{"id":10084,"date":"2015-02-04T10:39:40","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T05:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/?p=10084"},"modified":"2021-01-02T10:07:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T04:37:00","slug":"for-charlie-to-tango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2015\/02\/04\/for-charlie-to-tango\/","title":{"rendered":"For Charlie to tango"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>The interesting question is, just because something thinks differently from you, does that mean it\u2019s not thinking? We allow\u00a0that humans have such divergences from one another. You like strawberries. I hate ice-skating. You cry at sad films. I\u2019m allergic to pollen. What does it mean to have different tastes &#8211; different preferences &#8211; other than to say that our brains work differently? That we think differently from one another?<br \/>\n<em>~ The Imitation Game (<a href=\"http:\/\/aferova.tumblr.com\/post\/108341676097\/the-interesting-question-is-just-because\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via<\/a>)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I watched the movie last weekend, and this was one of the scenes that stayed with me. By sheer coincidence, the book I was reading then was <em><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Age_of_Spiritual_Machines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Age of Spiritual Machines<\/a>,<\/em> which dwells on the progress of artificial intelligence, and therefore, its impact on humanity. Humanity will be forced to reckon\u00a0with AI sooner than later, (<a href=\"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2014\/12\/24\/artificial-humanity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an earlier post<\/a>) but long before that, we will need to learn to deal with ourselves. Have we really learned to live with our divergences? Take this as an example :<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>Cartoonists don&#8217;t kill people, but apparently cartoons do. Sad! :\\<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 manu prasad (@manuscrypts) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/manuscrypts\/status\/553126435510943744\">January 8, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->You&#8217;re familiar with the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charlie_Hebdo_shooting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">incident,<\/a>\u00a0and if you want a history of Charlie Hebdo in this context, <a href=\"http:\/\/gawker.com\/what-is-charlie-hebdo-and-why-a-mostly-complete-histo-1677959168\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gawker<\/a> has it. The reactions to that post and the incident in general, are diverse. On one hand, you could say<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If a large enough group of someones is willing to kill you for saying something, then it\u2019s something that almost certainly needs to be said, because otherwise the violent have veto power over liberal civilization, and when that scenario obtains it isn\u2019t really a liberal civilization any more.<br \/>\n<em>Ross Douthat, The Blasphemy We Need (<a href=\"http:\/\/stoweboyd.com\/post\/107527380697\/if-a-large-enough-group-of-someones-is-willing-to\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via<\/a>)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A <a href=\"http:\/\/nypost.com\/2015\/01\/18\/blaming-the-victim-charlie-hebdo-free-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">line of thought<\/a> is that freedom of speech is binary &#8211; it exists or it does not. Let me play along, but extend that to Freedom of Expression. (oh, the irony of the acronym!)\u00a0Physical hurt is relatively more tangible. But how about emotional hurt &#8211; objectively, who&#8217;s to say that not getting a ticket for a favourite movie is more painful than losing a loved one? We are far from knowing the wiring of the brain and our subjective dispositions towards people and things and their relative importance. In this context, we might have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2012\/04\/20\/god-spot-in-brain-is-not-_n_1440518.html?ir=India\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">disproved the God Spot<\/a>, but yet acknowledge the neuropsychological basis for spirituality, and therefore by extension, religion. That is not an endorsement of murder, but as the Pope says, if provoked by using a crude word against someone&#8217;s mother,\u00a0\u201c<em>expect to get punched in the nose<\/em>\u201d. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/news\/international\/21640324-reactions-paris-attacks-highlight-threats-free-expression-around-world\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">read<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>While one person might express himself\/herself freely with a word and a cartoon, objectively speaking, cannot another use the same freedom to commit bodily harm? Is there an objective way of comparing? Just as we cannot bring back a life, we cannot take away the hurt either. The answer, predictably, is compassion.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-10151 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/compassion.jpg\" alt=\"compassion\" width=\"600\" height=\"412\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/compassion.jpg 585w, https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/compassion-300x206.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 600px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 600\/412;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/2015\/01\/08\/karen-armstrong-compassion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Maybe we need to go a step further and try to imagine what gives another person pain as well.\u00a0<em>\u00a0&#8220;Je suis Charlie&#8221;<\/em>, goes the phrase.\u00a0But really, what are you signing up for? Freedom of speech\/expression is indeed binary, but perhaps we need to make more\u00a0conscious choices on its usage, and therefore, its consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The interesting question is, just because something thinks differently from you, does that mean it\u2019s not thinking? We allow\u00a0that humans have such divergences from one another. You like strawberries. I hate ice-skating. You cry at sad films. I\u2019m allergic to pollen. What does it mean to have different tastes &#8211; different preferences &#8211; other than <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2015\/02\/04\/for-charlie-to-tango\/\">[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6052,1479,19],"tags":[4755,599,1664,601,4754,4753],"class_list":["post-10084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choices","category-thoughtstream","category-religion","tag-charlie-hebdo","tag-compassion","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-humanity","tag-the-age-of-spiritual-machines","tag-the-imitation-game"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10084"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14997,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084\/revisions\/14997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}