Friday 8 June 2007

Pic of the day: Most religions visualize a very unpleasant end for the treacherous. Philosophers disagree on whether this really causes people to refrain from treason, or whether it just provides a pleasant imagery for those betrayed, to contemplate the future fate of their former friends.

Another dream

(This actually happened a couple days ago, and may be familiar to you who also read my LiveJournal. I include it here for completion, and add a few words at the end.)

In my dream I was one of a small group of friends who took part (unwittingly in my case) in creating an artifact of unimaginable power. Near the end of the process, each of us had been given and had swallowed a small copper coin. One of these held the potential to be the artifact, but only if that person killed those who had the other coins. This one guy was convinced that his was the one and was ready to kill all the rest of us, while we were trying to reason with him. Even if his coin was the one, activating it would mean the end to any meaning in his life, I pointed out. With the power to simply bring into being anything he wanted, there would be nothing more to do in life except conjuring whatever his whim came up with. It would in essence be game over. "Yes" he said, "it's game over, but at least I will have won!" "Killing your best friends, living with our ghosts day and night, feared and envied by every living soul on the planet ... that's winning?" He walked away then, for a while, to make his final decision, and I woke up.

It bears mention that I read a couple days ago a synopsis of how The Prisoners' Dilemma is relevant as basis for a universal morality, but only if it is repeated. This dilemma is told in several different forms, but the essence of them is: If you betray the other, you get better off and they get worse off. If they betray you, it's the other way around. If none of you betray the other, you will both suffer a little, but worst off are those who mutually betray each other.

In a certain sense we are all "prisoners" and face this dilemma. If we sneak in the line, if we cheat and steal, we get a visible reward for it, and others pay the price. Unfortunately, if everyone does this, we make of our world a hell where no civilization can exist, and in the end no human life. Unlike tigers, humans cannot live long alone. Without trust we will soon be dead. But not all people deserve trust. To bring those people in line is also an important thing to do. It can, in the end, be a matter of life or death. Not only for us, but also for them.