eric@sdcrdcf.UUCP (10/05/87)
In article <4115@well.UUCP> davids@well.UUCP (David Schachter) writes: >In article <7011@eddie.MIT.EDU> hugh@hop.toad.com (Hugh Daniels) writes: >> MeSirs: g-humphr@gumby.wisc.edu (Bill Humphries) Says: >>> To synopsize, I would say that cyberpunk is not about "low life and high >>> tech", but about living in a world where technology has gone from shaping to >>> controling the world. >> >> I must say NAK to this, technolgy never 'controls' the world. It does give >>us bounds and directions, and maybe we can even whip up some AI (sgag) to >>do some 'controling' it we are real lucky. > >I disagree, on odd grounds. Mr. Daniels makes an assumption, one many of have >been making: people are responsible for their actions. Are they? Here we go. >A person who is mentally incompetent is not responsible for her actions (this >is a tautology.) A person who has been "brainwashed" is mentally incompetent. Speaking as an extreme solipsist and as a paranoid with delusions of adequacy..... None of us are competent. What we know of "reality" is filtered through our faulty perceptions and unreliable reasoning. We have "brainwashed" ourselves since the first flicker of consciousness. > >Moreover, in an artificial environment, one might take actions that are >seemingly imperative, actions which affect the "real" world. >How can one be held responsible for one's actions if those actions are caused >by sensory inputs, the reliability of which is questionable? We have our own perception of some ideal that we call "objective reality", but it's just that: a perception. All sensory inputs are unreliable and questionable. We can never know the "real" world. Cyberpunk gives us more efficient tools for manipulating our perceptions. Whether we're wireheading or cruising in our Deathmobile, we're just being more and more efficient in changing our sensory inputs (and, we believe, the sensory inputs of others; but we can't *KNOW* that (I will use what I believe to be a needlegun to cause myself to believe that you believe that you perceive pain)). Cyberpunk is the same as getting drunk or banging rocks together, only different. Hightech down'n'dirty. Doncha just love it? We want the future, and we want it *NOW*!