I have been skim-reading the thread [Virtual Child Porn: Is It Legal ?] and there is one question or situation that springs to mind, it does not bear direct relevance on whether this law should be passed or not, but make me question how we should take the future.
My point is this, and yes - I know that it's hypothetical - at the minute. It relies on technology that is not available, but I believe that at the current growth of computer virtual reality development, that it is something that may well be possible in the future.
{cut to chase}
What if I have a virtual reality machine, a piece of computer hardware, a totally generated environment with responsive feedback etc. Am I allowed to do what I want inside this environment ?
I am not very knowledgeable in law, and have no idea what the court systems of any country would make of these examples, but they illustrate my point and raise some serious questions on our future.
I am allowed to create a beautiful environment for me to explore, but the problems come when I put things into that reality.
Suppose I put a virtual recreation my ex-girlfriend in there, does she have rights to object to living in my virtual reality ? What if I start to portray some of her characteristics differently, or suppose I use the recreation for sexual purposes ? Suppose we were role playing something and I killed her accidentally, is this manslaughter, and if I did on purpose can I be convicted of murder ?
All these things are heightened versions of what I can create in my own virtual reality machine that is my imagination in my own head. We know I cannot be convicted for the thought crime, but is putting something into virtual reality something that I should be allowed to do as a responsible citizen ? Or is virtual reality a playground where the consequences should be dealt with as in our perceived current reality (i.e., the world we currently live in), after all, we only believe that the world is the way that we see it. Surely everyone must admit that there is a slightly different reality for everyone.
(Are my thoughts that different to yours ? and I will see every color slightly differently to you, just because of the intensity or variation in the light receptors in my eyes.)
I'm not going to try to answer my own questions now, but whatever, the future is bringing manipulation of virtual worlds that we could (theoretically) do anything we wanted.
One last thing springs to mind, if I put someone in my virtual reality machine without their knowledge, and then committed the most awful traumatic crime in front of them, would they be able to convict me ? If so for what, for the crime, or for the event that they experienced, bear in mind that this event never happened apart from in the computer.
What if I committed the crime on them ? Would they be able to have me convicted of murder of themselves, even if they were in the courtroom as a witness to their own virtual murder ?
The point of my virtual reality machine is that we should not be able to tell the difference between the real world and what the computer environment generates for us.
Should we just outlaw anything that is capable of creating a virtual anything that is indistinguishable from the same thing but in the real world.
p-pp-ppp-pickup a penguin.
(http://www.debian.org)
I agree, just what is the point of slagging off two perfetly good pieces of software, especially when they are both of such high quality. It basically boils down to preference, but cos you don't like it doesn't mean you _have_ to slag it off.
I use a mixture of Gnome and KDE and enlightenment, it works for me:)
Well done to all developers out there, it's only with people doing different stuff we get really cool software !
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, I agree with you here, but :-
if your windows machine isn't on the internet then surely the patches dont matter _as much_ anyhow.
just a thought.
foxx.
Well I think that dselect rules and you should all remove apt-get and dpkg from your system.
Why don't we just start playing planet pool ?
Saturn in the top left pocket anyone - or can we do a plant involving Earth and Venus ?
This whole thing sounds WAY to dangerous for people to be thinking this.
Unlucky Fried Kitten anyone ?
I have a feeling that this way will probably make them more money when people go out and buy cards in time for the superbowl.
Just-a-hunch.
P-p-p-p-p-pickup a penguin
(http://www.debian.org)
Could it not be a routing issue that stopped access to/from the dns servers, which would explain microsoft.com NOT being hacked ?
I have been skim-reading the thread [Virtual Child Porn: Is It Legal ?] and there is one question or situation that springs to mind, it does not bear direct relevance on whether this law should be passed or not, but make me question how we should take the future.
My point is this, and yes - I know that it's hypothetical - at the minute. It relies on technology that is not available, but I believe that at the current growth of computer virtual reality development, that it is something that may well be possible in the future.
{cut to chase}
What if I have a virtual reality machine, a piece of computer hardware, a totally generated environment with responsive feedback etc. Am I allowed to do what I want inside this environment ?
I am not very knowledgeable in law, and have no idea what the court systems of any country would make of these examples, but they illustrate my point and raise some serious questions on our future.
I am allowed to create a beautiful environment for me to explore, but the problems come when I put things into that reality.
Suppose I put a virtual recreation my ex-girlfriend in there, does she have rights to object to living in my virtual reality ? What if I start to portray some of her characteristics differently, or suppose I use the recreation for sexual purposes ? Suppose we were role playing something and I killed her accidentally, is this manslaughter, and if I did on purpose can I be convicted of murder ?
All these things are heightened versions of what I can create in my own virtual reality machine that is my imagination in my own head. We know I cannot be convicted for the thought crime, but is putting something into virtual reality something that I should be allowed to do as a responsible citizen ? Or is virtual reality a playground where the consequences should be dealt with as in our perceived current reality (i.e., the world we currently live in), after all, we only believe that the world is the way that we see it. Surely everyone must admit that there is a slightly different reality for everyone.
(Are my thoughts that different to yours ? and I will see every color slightly differently to you, just because of the intensity or variation in the light receptors in my eyes.)
I'm not going to try to answer my own questions now, but whatever, the future is bringing manipulation of virtual worlds that we could (theoretically) do anything we wanted.
One last thing springs to mind, if I put someone in my virtual reality machine without their knowledge, and then committed the most awful traumatic crime in front of them, would they be able to convict me ? If so for what, for the crime, or for the event that they experienced, bear in mind that this event never happened apart from in the computer.
What if I committed the crime on them ? Would they be able to have me convicted of murder of themselves, even if they were in the courtroom as a witness to their own virtual murder ?
The point of my virtual reality machine is that we should not be able to tell the difference between the real world and what the computer environment generates for us.
Should we just outlaw anything that is capable of creating a virtual anything that is indistinguishable from the same thing but in the real world.
p-pp-ppp-pickup a penguin.
(http://www.debian.org)
I agree, just what is the point of slagging off two perfetly good pieces of software, especially when they are both of such high quality. It basically boils down to preference, but cos you don't like it doesn't mean you _have_ to slag it off.
:)
I use a mixture of Gnome and KDE and enlightenment, it works for me
Well done to all developers out there, it's only with people doing different stuff we get really cool software !
The catalogue link seems to be broken.