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Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:38 am
by Ironhidensh
Simple question today, got this idea from another thread. Let's say Skynet is real, and in a few years, is going to unleash nuclear hell on earth. Quite literally, billions will die in one day. Somehow, someway, you come into the knowledge that Skynet is created by one dude. Would you take a sniper rifle, and put a bullet in this poor nerds head while he ignores his child and works at home in his office? And then blow up the place he works? Discuss.

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:43 am
by RhA
Maybe first talk to the guy?

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 8:17 am
by Ironhidensh
Talk to him?


"Hi! My name is RHa, and this will sound nutty, but you know that operating system for defense command you're working on? Yeah, in about 5 years, it's gonna become sentient, decide 5 minutes later that mankind is its biggest enemy, then launch all of our nukes. China, Russia, and every other country respond in kind, and mankind dies in about an hour.

What? No, I'm not on drugs. Nice phone, who you calling? The police, wait a minute, I'm on the up and up. You gotta listen to me. Oh, wow. Nice shotgun, how did your wife get in here so quietly?"


Like that? ;)

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:41 am
by ZeroWolf
Actually talking to him would start causing problems to the time line, which could invalidate what you knew. Plus blowing up his place of work may of worked in the nineties but now, his work and all of the work his company did would exist in the cloud, so people looking into the explosion will find it and continue it or leak it and various companies will finish it

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:46 am
by Ironhidensh
It always comes back to the cloud.......

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 11:02 am
by RhA
Ironhidensh wrote:Talk to him?


"Hi! My name is RHa, and this will sound nutty, but you know that operating system for defense command you're working on? Yeah, in about 5 years, it's gonna become sentient, decide 5 minutes later that mankind is its biggest enemy, then launch all of our nukes. China, Russia, and every other country respond in kind, and mankind dies in about an hour.

What? No, I'm not on drugs. Nice phone, who you calling? The police, wait a minute, I'm on the up and up. You gotta listen to me. Oh, wow. Nice shotgun, how did your wife get in here so quietly?"


Like that? ;)

I think this is what duragrip does to us.

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:50 pm
by ZeroWolf
Ironhidensh wrote:It always comes back to the cloud.......

Exactly so I'm essence, you would have to kill him before he started the os, which is part of the terminator paradox as he only made the program as advanced because he found the terminators arm and chips which was sent back by Skynet which was built by a programmer who used a terminator arm etc...

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 1:45 pm
by Ironhidensh
RhA wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:Talk to him?


"Hi! My name is RHa, and this will sound nutty, but you know that operating system for defense command you're working on? Yeah, in about 5 years, it's gonna become sentient, decide 5 minutes later that mankind is its biggest enemy, then launch all of our nukes. China, Russia, and every other country respond in kind, and mankind dies in about an hour.

What? No, I'm not on drugs. Nice phone, who you calling? The police, wait a minute, I'm on the up and up. You gotta listen to me. Oh, wow. Nice shotgun, how did your wife get in here so quietly?"


Like that? ;)

I think this is what duragrip does to us.

Ouch. #-o

For my answer, I don't think I could ever kill another human being unless my own life, or the life of somebody else (especially family) was directly and immediately threatened. So I guess there is no escape of the nuclear fire.

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 11:04 am
by Stuartmaximus
here's the thing about Skynet! or at least the LOOK of it.....I prefer the pyramid style one from T2 3D
Image

rather than that awful Steel Mill looking one from Salvation
Image

& god alone knows what Skynet will look like in Genesys?

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:24 pm
by Rodimus Prime
Ironhidensh wrote:For my answer, I don't think I could ever kill another human being unless my own life, or the life of somebody else (especially family) was directly and immediately threatened. So I guess there is no escape of the nuclear fire.
But if you knew that a person's decisions and actions directly result in a nuclear war, doesn't that qualify?

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 1:07 pm
by ZeroWolf
Rodimus Prime wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:For my answer, I don't think I could ever kill another human being unless my own life, or the life of somebody else (especially family) was directly and immediately threatened. So I guess there is no escape of the nuclear fire.
But if you knew that a person's decisions and actions directly result in a nuclear war, doesn't that qualify?

Unless it was a big booboo like mistaken identity. ..iimagine explaining that one!

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 5:22 pm
by Shadowman
Ironhidensh wrote:Talk to him?


"Hi! My name is RHa, and this will sound nutty, but you know that operating system for defense command you're working on? Yeah, in about 5 years, it's gonna become sentient, decide 5 minutes later that mankind is its biggest enemy, then launch all of our nukes. China, Russia, and every other country respond in kind, and mankind dies in about an hour.

What? No, I'm not on drugs. Nice phone, who you calling? The police, wait a minute, I'm on the up and up. You gotta listen to me. Oh, wow. Nice shotgun, how did your wife get in here so quietly?"


Like that? ;)


They actually did talk to him. And it brought him over to their side. Did you even see the Terminator movies?

The real problem is that, in the context of the movies, his death did goddamn nothing but stall Judgement Day for a few years. And they even went and destroyed his lab and all his research as well. They got an extra 7 years without getting nuked, but in the end, nothing changed.

So a better question would be "Is it okay to kill a man in cold blood just to stall the apocalypse for a little while?"

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 6:06 pm
by Rodimus Prime
Shadowman wrote:So a better question would be "Is it okay to kill a man in cold blood just to stall the apocalypse for a little while?"
IMO, it's actually worse. Because the birthrate is on average higher than the death rate, in those 7 years more people were born than died, so if Judgment Day happened later than sooner, the nukes would kill even more people. But this is only a valid argument if it matters to you how many people die, not just the fact that some people die.

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 8:34 pm
by Ironhidensh
Shadowman wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:Talk to him?


"Hi! My name is RHa, and this will sound nutty, but you know that operating system for defense command you're working on? Yeah, in about 5 years, it's gonna become sentient, decide 5 minutes later that mankind is its biggest enemy, then launch all of our nukes. China, Russia, and every other country respond in kind, and mankind dies in about an hour.

What? No, I'm not on drugs. Nice phone, who you calling? The police, wait a minute, I'm on the up and up. You gotta listen to me. Oh, wow. Nice shotgun, how did your wife get in here so quietly?"


Like that? ;)


They actually did talk to him. And it brought him over to their side. Did you even see the Terminator movies?

The real problem is that, in the context of the movies, his death did goddamn nothing but stall Judgement Day for a few years. And they even went and destroyed his lab and all his research as well. They got an extra 7 years without getting nuked, but in the end, nothing changed.

So a better question would be "Is it okay to kill a man in cold blood just to stall the apocalypse for a little while?"

Yes, I saw the movies. I'm assuming you won't have a handy T-800 to rip the flesh off his robo arm for a convincing show and tell.

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 10:26 pm
by Shadowman
Ironhidensh wrote:Yes, I saw the movies.


Then you'd remember the part where, even though Miles Dyson died, Judgement Day happened anyway. So even if you were to answer "Would you kill a man to stop the apocalypse?" with "Yes" the response would be "Well, great, now you're a murderer and the apocalypse happens anyway."

This entire thread is pointless.

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2015 4:11 am
by Ironhidensh
Shadowman wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:Yes, I saw the movies.


Then you'd remember the part where, even though Miles Dyson died, Judgement Day happened anyway. So even if you were to answer "Would you kill a man to stop the apocalypse?" with "Yes" the response would be "Well, great, now you're a murderer and the apocalypse happens anyway."

This entire thread is pointless.

Then why did you bother with it? :roll:

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2015 7:18 am
by Shadowman
Ironhidensh wrote:
Shadowman wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:Yes, I saw the movies.


Then you'd remember the part where, even though Miles Dyson died, Judgement Day happened anyway. So even if you were to answer "Would you kill a man to stop the apocalypse?" with "Yes" the response would be "Well, great, now you're a murderer and the apocalypse happens anyway."

This entire thread is pointless.

Then why did you bother with it? :roll:


I could ask you the same question.

In fact, I think I will. Why the hell did you make this thread?

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2015 2:42 pm
by Ironhidensh
Shadowman wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:
Shadowman wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:Yes, I saw the movies.


Then you'd remember the part where, even though Miles Dyson died, Judgement Day happened anyway. So even if you were to answer "Would you kill a man to stop the apocalypse?" with "Yes" the response would be "Well, great, now you're a murderer and the apocalypse happens anyway."

This entire thread is pointless.

Then why did you bother with it? :roll:


I could ask you the same question.

In fact, I think I will. Why the hell did you make this thread?

Because I was bored at work.

That, and I wasn't aware of the rule that says all hypothetical conversations about time travel have to follow the plot and/or script of terminator 2.

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 11:14 am
by Amelie
Ironhidensh wrote:It always comes back to the cloud.......



Torture him until he destroys all the information spread around the internet, extract the names of everyone who knows, kill him, then kill everyone else. Simple.

I would like to add - I am not a sociopath.

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 11:40 am
by ZeroWolf
Problem is you'll be stopped by the time you've just dealt with the people he knew :P other people will find out and then it would spread like a virus. Conclusion: we're all doomed may as well just shrug and move on. We also get the last laugh that sky net will fail one day as well when the sun devours the earth or if a solar flare hits us and fries it

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2015 2:45 am
by Ebonsaber
I'd find someone instead to make a virus to throw a wrench instead...

Hopefully one that doesn't reduce all decision making to a coin flip...

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2015 10:38 am
by Me, Grimlock!
Isn't this question essentially what a good chunk of the second act of T2 was?

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2015 1:54 pm
by SlyTF1
Of course I would. Then, I'd take out everyone he ever conspired or made contact with in the past few days, just to make sure his legacy doesn't continue. Nobody blows up Earth but me.

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2015 9:06 pm
by Dagon
I'd just like to point out the previous post to those who would whine and cry that someone started a "pointless" thread on a discussion board. It could always be worse, so maybe try saving your big boy tears instead of unleashing them because someone posed a question.

Re: Morality, ethics, and Terminator's Skynet

PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2015 10:37 pm
by Ironhidensh
Several people answered this thread assuming they had the knowledge from the result of their actions. That wasn't the point. The only info you have to base your decision on is that signet, in the future, will kill humanity. This one guy created it. Stopping him will stop skynet. Would you do it?