Would you want to live forever?

I personally would not want to live forever. I would find that life would get boring after a while. I also would not like to live while all my loved ones around me passed away. I would be really sad and depressed. I think a limited life is perfect. Living forever would be too much of a hastle.

Utilitarian over Kantian View

If I were presented with the situation where in order to save my friends I had to twist a child's arm, then I would definitely do it if it saved my friend's lives. This is the Utilitarian view, which is saying that it would be ok to harm a child to save your friends lives. The Kantian view would say that it is horrible and immoral to harm the child even if it would save my friend's lives. So I agree with the Utilitarian view 100%

Puppy Punting

The question was raised whether or not it is morally wrong for another culture to partake in "puppy punting". Are we able to judge and tell them that what they practice in their culture is wrong? I think that we should not be able to decide what is morally wrong or morally right. If they want to punt puppies, then they can punt puppies. Some things that we do might be considered morally wrong to other cultures. It just comes down to what we believe.

Self-Interest vs. Morality

This is a very touchy topic, because it is one that is questioning somebody's ethics and morals over self-interest. I, personally, think that the majority of people would choose self-interest over morality because we live during a very selfish time. As soon as opportunity is presented to somebody, even if it is slightly against their morals, they will take it. Lets take a high executive in a job for instance. If you knew that your stocks were going to plummet, would you withdrawal all of your stocks right before? Or would you let all of your money go straight down the drain? This is against your morals, but would you withdraw your money and save yourself from poverty? Many people say they would go with morals, but until that situation arises, they really have no say in what they would do.

Stanley Milgram's 'Obedience to Authority' study

This study that was given to people about whether or not people will go against their morals to obey an authority figure is very interesting. I would have to agree with this study, because I think that people will go against their morals if they are being told to do something. Special Forces of the Navy Seals is a good example of this. These people are trained to be lethal and not be stopped. If you are given a direct order from a person of higher authority than you, then you automatically do it. You don't question the order because if there is an hesitation then somebody could die or you could lose your job. They are following orders and do not care what those orders are. Chances are if they have to do something bad, then then can just claim that they were ordered to do it, even if it went against their morals.

Free Will

I believe that we all have the free will to make decisions for ourselves. No matter what we do, whether it is a bad choice or a good one, we have the choice to do something else. We all have choices to make, now depending if they have a good outcome or a bad outcome is different; but the fact remains that we all have choices, or free will. We can all do whatever we want, the consequences are a different story though.

Can Computers Think?

I do not believe computers have the capability to think and make decisions on their own. Computers just follow structured programs that tell them what to do. They use other programs to help them get tasks done at an amazingly fast speed, but it is not them thinking, it is just them doing what humans tell them to do. Computers do not have minds of their own, but if they accidentally are given accessibility to thinking for themselves then we are all in trouble.

The Teletransporter Experiment

I feel that if a copy was to be made of me, sent to Mars, and then my old body was destroyed, that I would be a completely different person. I do not feel that I would exist on Mars, but merely a clone of myself would exist. The reason I know this is if an exact replica was made of me on Mars, but my body on Earth was not destroyed, then I would still be on Earth. I would not be living two different lives, because that is impossible. It would obviously be a clone of me on Mars. I do not feel that this experiment would be possible without destroying myself.

Descartes and the Skeptic

"I think, therefor I am", is a famous quote said by Descartes. I think that this quote is very significant because it proves that you exist in some form or another. The skeptic raises questions about if we really exist or not. He asks if we are just a brain in a vac plugged into hundreds of different little wires instead of being here. I know I can think. I can make decisions about my life, and I can control myself. In this sense, I feel that I exist. I think the skeptic is wrong, and he is arguing just for the sake of arguing.

Reality

What is reality? What is considered to be the true reality? To me it seems like there is a reality beyond our knowledge and nobody knows how to obtain it. But to obtain this reality could be a million different pathways for everybody. One's truth could be an entirely different truth to someone else because not everybody is looking for the same truth. Throughout our lives we go through different scenarios. These different scenarios shape us into the individual that we are today. Depending on what you went through is what truth you will be looking for. So in a way you have to find yourself before you find true reality.