Wednesday, March 29, 2023

A Conundrum

Sometimes I think blogging is just a legitimate way of talking to myself without the apprehensiveness of wondering if someone is listening to me talking to myself. If I'm blogging that's ok, however if I'm talking to myself, there are those who may think I'm losing my mind or my ability to keep my thoughts contained within my consciousness…or I'm insane.

Which brings to mind a question. Would be better or worse if we could hear others' thoughts? Since I have a blog (and anyone is welcome to read it), my stream of consciousness (most of it, anyways) is out in the open. However, if we could invade others' thoughts for a good cause, should we consider it or would that be an invasion of privacy (and we certainly don't want that, do we?). Nonetheless, what if we had the power, to read others' thoughts? What if we had the ability to read criminals' thoughts, prior to that criminal making a bad decision? One of my favorite movies, The Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, told a story (based in the future) about a special Police Department, Precrime Unit. This special unit had the ability to predict murders (through *Precognitives) before the murder actually happened. Therefore, they would stop the murder before it actually took place and arrest the (pre?) murderer. I won't spoil the ending for those who haven't seen the film, however, "the best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry"



Although the films' science was predicated on predicting the future, wouldn't we get the same result (of stopping future crimes), if we could read criminal's minds? Would you support the invasion of our privacy and rights if it resulted in the end of crimes and murders? Or would you argue that your personal loss of privacy (i.e., everyone knowing your every thought) outweighs the benefit to society of the elimination of crime? *Precognitives are individuals with extra-sensory perception of objects or events in the future, or of another person's future mental processes, a conjectural paranormal phenomenon

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