Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA02773 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 29 Jun 2000 12:13:53 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D31017458E9@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Cons and Facades/memetic engineering Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 12:11:42 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Just to add, that in the last 3-4 years, the UK has instituted a sex
offenders registers, much in the same vein as Meagan's Law in the US.
The problem with such laws are multiple. Convicted child rapists have no
prospect under such a system of rehabilitation and reintegration into
society- and many people see no problem with that, but there are practical
problems as well, such as what constitutes a 'child' in the first place?
Ages of consent are incredibly varied from country to country. In the UK,
for example, a 16 year-old boy was put on the sex offenders register after
being convicted for having unlawful sex with his 15 year old girlfriend (her
family objected to their relationship and pressed charges). All he did was
have sex with his girlfriend before she reached the legal age of consent in
the UK, and now he's on the same list as multiple child killers.
The problem with your holodeck idea, is that of the apparent absoluteness of
the child sex taboo- paedophiles' desires are unlikely to be tolerated in
any form. Besides, most people (erroneously IMHO) don't buy the catharsis
argument for conventional media, preferring to assume that media incite
people rather than sate their desires- the more 'real' the experience
offered the more inciteful.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Kenneth Van Oost
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2000 7:22 pm
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: Cons and Facades/memetic engineering
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Wade T.Smith <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
> To: Memetics Discussion List <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
> Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 1:16 AM
> Subject: Re: Cons and Facades/memetic engineering
>
>
> > Kenneth Van Oost made this comment not too long ago --
> >
> > >But I also wish that you give us the time to prove that the idea of
> memetic
> > >engineering can benefit other people's needs and not our own.
> >
> > This is an interesting sidebar to the objections any of us may have
> about
> > the phrase 'memetic engineering', in that, where do we find the line
> > between people's needs and our own? And how, having found it, do we walk
> >
> it?
>
> Wade,
>
> People' s needs!
> Do you know Megan's Law !? Are you American !?
> If not, let me summarize. In a nutshell, local authorities are due to let
> the
> people of a district know if/ when/ where a sex-offender is gonna live in
> your neighbourhood. What are the moral objections here !?
> Who is getting frustrated, you or the offender who where ever he/ she goes
> is always pointed one finger. He can't find a job, has no home, no place
> to
> be.
> Do you think this is the ultimate solution !?
> I do not !
>
> But I don't state the following is the ultimate solution either, but one.
> In my opinion a sex- offender has no ' place ' where he can turn to if the
> need is to high. If you are a drunk you go to a pub, if you like speed you
> go the racetrack, but for sex, yes you can go to the whores, but that is
> not the kind of sex the offender wants. He wants rape, childabuse and
> in the extreme murder.
> I know, I know, it is very extreme, but I go always straight for the heart
> !
>
> So, I propose you have a look what ' Holodeck- Technology ' has to offer.
> The webpages I can't give because the addresses are not mentioned, but
> just
> click Holodeck or Fractal Animatronics or Nanotechnology.
> I think that kind of technology can provide us in the futher with some
> practical applications towards helping people with ' sex-problems '.
> Of course, once you set the technology in motion you create all kind of
> 'moral ' problems. If you want to know more about them, let me know,
> I will give you gladly my view on them.
>
> Hope you have less objections now.
> My aim is true.
>
> Many regards,
>
> Kenneth
>
> (I am, because we are) I hope.
> > I think the work of analyzation of culture and behavior is far from
> done,
> > and the work of determining where the meme-line is is only in its newest
> > infancy, and since I feel that way, I also feel introducing the
> > _engineering_ of a incompletely analyzed and discovered element of human
> > interaction is reckless in the extreme. If the moral objections posed to
> > memetic engineering are there because one doesn't want a novice in the
> > cockpit, then, yes, I agree. But so far, I ain't seen a cockpit. But I
> > have seen a lot of people selling tickets in front of a tent.
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ===============================================================
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> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
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This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
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