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Rogue planet November 22nd, 2010 9:02 AM

No secrets for anyone
 
You're given the option of being able to read other people's thoughts. However this power will be given to every single person in the world. Nobody can hold secrets any more. Mind reading extends to everyone within the same vicinity as you. You can turn off your ability to read minds and you can choose whose thoughts to read at a certain time, although you cannot block other people from reading your mind. People cannot make their mind project thoughts that are lies, so nobody has the ability to lie.

Would you accept and alter humanity in this way? It will not be seen as a shock as everyone will also be altered so they feel as if things have always been this way. So there are no nasty unforeseen repercussions.

Do you think this would improve the world if there are no longer secrets and lies?

poopnoodle November 22nd, 2010 9:15 AM

you know, it'd be awkward getting used to but ultimately i think we'd realize how much in common we all have and come to accept the nature of humanity rather than be so critical of each other. what a thing to ponder

Agent Clank November 22nd, 2010 11:47 AM

I wouldn't like that.
I think I would turn it off 24/7.

Nick November 22nd, 2010 12:24 PM

Ouch... hard question. I really don't like the idea of someone being able to read my mind. While they may not be secrets, since if they're important enough, it'd tell someone, but my private thoughts and impressions are something that I like to keep to myself in most occasions. But I do think that more good can come from this than bad, since I ultimately believe that good can come from the worst of things. Whether you have it or not, you'd have your mind read anyway by others who do have it, so why not choose to keep it? I do think that there is more good in this world than evil, and while this may increase the malice some people have, there are about ten good people to every bad one that can deal with the problem in an appropriate manner. So I suppose I do feel it would benefit and alter humanity. I certainly wouldn't have much of an impact, however.

Bologna November 24th, 2010 12:03 AM

I'm not sure if I would alter humanity in this way. You say that it would not be seen as a shock to everyone and that they feel as if life had always been that way, but I still think that there would be problems. I don't think that people can ever stop having judgments, and so they will always think things that other people will not like, and I also think that most people are too naturally curious to ever not read the thoughts of someone else if they had the ability, so they would always find out about what people truly think of them and would most definitely always run into conflict with this. And no matter what, I think that this would still end badly and I think it would bring up many fights and arguments.

It could, possibly, greatly improve the world. However I really believe that there are some things that people should not know. I think that there are people who know things that everyone else would be better off not knowing, or that would be best left unknown to everyone else as they are things that need to be dealt with with care.. and there are many people who can not appropriately handle such things.

Then again, there would be no more need to speak aloud, at least not everyday. Which could be nice.

I don't know... I just don't think I could do it.

Stellar November 24th, 2010 12:18 AM

Quote:

you know, it'd be awkward getting used to but ultimately i think we'd realize how much in common we all have and come to accept the nature of humanity rather than be so critical of each other. what a thing to ponder
This.
When I first read about the situation, all I could think was "omg that'd be so terrible, I get the most disturbing thoughts sometimes..."
Then I realized that most of humanity is probably the exact same way. As it is, no one can read your thoughts, so people tend to go wild with them. It's the only "place" where anyone truly has complete privacy, so it's only natural to use it to it's fullest potential. Once you expose that side of people, I guess we'll finally realize just what we're all capable of thinking, if not doing. From the hopelessly righteous to the sick and twisted.

Yuoaman November 24th, 2010 12:21 AM

Before puberty - sure, why not? Secrets aren't a real big deal...

After puberty - oh god no, why!? WHY!? IT ISN'T MY FAULT.

Yes. I don't much care for this notion.

The Corrupt Plague November 24th, 2010 12:26 AM

Not worth it, I already keep enough secrets of my own and trust me, there is some stuff that humanity is not meant to know. Even then, it's still going to be a disaster whether I am doing the mind reading or anyone else because I imagine that the mind would be a terrible thing to read.

Alice November 24th, 2010 1:03 AM

No. A person's thoughts are theirs alone, we have no right to them, if they don't want us to know.

PlatinumDude November 24th, 2010 3:23 AM

I wouldn't like being in a world like this because some people don't want others to discover negative aspects about them.

ANARCHit3cht November 24th, 2010 5:32 AM

I personally would not want my thoughts revealed. There is a reason that they are thoughts and not words. They are mine, no one else's. Should I choose to share my thoughts with them, then so be it. I keep secrets, but nothing too bad. I will usually tell it like it is, so but when I want something to be private, I want it to be private. From a personal stance, I would be against this in its entirety.

Politically this would be good and bad. It would be good because you would know what other countries were planning and you could act accordingly. It would be bad because, it is prevalent throughout history that people didn't have the purest of intentions. If those were revealed, there would be no one to drive their ideals, and thus progress would not be made. Now, seeing as the power would pick up today, we would probably just smite one another into oblivion and that would be that.

While some might argue that it would be a good thing as we would begin to accept one another, I disagree. It might be true that some will be more accepting, but others will not. There are those that will always be a touch to sensitive and take a negative thought way to far. Push would come to shove, and then before you know, chaos would just break out. Maybe not so noticeably, but the tension would increase before it lessened.

Idiot! November 24th, 2010 8:45 AM

Great, more cheating at exams. [/sarcasm] Cue gossip.

I'll die if my right to privacy dies. Besides, there'll be discrimination between people with "normal" imagination and "abnormal" imagination. How would you react if you know people can fantasise about murdering someone else, but you aren't sure if that will happen?

Rogue planet November 24th, 2010 8:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Idiot! (Post 6305617)
Besides, there'll be discrimination between people with "normal" imagination and "abnormal" imagination. How would you react if you know people can fantasise about murdering someone else, but you aren't sure if that will happen?

I've always been pretty open with everyone about how I fantasize about murder and I've yet to meet someone that dislikes it, other than my mother.

Shanghai Alice November 24th, 2010 9:11 AM

I disagree with the, "We'd all be open, honest, and happy!" notion.

This wouldn't take away the realism of the world, nor the prejudice and hatred.

Your ideal worlds pretty much are impossible. This cause politics to collapse, as negotiations will turn /very/ sour. The "isolation" of our generation will increase, because thoughts can't be read over the Internet. You'll have no more secrets. Think of every deep, dark secret you have. Every guilt, and every fear. Now put it up on a billboard.

Yeah.

There are some things in my life that still follow me, and I keep them secret to avoid making the others involved feel guilty, and also because it would do no good to tell them.

Some things are kept secret for others, or because nothing would improve for letting it become known.

This is a bad idea. I'm going with the Lelouch Rule here.

Ayselipera November 24th, 2010 9:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poopnoodle (Post 6301911)
you know, it'd be awkward getting used to but ultimately i think we'd realize how much in common we all have and come to accept the nature of humanity rather than be so critical of each other. what a thing to ponder

I was going to say no way, but after reading this I realize there could be a positive outcome to the whole change. While that would be wonderful I'm not sure how likely that happening could be. At the same time I figure we'll never know until we try so I'll say yes for this one. It will definitely be awkward, but like poopnoodle said it could bring us together in the end.

Rogue planet November 24th, 2010 9:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shanghai Alice (Post 6305659)
Your ideal worlds pretty much are impossible. This cause politics to collapse, as negotiations will turn /very/ sour.

Well people with bad intentions wouldn't get into politics in the first place. Maybe there wouldn't be so much disagreements because all the people that genuinely want to help their country would get into power, and we wouldn't have so many selfish politicians like we do now.

Quote:

The "isolation" of our generation will increase, because thoughts can't be read over the Internet. You'll have no more secrets. Think of every deep, dark secret you have. Every guilt, and every fear. Now put it up on a billboard.
It's a hypothetical situation so you could change it so thoughts can be read across the internet if you like. The thing is, you may have all your secrets revealed, but so will everyone else so you won't be alone in this. You'll have an easier job of finding someone with similar thoughts to you, without having to develop a really close friendship first. Everyone has something they want to hide or are embarrassed about, so I don't think there would be as much discrimination as people imagine, because everyone would be in the same boat.

Shanghai Alice November 24th, 2010 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vendak (Post 6305688)
Well people with bad intentions wouldn't get into politics in the first place. Maybe there wouldn't be so much disagreements because all the people that genuinely want to help their country would get into power, and we wouldn't have so many selfish politicians like we do now.

I want to say that such people don't exist, but that's being overly cynical.

However, the point is, you still have 300 million people in a country, each with their own goals and ambitions. What may be "good" to one person might be horrific to another, so, unless you find Jesus, I don't think we'll have wondrous, selfless politicians.

Quote:

It's a hypothetical situation so you could change it so thoughts can be read across the internet if you like. The thing is, you may have all your secrets revealed, but so will everyone else so you won't be alone in this. You'll have an easier job of finding someone with similar thoughts to you, without having to develop a really close friendship first. Everyone has something they want to hide or are embarrassed about, so I don't think there would be as much discrimination as people imagine, because everyone would be in the same boat.
Eventually, maybe. After a few years, or decades.

Initially?

People would get even meaner. People that have less to hide, or their "secrets" are more socially acceptable... Those are the people that will feel empowered by this change.

People that have stuff to hide, or people that want to avoid conflict, but can't keep themselves from utterly hating...

Those people will have miserable lives.

I don't know how white your conscience is, and I don't care. However, there are some things I'm guilty about. If I spoke my mind all the time, my family situation would be a lot worse.

Hell, if everyone in my family spoke their mind all the time, it'd be a lot worse.

I don't know you, and I don't care. However, the inverse is also true.

As I said, I'd slap the Lelouch Rule on this. One person's viewpoint is not absolute.

Captain Fabio November 24th, 2010 2:49 PM

I would hate that.
I think about a lot of random and private things, obviously, and I would like to keep them that way.

Would be nice to listen to what some people are thinking at times, but not enough for everyone else to listen to what I am thinking about ><

Elite Overlord LeSabre™ November 25th, 2010 7:28 AM

No, because I feel that everyone has their secrets that they want to keep from others (I know I do) and it wouldn't be fair to have everyone's darkest thoughts out there for the world to see.

Melody November 26th, 2010 11:29 AM

It would instantly become possible to hate someone as soon as you come into their mental range. Wars would spark. People would die. There would be much upheaval and chaos in general. Assuming the internet would magically enable us to read the minds of everyone else on that website at the time...there would be EVEN MORE upheaval, because the internet is quite a multicultural place.

What's worse is that having your secrets out for all to see isn't going to foster relationships. It would compartmentalize us severely. We would all trend towards people with similar minds, and very quickly, we'd begin to lose them as we lose the steady supply of new ideas we all face on a daily basis dries up into nothing...because we'd be surrounding ourselves with people who share the same thoughts, ideals and mental state.

Civilization would devolve...we'd be a bunch of 'Tribes' scattered around the world at best.
Utopia would not exist, not in 1 year, not in 5 years not even in a million years with this modification. So I wouldn't ever inflict such a curse on civilization. We may not be perfect, but there ARE times and places where lies and secrets are APPROPRIATE.

Stratos99 November 26th, 2010 1:47 PM

Would you accept and alter humanity in this way?
No way, I would be caught cheating on my girlfriends, thinking dirty things about that one math teacher and how would I fool my mother into letting me out when I'm not actually going to study? This would be awful.

Do you think this would improve the world if there are no longer secrets and lies?
Maybe after a few generations but it would be hell for the beta testers aka us.


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