I've been a devoted Star Wars fan for quite a while. Recently, I picked up a Star Wars book to read and found it quite satisfying. I picked up another, by a different author, and reached the same conclusion. At the moment, there are about 10 Star Wars books from the library sitting on a table waiting for me to read them.
While trying to sleep, I realized one of the drastic differences between the Sequel and Prequel Trilogy. Nothing to do with the difference in colors, effects, or aliens - no, something much deeper and more important.
The Prequel Trilogy is the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side, his becoming Darth Vader. It's also the rise of Palpatine to being emperor of the galaxy (the known reaches) and the destruction of the Jedi Order. All three of these ends are more or less a heroic tragedy (from the standard perspective). Note the fact that almost all main characters, except for the villains are dead at the end.
In contrast, the Prequel Trilogy is about the return of the Jedi, the defeat of Darth Vader and Palpatine (Darth Sidious), and the supposed end of the Empire (although in the expanded universe the Empire is still kicking for quite a while). It's a heroic adventure that is not in the least bit tragic.
I also realized that the entire saga can be thought of not only as the story of Anakin Skywalker (and by extension, the Skywalker family) but as the story of Darth Sidious. In fact, Darth Sidious is more key to the story than any character other than Anakin Skywalker himself. He doesn't appear as often as, say, Obi-Wan, but he is the true mover and shaker in galactic events and the true evil that has to be defeated. While Darth Vader, General Grievous, Count Dooku, and others were all quite formidable, none so much as Darth Sidious.
I also noticed that in some old list of top movie villains of all time Darth Vader was only third place. I read about the other characters and they didn't seem nearly as interesting or cool as Darth Vader. I also noticed that on the same list Harrison Ford's characters appeared twice - Indiana Jones was in second place (after Atticus Finch) and Han Solo somewhere down along the lines. The point of this paragraph is that Darth Vader should be considered the epitome of movie villains (in my opinion). Everything about him is simply awesome.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
An Exercise in Futility
Here is something that I absolutely hate. The idea that certain words should not be said simply because they are "swear words". Now some words, in certain contexts, are not appopriate at all - I wouldn't call a woman a "bitch", or call anyone a "faggot" and so forth. Certain slang phrases (suck as "Jungle Bunny") shouldn't be used because of their intention. However, there is nothing wrong with words like "hell", "damn", "shit", and even, really, "fuck". I realize that the last word has acquired a new meaning, but the others really remain the same. Nonetheless, people are uptight about words which mean, respectively, a mythological place from Norse and Christian mythology, the action of sending people to hell or writing them off so that they'll be sent to hell, poop, and sex. None of these are particularly bad things. And yet people act like children shouldn't hear them, or they shouldn't here them. Why is this? The idea is that "they're offensive" but really, they shouldn't be. They're only offensive because people make them offensive. If everyone taught their child that those words were essentially no worse than other words then we wouldn't have problems with them. But many people are too close minded to accept that sort of thing.
Likewise, information about sex and sexual organs are not something that should be hidden from children. If it weren't treated like something totally different from everything else, then people wouldn't be so uptight about discussing it and it wouldn't be such a big deal.
Lastly, I heard someone say a few things which were totally wrong: that "children are less innocent that they used to be" and that "America is in a moral and religious decline". Both of these statements are very untrue.
Children are no less innocent than they used to be. They may actually be more "innocent" (a word used to mean that they don't know words which are considered inappropriate, etc)
The United States may perhaps be in a moral decline but I have no idea about the religious decline. Any country that would elect people from the Tea Party is populated by easily influenced idiots. As for a religious decline, I would disagree. It's in the middle of the theological battles that happened in Europe a while ago where the Christians fought against science and eventually lost. It's bound to happen again here at some point.
Likewise, information about sex and sexual organs are not something that should be hidden from children. If it weren't treated like something totally different from everything else, then people wouldn't be so uptight about discussing it and it wouldn't be such a big deal.
Lastly, I heard someone say a few things which were totally wrong: that "children are less innocent that they used to be" and that "America is in a moral and religious decline". Both of these statements are very untrue.
Children are no less innocent than they used to be. They may actually be more "innocent" (a word used to mean that they don't know words which are considered inappropriate, etc)
The United States may perhaps be in a moral decline but I have no idea about the religious decline. Any country that would elect people from the Tea Party is populated by easily influenced idiots. As for a religious decline, I would disagree. It's in the middle of the theological battles that happened in Europe a while ago where the Christians fought against science and eventually lost. It's bound to happen again here at some point.
Friday, July 27, 2012
The Teleportation Conundrum
Teleportation is a device used in many Science Fiction stories to transport people from one place to another.
However, one aspect of it is overlooked - dematerialization means death. As soon as you dematerialize, you are dead. The person who appears at the other end may be made from the same things as you, but they are different. Their configuration could be exactly the same but they still won't be you. They will think they are, but they won't be. Instead, they'll be a perfect duplicate who believes that they are you.
How do you solve this conundrum?
There are a few ways -
First is wormholes - instead of dematerialization followed by rematerialization, you can simply have a wormhole.
Second is to indoctrinate an entire generation into believing that your mind is carried by the teleportation device. While it wouldn't be true, it would solve the whole problem.
However, one aspect of it is overlooked - dematerialization means death. As soon as you dematerialize, you are dead. The person who appears at the other end may be made from the same things as you, but they are different. Their configuration could be exactly the same but they still won't be you. They will think they are, but they won't be. Instead, they'll be a perfect duplicate who believes that they are you.
How do you solve this conundrum?
There are a few ways -
First is wormholes - instead of dematerialization followed by rematerialization, you can simply have a wormhole.
Second is to indoctrinate an entire generation into believing that your mind is carried by the teleportation device. While it wouldn't be true, it would solve the whole problem.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Third Wheel...
A third wheel is a stabilizer. When you have two wheels it either falls over to the side or falls forward/backward depending on the alignment of the wheels. To avoid this, you have to balance or keep moving. A third wheel will stabilize things. So the "third wheel in the relationship" would be a more appropriate term for a shared reason to stay together, such as a child.
Sorry about not posting much recently, I just haven't had that much to post about.
Sorry about not posting much recently, I just haven't had that much to post about.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Review: Driver: San Francisco
I decided to post this as I feel it's a game worth talking about.
I rarely buy new games which means that I don't have a large number of purchase-able games. Most of the games I play are online, although I often get subscriptions for MMOs. Instead, my cousins purchased this and I played it. I beat it twice while there.
Anyway, to the game.
Driver: San Francisco is a driving game. My first thought was that it would boring. I was quite wrong. Not only were the graphics amazing (something that you should realize as soon as you see it) but it had a very cool mechanic for switching cars - shifting. By pressing "Shift", you could leave the car you were in for an overhead view of the street and by clicking another car you can enter it.
The storyline is quite interesting:
Detective John Tanner is the main character. You play as him the whole game. Recently, he had captured Charles Jericho (I believe he chased him in the second Driver game and he caught him in the third). He's quite obsessive about Jericho, a powerful gangster who killed a large number of policemen. As a result, he watched as the police convoy escorted the prison van containing Jericho was attacked by a mysterious woman (who turns out to be Leila Sharan, an Egyptian-American assassin) from a news copter using a rocket launcher. The prison van drives away, and Tanner notices that Jericho is at the wheel (due to using some liquid to dissolve part of his handcuffs and then his massive strength to take down the guards and driver). He follows him into an alley, where Jericho appears behind him and begins to ram his car with the much tougher prison truck. Tanner drives forward and ends up in a multi car collision in the street, at the end of which he is hit directly by a truck. His partner Tobias Jones is also with him but is not injured.
Tanner then wakes up in his car as if nothing had happened. He shifts without trying to, and ends up in an Ambulance as the driver. You have to drive the ambulance to the hospital. Over time you learn to shift higher and higher, as well as how to accelerate and ram (which you can't do in the real world and in certain more realistic missions). You can also purchase upgrades and cars (the cars are useful for the non-story missions and dares while the upgrades give you a number of things) as well as garages. Cars are unlocked by purchasing garages and completing non-story missions while dares and missions give you money to do so. You also get a small amount of money every 20 minutes, whose quantity can be increased significantly by purchasing upgrades (with the last money upgrade, for 500,000 Willpower, the currency in the game, you get 185,000 Willpower ever 20 minutes, more than making up for it after and hour).
During the story, Tanner is shown in a hospital bed in a comatose state, twitching. This is because, as he realizes later, that he's in a Coma, and that all of the things he's been doing had happened in real life except that he had not been able to stop them.
In addition to that, over time, stranger and stranger things happen. The first truly strange occurrence is where, while arguing with Tobias, everything except Tanner's car freezes. Eventually an ambulance shows up and you have to follow it closely to decrease your heart rate in order to allow time to flow again. Later on, it turns out that in Tanner's mind, Jericho can do what he does. Soon after that your final mission is revealed to be saving your own life - by losing to Jericho, Tanner dies, and so he must defeat him at all costs in order to finally wake up (he had woken up for a minute but collapsed onto the floor immediately after). First, you have to drive to a series of locations while avoiding a number of trucks piloted by Jericho. They appear seemingly at random and try to ram you but aren't very persistent. If I'm not mistaken it is at this point that he first awakens, but falls back into a coma. You then have to chase Jericho while he makes cars attack you. His vehicle is a pickup truck in this series of battles and in the final one. At some point, you leave the highway and Tanner and Jericho square off. Jericho taunts him and tells him to try to kill him, but Tanner realizes that it won't help to fight him. Next, you have to chase Jericho along a highway while he zaps cars with lightning, causing them to fly at you. The trick is to stay at around 45 mph (instead of the standard 100+ that you go with most vehicles most of the time) because he throws fewer cars and they're easier to dodge when you can turn and accelerate more effectively. Tanner then appears in a room questioning Jericho about the whole idea of an Hydrogen Cyanide Bomb (as Jericho had abducted an industrial chemist and stolen large quantities of Ammonia and Platinum which are required to make it). He realizes that Jericho isn't a terrorist and that the whole point of the bomb is to divert people's attention and evacuate the city. Now you finally have to beat the mental Jericho - Tanner realizes that if everything is in his head, he should be able to throw cars. You can finally Shift again but this time when you click on a car, it flies at Jericho's Truck. Fortunately, as I discovered, you can do that to the cars that Jericho throws at you while they're in the air, and since you can throw them much more quickly you can beat him rather easily in this one.
Once this happens, and Jericho has been defeated, you reawaken at the hospital. This time you convince Jones to lend you his car as Tanner is the only one who knows what's happening. You drive into the city and watch the explosion, but realize that it's a smokescreen as well as radio interference. When you reach the prison block, you realize that the whole point is that Jericho is creating a prison break. Jericho sees you and flees in his pickup truck, and you have to chase him. Some cars explode (something that happens every so often in the game) along the way. This time, you have to ram him a number of times, until his truck has lost most of its life.You'll then drive into a warehouse, where, in the cars, you square off and charge at each other in an extremely dramatic moment. However, Jones saves you by coming out and ramming Jericho's car in the side, disabling his car. There is a brief discussion and at the end Tanner is shown driving with Jones around San Francisco, ready for new missions. It's a very satisfying end to a cool storyline.
Afterward, you're free to explore the San Francisco of John Tanner's mind (as if he were still in a Coma). Unfortunately, there is no way to replay storyline missions without repeating the storyline and you can only do them in order (where you unlock a few at once, which you must beat to unlock a main storyline mission, and so forth).
The best car in the game is the Lamborghini Murcielago. It's one of the fastest (has a full bar for Speed) and has the most armor and least drift of any car with equal speed (still a lot of drift and low armor, but better than the rest). It costs 500,000, which is less than one other care (the McLaren F1, another car with the same speed but worse drift and armor).
There are essentially three types of missions, as well as a fourth type of challenge, a dare. Dares can be completed once and give you money in exchange for doing something (eg, earning 1500 WP in 60 seconds, 50 meter drift, 100 meter jump, etc). There are many non-story missions - take down the bad guy, protect the police truck from attackers, prevent the school bus from exploding by driving above 60 mph and not hitting lots of cars, etc including many races, some of which you cannot shift in and even accelerate (many of the classic races and chases). Then there are story missions which have little correlation with the main story but which you have to do. A few of these seem to have some correlation (the last two missions where you race using Jun while his brother, Iyamu (not sure how to spell it), criticizes/compliments you, where Iyamu calls you John or John Tanner a few times) but for the most part they are unrelated. Then there are main story missions, each of which you can do after completing some story missions. These are ones directly involved with capturing Jericho.
In my opinion, the story was both too short and just perfect. In some ways, it could have been longer to provide for more missions, but at the same time, it was just the right length (considering that they really didn't have many more possible missions to choose from). All of them were doable with a bit of practice for some.
The graphics are amazing, especially those of the people. They look quite real.
The voice acting is great.
The driving is fun and the shifting makes it worthwhile.
It's a great game, one of the best action games I've played, although I'm still of the opinion that Just Cause 2 is far better than just about any other action game (MMOs are a different sort of game and have to be judged in a different manner).
If you can afford Driver: San Francisco, I suggest purchasing it, because it's very much worth it. It's a fantastic game with a lot going for it and few defects.
I rarely buy new games which means that I don't have a large number of purchase-able games. Most of the games I play are online, although I often get subscriptions for MMOs. Instead, my cousins purchased this and I played it. I beat it twice while there.
Anyway, to the game.
Driver: San Francisco is a driving game. My first thought was that it would boring. I was quite wrong. Not only were the graphics amazing (something that you should realize as soon as you see it) but it had a very cool mechanic for switching cars - shifting. By pressing "Shift", you could leave the car you were in for an overhead view of the street and by clicking another car you can enter it.
The storyline is quite interesting:
Detective John Tanner is the main character. You play as him the whole game. Recently, he had captured Charles Jericho (I believe he chased him in the second Driver game and he caught him in the third). He's quite obsessive about Jericho, a powerful gangster who killed a large number of policemen. As a result, he watched as the police convoy escorted the prison van containing Jericho was attacked by a mysterious woman (who turns out to be Leila Sharan, an Egyptian-American assassin) from a news copter using a rocket launcher. The prison van drives away, and Tanner notices that Jericho is at the wheel (due to using some liquid to dissolve part of his handcuffs and then his massive strength to take down the guards and driver). He follows him into an alley, where Jericho appears behind him and begins to ram his car with the much tougher prison truck. Tanner drives forward and ends up in a multi car collision in the street, at the end of which he is hit directly by a truck. His partner Tobias Jones is also with him but is not injured.
Tanner then wakes up in his car as if nothing had happened. He shifts without trying to, and ends up in an Ambulance as the driver. You have to drive the ambulance to the hospital. Over time you learn to shift higher and higher, as well as how to accelerate and ram (which you can't do in the real world and in certain more realistic missions). You can also purchase upgrades and cars (the cars are useful for the non-story missions and dares while the upgrades give you a number of things) as well as garages. Cars are unlocked by purchasing garages and completing non-story missions while dares and missions give you money to do so. You also get a small amount of money every 20 minutes, whose quantity can be increased significantly by purchasing upgrades (with the last money upgrade, for 500,000 Willpower, the currency in the game, you get 185,000 Willpower ever 20 minutes, more than making up for it after and hour).
During the story, Tanner is shown in a hospital bed in a comatose state, twitching. This is because, as he realizes later, that he's in a Coma, and that all of the things he's been doing had happened in real life except that he had not been able to stop them.
In addition to that, over time, stranger and stranger things happen. The first truly strange occurrence is where, while arguing with Tobias, everything except Tanner's car freezes. Eventually an ambulance shows up and you have to follow it closely to decrease your heart rate in order to allow time to flow again. Later on, it turns out that in Tanner's mind, Jericho can do what he does. Soon after that your final mission is revealed to be saving your own life - by losing to Jericho, Tanner dies, and so he must defeat him at all costs in order to finally wake up (he had woken up for a minute but collapsed onto the floor immediately after). First, you have to drive to a series of locations while avoiding a number of trucks piloted by Jericho. They appear seemingly at random and try to ram you but aren't very persistent. If I'm not mistaken it is at this point that he first awakens, but falls back into a coma. You then have to chase Jericho while he makes cars attack you. His vehicle is a pickup truck in this series of battles and in the final one. At some point, you leave the highway and Tanner and Jericho square off. Jericho taunts him and tells him to try to kill him, but Tanner realizes that it won't help to fight him. Next, you have to chase Jericho along a highway while he zaps cars with lightning, causing them to fly at you. The trick is to stay at around 45 mph (instead of the standard 100+ that you go with most vehicles most of the time) because he throws fewer cars and they're easier to dodge when you can turn and accelerate more effectively. Tanner then appears in a room questioning Jericho about the whole idea of an Hydrogen Cyanide Bomb (as Jericho had abducted an industrial chemist and stolen large quantities of Ammonia and Platinum which are required to make it). He realizes that Jericho isn't a terrorist and that the whole point of the bomb is to divert people's attention and evacuate the city. Now you finally have to beat the mental Jericho - Tanner realizes that if everything is in his head, he should be able to throw cars. You can finally Shift again but this time when you click on a car, it flies at Jericho's Truck. Fortunately, as I discovered, you can do that to the cars that Jericho throws at you while they're in the air, and since you can throw them much more quickly you can beat him rather easily in this one.
Once this happens, and Jericho has been defeated, you reawaken at the hospital. This time you convince Jones to lend you his car as Tanner is the only one who knows what's happening. You drive into the city and watch the explosion, but realize that it's a smokescreen as well as radio interference. When you reach the prison block, you realize that the whole point is that Jericho is creating a prison break. Jericho sees you and flees in his pickup truck, and you have to chase him. Some cars explode (something that happens every so often in the game) along the way. This time, you have to ram him a number of times, until his truck has lost most of its life.You'll then drive into a warehouse, where, in the cars, you square off and charge at each other in an extremely dramatic moment. However, Jones saves you by coming out and ramming Jericho's car in the side, disabling his car. There is a brief discussion and at the end Tanner is shown driving with Jones around San Francisco, ready for new missions. It's a very satisfying end to a cool storyline.
Afterward, you're free to explore the San Francisco of John Tanner's mind (as if he were still in a Coma). Unfortunately, there is no way to replay storyline missions without repeating the storyline and you can only do them in order (where you unlock a few at once, which you must beat to unlock a main storyline mission, and so forth).
The best car in the game is the Lamborghini Murcielago. It's one of the fastest (has a full bar for Speed) and has the most armor and least drift of any car with equal speed (still a lot of drift and low armor, but better than the rest). It costs 500,000, which is less than one other care (the McLaren F1, another car with the same speed but worse drift and armor).
There are essentially three types of missions, as well as a fourth type of challenge, a dare. Dares can be completed once and give you money in exchange for doing something (eg, earning 1500 WP in 60 seconds, 50 meter drift, 100 meter jump, etc). There are many non-story missions - take down the bad guy, protect the police truck from attackers, prevent the school bus from exploding by driving above 60 mph and not hitting lots of cars, etc including many races, some of which you cannot shift in and even accelerate (many of the classic races and chases). Then there are story missions which have little correlation with the main story but which you have to do. A few of these seem to have some correlation (the last two missions where you race using Jun while his brother, Iyamu (not sure how to spell it), criticizes/compliments you, where Iyamu calls you John or John Tanner a few times) but for the most part they are unrelated. Then there are main story missions, each of which you can do after completing some story missions. These are ones directly involved with capturing Jericho.
In my opinion, the story was both too short and just perfect. In some ways, it could have been longer to provide for more missions, but at the same time, it was just the right length (considering that they really didn't have many more possible missions to choose from). All of them were doable with a bit of practice for some.
The graphics are amazing, especially those of the people. They look quite real.
The voice acting is great.
The driving is fun and the shifting makes it worthwhile.
It's a great game, one of the best action games I've played, although I'm still of the opinion that Just Cause 2 is far better than just about any other action game (MMOs are a different sort of game and have to be judged in a different manner).
If you can afford Driver: San Francisco, I suggest purchasing it, because it's very much worth it. It's a fantastic game with a lot going for it and few defects.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Hypocrisy
Hipocrisy is inherent in humans. We are all hypocrites. Take a look at your own life, and if you do not see any of your own hypocrisies, you are either unable to see them or not looking hard enough. It's only natural to want an upper hand.
On the Subject of Empathy and Other Important Topics
Empathy is the ability to feel (or imagine that you feel) what others feel. It's the ability to put oneself in another person's shoes. Humans use it all the time, as it's important for a social culture.
However, while people are easily empathetic about "normal" people and people with whose abnormalities they are unaware of, or of people with "acceptable" abnormalities, people often have trouble understanding the perspective of those they discriminate against. They don't stop to consider what life would be like if they were constantly discriminated against.
The problem with this is that where empathy is most needed it is rarely used, and where it's only a passing thought it's often used.
Another related problem which would be very difficult to address is the subject of children and how they treat anyone they decide to pick on. It's quite hard to prevent them from doing it most likely because they lack empathy. Assume that I'm not talking about this subject for the rest of this - young children can pick on you for anything.
There are quite a few groups of people who, because of the way they are or the things they do, are discriminated against or mocked for being that way. Examples include transvestites, homosexuals, transexuals, and to a lesser extent, Jews (search me for a reason, but it's true), and to a lesser extent, people who are not Caucasian. There are other examples which I am either not aware of or do not remember at the moment. Again I'd like to remind any of my (now two) readers that this blog is using the United States as the frame or reference.
I'd like to pause for a moment point out for a moment that Caucasian skin (in general) is more yellow than east Asian skin.
Some/One of you may be asking yourselves/self "what is he getting at?"
The conclusion shouldn't be too hard to reach.
Here's a question: "If I was a currently socially unacceptable/religiously (as in, some major people within your religion are against it, even if the religion in question is not) unacceptable type or person, would my opinion of these people be the same? Is it fair to discriminate against them when I could be in the same situation myself?
Ponder if for a moment, then read on.
If your answer invoked religion, a higher power, or some holy text, then your answer is most likely not what it should be. In that case, I'll add the phrase: "What if I was taught a different religion as a child? Would I still believe in the one which I follow?" Rethink, and if your answer is the same, you aren't thinking about this rationally. If that's the case, then you have a very common and socially acceptable problem which is quite hard to fix.
I've heard/read arguments that some conditions are bad for reproduction or bad for survival and should not be supported because they, if passed on, will be bad for future humans. For example, people with mental retardation have at times been separated from the rest of humanity and even euthanized for being the way they are. The same goes for many different ethnicities.
Yes, standard mental retardation is bad for the gene pool, but it's not as if we select against people with IQs under 80, or 90, or 100, and so forth. Yes, homosexuals and transgenders are less likely to reproduce, but so what? As far as we know, those traits aren't genetic. Yes, some people have darker skin than others, but so what? We (I) have lighter skin than they do, does that make us (me) any better or worse?
If you are willing to argue this for those traits, why not be fair and extend it to every negative trait. For example, how about not producing any corrective lenses for those who benefit from them, and not treating genetic diseases, or using treatments to allow the nearly fertile to reproduce (those with too few sperm to successfully impregnate a woman, etc), and so forth. Wouldn't that drastically improve the gene pool? As a matter of fact, it wouldn't. Almost every single being has traits which are automatically bad for survival, while everyone has traits which are in current contexts bad for survival as well. It's ridiculous to impose sanctions and discriminate against those who possess some traits which don't allow us to reproduce.
Simply put, it's "Treat others the way you want to be treated". Remember that.
However, while people are easily empathetic about "normal" people and people with whose abnormalities they are unaware of, or of people with "acceptable" abnormalities, people often have trouble understanding the perspective of those they discriminate against. They don't stop to consider what life would be like if they were constantly discriminated against.
The problem with this is that where empathy is most needed it is rarely used, and where it's only a passing thought it's often used.
Another related problem which would be very difficult to address is the subject of children and how they treat anyone they decide to pick on. It's quite hard to prevent them from doing it most likely because they lack empathy. Assume that I'm not talking about this subject for the rest of this - young children can pick on you for anything.
There are quite a few groups of people who, because of the way they are or the things they do, are discriminated against or mocked for being that way. Examples include transvestites, homosexuals, transexuals, and to a lesser extent, Jews (search me for a reason, but it's true), and to a lesser extent, people who are not Caucasian. There are other examples which I am either not aware of or do not remember at the moment. Again I'd like to remind any of my (now two) readers that this blog is using the United States as the frame or reference.
I'd like to pause for a moment point out for a moment that Caucasian skin (in general) is more yellow than east Asian skin.
Some/One of you may be asking yourselves/self "what is he getting at?"
The conclusion shouldn't be too hard to reach.
Here's a question: "If I was a currently socially unacceptable/religiously (as in, some major people within your religion are against it, even if the religion in question is not) unacceptable type or person, would my opinion of these people be the same? Is it fair to discriminate against them when I could be in the same situation myself?
Ponder if for a moment, then read on.
If your answer invoked religion, a higher power, or some holy text, then your answer is most likely not what it should be. In that case, I'll add the phrase: "What if I was taught a different religion as a child? Would I still believe in the one which I follow?" Rethink, and if your answer is the same, you aren't thinking about this rationally. If that's the case, then you have a very common and socially acceptable problem which is quite hard to fix.
I've heard/read arguments that some conditions are bad for reproduction or bad for survival and should not be supported because they, if passed on, will be bad for future humans. For example, people with mental retardation have at times been separated from the rest of humanity and even euthanized for being the way they are. The same goes for many different ethnicities.
Yes, standard mental retardation is bad for the gene pool, but it's not as if we select against people with IQs under 80, or 90, or 100, and so forth. Yes, homosexuals and transgenders are less likely to reproduce, but so what? As far as we know, those traits aren't genetic. Yes, some people have darker skin than others, but so what? We (I) have lighter skin than they do, does that make us (me) any better or worse?
If you are willing to argue this for those traits, why not be fair and extend it to every negative trait. For example, how about not producing any corrective lenses for those who benefit from them, and not treating genetic diseases, or using treatments to allow the nearly fertile to reproduce (those with too few sperm to successfully impregnate a woman, etc), and so forth. Wouldn't that drastically improve the gene pool? As a matter of fact, it wouldn't. Almost every single being has traits which are automatically bad for survival, while everyone has traits which are in current contexts bad for survival as well. It's ridiculous to impose sanctions and discriminate against those who possess some traits which don't allow us to reproduce.
Simply put, it's "Treat others the way you want to be treated". Remember that.
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