Philosophical Q - Emotional compromised

[Dannyalcatraz]

Would it change your thoughts if the situation that inspired this involved a race/species that say... rejected emotion for rationality and logic?

Vulcans still feel emotions, and quite deeply- they just have developed astounding techniques for controlling them and refuse to express them 99% of the time.

Although I can't recall the clinical name for the condition right now, I remember in my Cognition class discussion about a type of brain damage that left identification memories in tact, but not emotional attachment ones - led to "imposter syndrome" where people suffering from this condition thought all their loved ones had been replaced because while they knew who they were, they felt no real attachment to them.

It's called Capgras Syndrome. Nifty factoid- supposedly, sufferers can recognize & accept as real the voices of their loved ones, but as soon as they SEE someone, they think they are imposters.

This hypothetical is kinda a flip on that - you recognize people and feel attachments to people you don't really know...

Sort of- sufferers of Capgras are still reacting on an irrational, emotional level, though. Perhaps even moreso than someone who is not so afflicted.

 

[Kaodi]

I have come to believe that such alternate universe scenarios are completely implausible, even if you take the idea of infinite parallel realities to be true (and I do not).

That said... Emotional attachment and friendship are in some sense arbitrary occurrences. In this so-called "alternate universe" , rationally speaking you would not owe anything you your "alternate friends" , but if you were to develop sympathy for them based on their resemblance to your real friends, I do not think it could be said to be excessively irrational or anything. Your meeting them would be equally as arbitrary as when you met their counterparts in your own world, and assuming their qualities are mostly identical, why would you resist showing them friendship as well? Your "alternate friends" would, I think, be somewhat analogous to people you lost touch with over the ears: you may forgotten all the things that made you friends in the first place, but the fact that you were friends is a perfectly good reason to recreate that friendship.

A related question that might clarify the issue (or complicate it...): If one of your friends travelled to an alternate universe and killed alternate you, should you think the facts pertaining to your friendship have changed?

 

[Janx]

I would think that it would take greater effort to see the AR version of your friends as NotFriends, than to assume it as a default state.

I'm Q and I trick you when you walk through the next door that you're really entering a universe where Jimmy Hoffa's body got found 3 weeks later, and I've removed the AR you to avoid a conflict (he went through the same door and is in your universe).

First off, how do you know this is an alternate reality? The topic of Jimmy Hoffa still won't come up very often. Assuming this difference in outcome for Jimmy didn't really change the world that much except for the Hoffa family, the world is pretty much the same. It may take years or weeks for you to realize the world is different.

Therefore, all of your interactions with your friends are going to be the same as your original universe.

Once you figure out its an alternate reality, your brain is not going to reject relationships it has going with these people. It's got other issues, like how to get back home. Your most awkward moment will be over very intimate details as somebody takes offense that somebody else isn't who they thought they were. But less intimate relationships will be fine.

 

[Cor Azer]

[MENTION=8835]Janx[/MENTION]: while yes, subtle differences may mask the fact that you find yourself in an alternate universe, my hypothetical in the first post dealt with the situation where you know it is an alternate universe - a much more interesting proposition.

I just thought of the old series Sliders - the crew knew they were dimension hopping, and so were immediately on the look out for differences, yet still bonded with people who were only mostly similar to friends and family back home.

I do like the thought upthread about the similarities though; probably right in that whatever drew us to our "real" friends and family would draw us to their dopplegangers if the differences aren't too great.

 

[Janx]

[MENTION=8835]Janx[/MENTION]: while yes, subtle differences may mask the fact that you find yourself in an alternate universe, my hypothetical in the first post dealt with the situation where you know it is an alternate universe - a much more interesting proposition.

I just thought of the old series Sliders - the crew knew they were dimension hopping, and so were immediately on the look out for differences, yet still bonded with people who were only mostly similar to friends and family back home.

I do like the thought upthread about the similarities though; probably right in that whatever drew us to our "real" friends and family would draw us to their dopplegangers if the differences aren't too great.

I suspect that until the differences between the original friend and the AR friend become drastic or unfriendly, that you would continue to think of them as friends, until the situation contradicts that (your AR friend tries to kill you).

I don't think the human mind really considers them different until the actuality contradicts the brain's view of the person.

I suspect a person could be alert and wary that "the next person I recognize may not actually be my friend", but if you don't have your mental guard up, you'll act and respond to them as if you know them by default.