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From: dxm@lanl.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: life rafts & Jeff
Message-ID: <24855@lanl.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 22-Apr-85 15:17:45 EST
Article-I.D.: lanl.24855
Posted: Mon Apr 22 15:17:45 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Apr-85 08:21:15 EST
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Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
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>>In article <5466@utzoo.UUCP> laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton) writes:
>>...Stuck on a
>>life raft I have to decide whether it is necessary for me to eat
>>Jeff to survive...

>Which goes to show that you can't base a philosophy on consequences, since
>there is no way to decide whether or not it is necessary to eat Jeff to
>survive.
>						-- Scott

      True, I can't tell in advance that it will definitely be neces-
    sary to eat Jeff.  I can assume the worst, however, and eating Jeff 
    will certainly maximize my chances of survival.  I will live a 
    while longer than if I hadn't eaten him, thus increasing my chances
    of being rescued.  So it comes down to whether or not I value Jeff
    more than increasing my own chances of living ( just the _chance_,
    mind you, not the certainty ).  Well, no, I don't.  Who *should* I
    value more than myself ?  This is probably more an emotional decision
    than an intellectual one. Since I don't know Jeff from Adam, ol' Jeff 
    has gotta go if he can't convince me he has more to contribute to 
    society than I do. Since I'm fascinated by my continued survival
    it'll have to be a *lot* more; a germ that kills yuppies for example. 
    
    Now if he'd only hold still when I pour the ketchup.... :-)

                                          Doug Miller

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