Sinfest

Lasairfiona · Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:02 am Post subject:

But something that saves your life has a special place. When something is that important in memory, then something equaly important has to be put in place of the item in question. What about Kepler's paper instead?

'Course, I may just want everyone to play nice even when I agree with TDD.
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Before God created Las he pondered on all the aspects a woman might have, he considered which ones would look good super-inflated and which ones to leave alone.
After much deliberation he gave her a giant comfort zone. - Michael

Teh Digital Dragon · Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:06 am Post subject:

A lifejacket can save your life. It doesn’t make it more important than someone else’s actual life.
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"You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?"

Sojobo · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 2393

It doesn't make one lifejacket more important than one life, but it may make the whole concept, the totality of lifejackets, more important than one life.
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Teh Digital Dragon · Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:11 am Post subject:

If you could give to me a figure for the number of lives Shakespeare has saved it wouldn’t matter, I could not let a human being die to save paper.
_________________
"You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?"

Sojobo · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 2393

I don't think I could, either, but I'm not convinced it is necessarily the ethically superior option... at the very least, I can't find fault with those would choose otherwise.
_________________
"To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others."
- Anne-Sophie Swetchine

Teh Digital Dragon · Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:28 am Post subject:

I can, but then I'm drunk and judgemental.

Like I said, there will be other life-saving literary works, but you're talking, albeit hypothetically, about killing an actual human being.

That just ain't right.
_________________
"You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?"

Sojobo · Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 2393

Well, we could make the choice a bit more unfair and dramatic, say, replace the works of Shakespeare with the cure for polio. Would the immediacy of the single human life still trump?
_________________
"To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others."
- Anne-Sophie Swetchine

nathan · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 6269

Shakespeare himself would kick you square in the nuts for even thinking of saving the book instead of the man.
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Sam · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 8834

Katrin · Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 293 Location: Some place HAWT

You should indulge in some shocking artform that will inspire people to endlessly debate over it.

bun bun · Guest

lily · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 1531 Location: worcester, ma

in reality, i'd probably actually save the person. but i'm just naturally contrary, and i do care for shakespeare very very much.

hmm. why not let the person themself choose? (that is, the person needing rescue?) i guess, rereading the original question, that there wouldn't be time to explain the situation and get their opinion. but this seems to me the best option.

also, sam is the greatest ever.

Celaeno · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 2995 Location: Kzoo

...and this is why Nathan and Sam are two of my favorite people ever.

I'd save the person. I'm generally misanthropic and unsympathetic and I think Shakespeare's brilliant, but I would save the person.

The Victim Here · Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:29 am Post subject:

Him · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 3948 Location: Strange planet