1 - A boy in the brig

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

[The surviving captured Disciple of Baphomet is in the brig and has been since the fight with them a week ago. He seems rather resigned. He eats and sleeps and exercises but doesn't do much else. He hasn't tried to escape, nor has he really complained.]

((OOC: Feel free to time your posts at any point after this log: warning: the log contains a somewhat graphic suicide.))

Comments

[saikyocivrobo]

And how are you supposed to keep the information when all the books are gone?

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

Remembering it. Humans have has knowledge long before they had books. Besides, a book isn't a machine. I had a journal I made and wrote in all the time.

Your book was definitely made by a machine though, so it would have to be destroyed on principle.

[saikyocivrobo]

You know who else complained about written word? Socrates. He thought that books will destroy people's memory and make them lazy, and that a real wise man can just remember everything.

He was completely wrong about that, of course, as evident thousands of years later. And humans created so much knowledge that it's impossible for one person to remember even 1% of it.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

Multiple people can remember different things. And there is nothing unnatural about writing. Even if we don't make books, and we can do that without technology, we can always write on rocks or cave walls.

[saikyocivrobo]

What is the difference between a hand-written parchment, a printed book and a text written on a cave wall? All of them are books, the only difference is that it's hard to take a cave with you anywhere. If something is already created and it is not harmful, why destroy it? It's just a waste.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

The difference is that the book represents an acceptance of something that should not exist. The statement that makes is important. It's why we were willing to kill people.

You think we like pointless death? Death without purpose is wasteful, but killing or even failing to kill what others see as having value makes a statement. It guarantees that people will notice you.

[saikyocivrobo]

And that's supposed to be any better? Someone who kills for no reason is just bloodthirsty and crazy. Thinking that's wasteful but willing to kill people just to make a point, on the other hand, means that you thought about the value of human life... And then put a very low price tag on it.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

Actually, the only reason killing to make a point works is because everyone else puts a high price on it.

That's something I don't understand. All the adults always tell me a big problem with the outside world is that people think humans have some special value that makes them important. You guys definitely seem to, why is that?

[saikyocivrobo]

It's because a lot of animals are sentient, but humans are one of the few who are sapient. All life is precious, but in addition to being a lifeform, sapience makes you also a person.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

So because we can think this makes us better than other animals?

[saikyocivrobo]

Everything that has a brain can think, but only sapient creatures can reason. Humans live on a higher mental level than most animals, have much more varied experiences and personalities, and can create instead of living entirely by instinct.

It's a pretty complex topic. I can lend you a book on it, if you promise not to destroy it.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

[He sighs.]

That's exactly what I mean. You used the word "higher" mental level. You could have said "different" which would be more accurate but you said higher.

Then it's true, humans are selfish and egotistical enough to think that their nature makes them better than everything else. I had hoped it was a misconception the others had about the outside world.

[saikyocivrobo]

Who said anything about being better? A sapient creature is capable of thought processes that a non-sapient brain either can't do or can do only on a very limited scope. This is a scientific fact.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

[He shakes his head.]

That doesn't actually answer my question. I didn't ask whether we were more capable of reason than most other life forms, that's self evident. I asked why human's are valued.

[saikyocivrobo]

It's exactly this capability for reason that gives human life more value. We don't have to follow instincts, we can follow dreams, plans, reasonable thoughts, we can forge deep bonds with others and create amazing things. Kill the human and you take it all away.


I'm not saying an animal's life has no value. Just that a human life has more.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

[He shakes his head again and sighs.]

Nevermind.

[saikyocivrobo]

Fine then. I didn't expect persuading you to be easy.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

Nor did I.

I did not expect you to be so... wrong. If you listen to what you are saying you should see there is no actual reasoning there. It's all just reiterating the same statement "humans are awesome" over and over again in various different ways. Until you actually think about that... I don't really have anything else to say.

[saikyocivrobo]

You did not expect that. I did. Later.

[Off he goes.]