fandomhigh | Ye Shall Be As Gods?

"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!]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Cautiously!

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

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?

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?

Once he's around.

She’s around both before and after class.

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

Sky Tate

Bridge Carson

Jen Scotts

Anemone

Z Delgado

Edited 2008-02-13 06:21 (UTC)

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?

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.

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."

Naminé

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

"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."

"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."

Adam Park

"Docility would defeat the purpose, if you're planning to use someone as a weapon," Anemone remarked lazily, finally looking up from her picture. "Loyalty is usually more useful."

Zack Addy

"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?"

"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?"

Sky fiddled with his pencil.

"Minor modifications to somebody certainly has its own place overall," he said. "Completely overhauling somebody's nature is something I can't agree with, though. In fact, I'm conflicted about even slight changes to someone's psyche- as much as I may like to change somebody to not want to commit crimes, I also have to consider the person being modified. Even though the one being modified might not even been aware it's happened, I don't feel as though it's my place to choose what someone's personality should be like, even if it goes toward the peace and order I desire as a police officer."

Page 1 of 3

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

Sign In

During the Lecture

Answer the Question

Discuss!

Talk to the TA

Talk to Juli

OOC

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: During the Lecture

Re: During the Lecture

Re: Answer the Question

Re: Sign In

Re: During the Lecture

Re: Answer the Question

Re: Discuss!

Re: Sign In

Re: Discuss!

Re: Sign In

Re: Answer the Question

Re: Answer the Question

Re: Answer the Question