Malaikat Maut

[quote name='Kafuuka' date='13 October 2009 - 03:15 PM' timestamp='1255461355' post='44587'] As for objects using us literally, it is difficult to imagine. Something that startled me when I first heard it was the idea that genes are not the way we create offspring, but humans are an interesting way for genes to multiply themselves.[/quote] If you break humans down, we are nothing but cells/genes/atoms/quarks anyway, so the concept of identity becomes muddied if you really want to be literal. Your analogy may be correct that genes merely use us to multiply themselves, but in a way both entities are synonymous. It reminds me of a common philosophical quandary called the Ship of Theseus [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus"]linky[/url]. [quote]In a similar fashion, we use cars to drive around, yet you could think cars use us to get build. We all know humans were there before cars were invented and thus reject the idea. But then again, where do humans come from? And what about drugs and memes?[/quote] The problem is that you're attributing intelligence or even instinctual behavior to items that possess none. Also, social evolution such as memes ties back in to my original post about ideological paradigms. Their progressions are brought about by our thoughts and actions within culture or through discoveries and innovations. They are all necessitated by human consciousness. [quote]@Malaikat Maut: I do not consider it unfortunate that neuroscience hasn't been able to declare consciousness is nothing but electrochemical. [/quote] I was lamenting that it has, or will sometime in the near future.

[quote name='(Zl-eye-f)-nea' date='13 October 2009 - 01:49 PM' timestamp='1255456164' post='44579'] To say that is to assume a materialist basis for consciousness, however if you are willing to consider other viable possibilities I would argue we are perhaps just slaves to the objects of the world - not the other way around. I have been meaning to stick this file here for ages, see attached the debate/discussion I had with Kafuuka regarding the questions if you fancy it. Z [/quote] I've got to admit that I didn't read that entire document, but there are a handful of things in it that I would object to. However, let's just stick with your post for now. As unfortunate as it may be, advances in neuroscience have all but proven consciousness to be entirely chemical/electrical, but you have me interested so I'd like to hear your thoughts on other origins of cognition and how exactly they allow for inanimate objects enslaving sentient beings. It sounds to me, in the first few lines of that document, that you begin talking about aliens forming a false history based on empirical observations. However, their subjective view of our past events does nothing to dictate how those events actually transpired in reality...or how they are currently evolving from our perspective.

[quote name='Yoshi' date='13 October 2009 - 12:49 PM' timestamp='1255452543' post='44576'] What about the... TEETER TOTTER? Yeah that's right, I said it. The teeter totter uses us. They get inside our heads and say, come on, sit on me, bring a friend. Just for it's sick pleasure. [/quote] You had a bad experience on a playground as a child, didn't you?

We use objects. We give them meaning and uses within the framework of current or past social paradigms, and without our actions or intentions they would be useless. However, objects also influence social ideology either directly by making certain actions available (eg. the hammer or cotton gin) or indirectly by allowing us to make observations or reach abstract conclusions about reality (eg. the telescope). It's quite impossible for objects to use us literally.

[quote name='Chewett' date='04 October 2009 - 05:46 AM' timestamp='1254649584' post='43660'] At the moment the current idea is to remove the accounts but keep them inactive i believe But we can also merge the accounts so all posts on both accounts are attributed to one and then the other would be removed, Would perhaps anyone prefer that? [/quote] I believe that I would. Wynken was my first character here and has a great deal of posts, but I consider Malaikat to be my main and would like to retain this account.

I think that the voting system was fair. There are likely ways that it can be improved, but that's not my purpose for posting today. The real "problem" that I see with using the democratic process to end quarrels or deliver justice (in a game world) is that it does nothing to change the minds of those who feel victimized. Especially in a vote this close, nearly 50% of the participants will walk away still feeling the situation unresolved, but they must now cope with those emotions as their transgressor has just received a public pardon. Basically, I don't believe that the vote can resolve issues that are not black and white or that don't have a clear and definite end. In this particular situation, the vote only restored Yrth's kingship. It didn't and could not mend the damage that some of his people feel was caused, so for them the problem not only lingers, but may be intensified.

Freedom of speech doesn't exist on a private website. He maintains the freedom to speak however he likes...granted that he exercises that freedom elsewhere.

At first I had thought to organize a Samhain festival in order to give players the opportunity to ward off the evil spirits to be loosed during the Festival of Pain. However, I realized that this in itself is not necessarily a contest, so my thought is also to include MD's first ever Pumpkin Carving contest. Contestants will be required to submit a picture of their jack-o-lantern by placing it in one of their documents (papers). A panel of judges will deliberate to decide the winner(s). Prizes can either be categorized for Most Original, Most Frightening, and Most Comedic or simply, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. depending on the number of prizes to be given and the number of participants. For anyone interested, or unaccustomed to such cultural traditions: [quote] *Information on Samhain and Pumpkin Carving from wiki* The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year". Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient Celtic pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Celts believed that on October 31st, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the living and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks being worn at Halloween goes back to the Celtic traditions of attempting to copy the evil spirits or placate them, in Scotland for instance where the dead were impersonated by young men with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white. On All Hallows’ eve, the ancient Celts would place a skeleton on their window sill to represent the departed. Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the "head" of the vegetable to frighten off the embodiment of superstitions. Welsh, Irish and British myth are full of legends of the Brazen Head, which may be a folk memory of the widespread ancient Celtic practice of headhunting - the results of which were often nailed to a door lintel or brought to the fireside to speak their wisdom. The name jack-o'-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard-drinking old farmer. He tricked the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack, condemning him to forever wander the earth at night with the only light he had: a candle inside of a hollowed turnip. The carving of pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America where pumpkins are both readily available and much larger- making them easier to carve than turnips. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their doorstep after dark.[/quote]