Outrageous? Or logical? Does it matter?
Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 3 months ago to Culture
You type: | You see: |
---|---|
*italics* | italics |
**bold** | bold |
While we're very happy to have you in the Gulch and appreciate your wanting to fully engage, some things in the Gulch (e.g. voting, links in comments) are a privilege, not a right. To get you up to speed as quickly as possible, we've provided two options for earning these privileges.
Previous comments... You are currently on page 3.
2: Go ahead.
1: She thinks she's a hen.
2: Get her help.
1: I don't want to.
2: Why not?
1: We need the eggs.
_Star Trek: The Next Generation_ "Measure of a Man"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PMlDidy...
I already have medical powers of attorney filed naming two reasonable people as my surrogates in case I am incapacitated. And - by the way - I am a medical surrogate for a friend...and her husband is not. You can already make sure that the State does not decide - you just have to take extra steps to do so.
The consistent conclusion is that an individual makes these decisions, the State does not. Any single person has the problem you describe (it is not necessary to propose a change in culture for real world examples). The State does set a black-box default for marriage; I do not dispute that. Making a custom to hand-pick a medical surrogate is a process that is currently occurring and which can be extended.
Jan
(NB I would trust my horse over a couple of my ex-boyfriends...!)
Jan
At root, in every society, marriage is always about property and status. (In most societies property defines status. More primitive assignments are rare today and putatively projected to our past.) In our society today, we mask the fact that women are property with religious drapery. Most women take their husband's names. Some hyphenate the families. Only in a rare case - as rare as a man marrying his computer - does a man take his wife's name. (That said, once when I was a teenager and dated a high-powered girl, my mom warned me that if I married that girl, I would be known socially as Mr. Her-Name.)
People have wills and testaments that leave money to their pets. To do that, they have to make arrangements for trusts. Same here. He can marry his computer and make love to her all night long, but who inherits his property? Who cares for the computer when he dies?
Also, marriage implies divorce. In the barbarian ages of the West, we had a tradition called "Morganatic marriage" - known also in other cultures. It comes from the German word "morgen" for "morning." If the bride is not satisfied (ahem) on then wedding night, she can leave the marriage and keep the bride price as her own. Can the computer do that?
I point to _Valentina: Soul in Sapphire_ by Delaney & Stiegler, a science fiction story for our time in which an intelligent self-aware program files iher own incorporation papers electronically and thus achieves personhood.
Just sayin'... if you want to understand this, you have to reason from first principles.
en·gage:
/enˈgāj/verb
verb: engage; 3rd person present: engages; past tense: engaged; past participle: engaged; gerund or present participle: engaging
1. occupy, attract, or involve (someone's interest or attention).
"he plowed on, trying to outline his plans and engage Sutton's attention"
synonyms: capture, catch, arrest, grab, snag, draw, attract, gain, win, hold, grip, captivate, engross, absorb, occupy More
"tasks that engage children's interest"
Load more comments...