people are decent human beings.

[Shadowmeld]

Watch Appleseed, too!

[Nexxia]

<I crack my egg on the fat end, do something.

[M_10]

yes but you are assuming a world without evil is a better world which i dont think would be the case. you used the example of world war 2 as an ultimate evil act. yes that war was terrible in the fact that so many were killed and so much was lost - but look at the breakthroughs in terms of technology and medical science that came from that war. look at the art that has been created because of anger or sadness or jealousy. not all your percieved 'evil' is completely bad and as for living without emotions - it is our emotions that make us who we are; without them we would be nothing more than empty husks moving through a dry and boring world. when you think about it really why would you even want to live that way.
better to take the evil and good that comes with this life and learn to accept it. there will always be those individuals who for whatever reason differ from the norm of human society but for the most part, most people are decent human beings.

This is an interesting quote. However, if there was no evil, in your example, there would be no medical improvements. If all humans were robots, we would not have diseases such as cancer and HIV/AIDS, as we would be mechanical, thus unable to develop these ailments.

[Cleisthanes]

How about the generations that came before us? The families who worked themself to death just to make sure their posterity could make a better life for themself. Is this not an ultimate act of benevolence?

If you haven't already go read "Brave New World" pretty much counter argues your point.

[Balloons]

No emotions -> No empathy -> Culling the disabled to save resources, thievery/fraud/blackmail without remorse, any "bad" act used for personal gain used in excess by billions of people

[M_10]

How about the generations that came before us? The families who worked themself to death just to make sure their posterity could make a better life for themself. Is this not an ultimate act of benevolence?

If you haven't already go read "Brave New World" pretty much counter argues your point.

Would life not be better if most forms of suffering were eliminated?

[berenzen]

Evil is perspective, not inherent. When there is a conflict between two individuals or groups of people, one will see the other side as evil. Yes, emotion plays a part in this, but without emotion, we wouldn't be human. Can you imagine a life without being able to love or be loved. Without humor? Without drive or determination?

Emotion makes us who we are, by eliminating it, we would essentially be destroying humanity.

[ViND_]

Is human emotions. Think about it. Fury, sadness, greed, vengeance, among others. They all push others to commit evil acts. Look at World War II for example. Germany was crushed, then Hitler took control of others emotions and pushed others to extremes. Thus war broke out. Even on smaller scales. People (see: girls) are very emotional. They stab each other in the back constantly because they FEEL threatened by others, when in reality nothing is wrong.

I would like to propose that to eliminate evil, we must eliminate human emotion. We must ascend and become robots. Science has proven to us through bioengineering that part of this process can be done in the form of mechanical limbs. We must push science to the limits, becoming completely mechanical beings with no emotions. No emotions means everyone gets along. Thus evil is abolished.

You just gave me a Mass Effect Reaper theory.

[312guiltyspark]

Would life not be better if most forms of suffering were eliminated?

well one could argue that but its the suffering that allows us to fully appreciate the world we live in. without the counterbalance to something that thing becomes arbitrary and taken for granted

[M_10]

well one could argue that but its the suffering that allows us to fully appreciate the world we live in. without the counterbalance to something that thing becomes arbitrary and taken for granted

This would be true. However, we would have no feelings for the world we're in if we were robots. We would have no opinion.

[pallyjin]

35 post and I'm amazed that there has been no star trek references of vulcan's purging emotion!

[Qtpai]

This is not entirely true, robots that have the engineering and programming to be equal in intelligence or surpass the intelligence of man himself can, indeed, develop emotions. Refer to robots (generally humanoid figures) in numerous movies, and, if you'd rather not do the work of remembering or looking said movies/robots up, please refer to Gnimo, the Mechagnome on the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth ~Alliance Side~. When you kick them off Gnimo, *Ignore the Space Blueberry*, makes an emotional statement on occasion, such as "Nobody love Gnimo...".
Therefore, robots can indeed develop humanly emotion, which will result in the same chaos that we have today, only possibly worse ~or better~ due to the fact we may have an arsenal of weapons built into our bodies.. Lastly, if none of the above statements work for you, please refer to the movie * I, Robot *. (The one with Will Smith.) Good movie if you ask me.. I enjoyed it.. and Robocop was amusing at times.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, emotion =/= life. Without emotion, the robot community would not survive very long. Who would keep the peace when said robots started acting up, rebuild destroyed robots, fix broken ones (Without emotion nobody would care enough to fix broken robots, which would eventually lead to extinction), or build new robots to replace old ones? We may be void of emotion for a while, yes, but they would be developed eventually, in one form or another.

[Nexxia]

In this whole thread noone has questioned the validity of these make believe ideas, they hold about as much weight as the easter bunny. Evil and good are only a matter of perspective as ideas, being human these ideas are necessarily wrong as they originate in only our own minds. Your evil is anothers good and vice versa, these perspectives only having meaning inside your own brain.

[Ultismash]

Pandora's Box.