Ye Shall Be As Gods? – Class 6, Period 3

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

"Personality reconditioning," Juli said quietly, as soon as her class had gathered and had settled down, "is what we will be discussing today."

"A person's personality is defined, in its simplest form, as the totality of an individual's behavioural and emotional characteristics. This," a faint smile, "as I'm sure should come as no surprise to any of you, can be altered through various methods--such as drugs, and the like."

"In my universe," Juli told them, "this sort of reconditioning is used instead of capital punishment. If you commit a crime, your mind is rewired to produce a 'new you' that is more beneficial to society. What other uses can you think of for rewriting someone else's mind?"

She leaned folded her hands neatly over her stomach, her eyes sweeping the classroom. “Would you ever alter someone else’s mind?” Pause. “What do you think would drive you to do it? If you are sure you would never do it—and, please, remember that there are no certainties and the universe enjoys making a fool of the best laid plans—consider what might drive someone else to do it. Would you condemn them?”

“After that,” Juli said, “I open the room to discussion about the pros and cons of personality reconditioning. What do you think? Compare and contrast your ideas with your classmates and see if what they say has any impact on your own opinions.”

[Wait for the OCD is up! Go to it!]

Comments

Sign In

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Cautiously!

Re: Sign In

[redintraining.livejournal.com]

Sky Tate

Re: Sign In

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge Carson

During the Lecture

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Pass notes, chat, sleep… or interrupt Juli and ask a question.

Re: During the Lecture

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone was pretty much trying to tune the lecture out, and was instead doodling in her notebook. She was too twitchy to deal with this today, not without running the risk of losing her temper and leaving people to deal with her less-pleasant ego. Why did Dr. Mizrahi keep talking about these things like they were bad?

Re: During the Lecture

[redintraining.livejournal.com]

Sky was glad that they'd moved away from the topic of genetically-modified humans. He was in a much better state of mind than he had been the past two weeks, but still, something about discussing the idea in public made him uncomfortable. So he listened attentively and took notes.

Re: During the Lecture

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé was sitting frozen in her seat. And then, she began to get angry.

Re: During the Lecture

[sound-loyalty.livejournal.com]

Kabuto checked a little at the topic, but otherwise made no sign as to what he thought about it.

Answer the Question

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Would you ever alter someone else’s mind? What do you think would drive you to do it? Alternatively, what do you think would drive someone else to do it?

Re: Answer the Question

[redintraining.livejournal.com]

Sky considered the question for a while before he answered.

"In my universe, to my knowledge the most we do as far as altering somebody's mind is erasing or modifying memories," he said. "And even then, only in extreme circumstances, such as in cases of time travel, where knowledge of the future or a changed past could have catastrophic consequences. I'd like to say that I would never consider altering somebody's mind, but you also bring up an interesting point with reconditioning, ma'am. I don't think I could ever do it, but as an officer of the law, some days the idea of having one less potential repeat offender on the streets could become tempting."

Re: Answer the Question

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

"It is also," she said, "more cost effective in the long run than keeping them in prison. The modifications range from relatively minor things to a total rehaul of an idividual's nature. Do you think it is wrong, as an idea, in and of itself? Or that, like any tool, it does have it's own place in the scheme of things?"

Re: Answer the Question

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Do you really think changing memories is something trivial?" Naminé said abruptly. "Does the person get to decide? If you're an officer of the law, I would hope you'd be more concerned with protecting people and their basic rights. Including protecting them from people who would change them to fit whatever they've decided is most helpful to society."

Re: Answer the Question

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Control," Naminé said harshly. "Someone's memories and their identity, that makes up who they are. Change them into someone else and you can make them be anyone you want. Anything you want. You can --"

She closed her eyes, trying to calm herself. "It's wrong. It's not just wrong, it's horrifying. It's worse than killing the person. It's destroying who they are and turning their shell into your puppet. It's killing them and enslaving their body."

Re: Answer the Question

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

"And if they are a criminal," Juli said, observing with interest the amount of distress this question evoked, "someone who has hurt many people would you say it is more 'wrong' to wipe their mind and give them another chance, than to simply kill them and end all their chances?"

Re: Answer the Question

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Would I? Probably not, why bother?" Anemone shrugged, not looking up from her coloring. "It's a lot of work, and you can't predict the outcome. At least, not in my world. Besides, even if you get the base persona that you want, you can't control how the environment affects them. Time doesn't hold still just because you want your toy to stay new and shiny."

Re: Answer the Question

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

"And if you say, mind-wiped a murderer," Juli asked, not commenting on the 'toy' part, "do you think they'd still turn out a murderer again?"

Re: Answer the Question

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"No." Anathema summarized stubbornly.

Re: Answer the Question

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Juli raised her eyebrows, and said mildly, "No, what?"

Re: Answer the Question

[sound-loyalty.livejournal.com]

"It happens." Kabuto shrugged. No, he wasn't feeling like elaborating.

Discuss!

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Personality reconditioning! What traits do you think are the most often ‘programmed’? The least? What purposes can you think of for conditioning like this? The pros? The cons?

Re: Discuss!

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Docility," Naminé said coldly. "You don't want someone like that to have a temper, unless you have a handy target to point him at. Protectiveness is good, love if you can manage it. But only towards someone else you control, anyone else is a wild card. And make sure your locks hold."

Talk to the TA

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Once he's around.

Re: Talk to the TA

[sound-loyalty.livejournal.com]

Kabuto was around, not nearly as smug as he generally was. Instead, he seemed almost...bored.

Talk to Juli

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

She’s around both before and after class.

OOC

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

If someone ends the world today… I’m not helping to bring it back to life. Resurrect it yourselves.