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Proud_to_be_SELFISH!

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  1. I'm glad you mentioned this. I felt the same way about this movie (Flight of the Phoenix) while I watched it. Afterwards, I was pretty dissappointed with the predictable plot. One of favorites that has only been listed in one post and has not been given any discussion is Men of Honor. Great story of individual resilience and utter determination to reach a goal. Overall, it is a productive movie. Contact is one of my favorites, too. Others that haven't been mentioned: The Bourne movies. I was very impressed with both Identity and Supremacy. Original plots and a good theme of cleverly fighting for one's right to live. Finding Neverland. Portrays a great sense of life and positive attitude with the ending depicting the inability to escape reality. Office Space. A realistic comedy, almost like Seinfeld. Very funny.
  2. I was looking at it more as a species adopting the philosophy bit by bit than it being passed on generation to generation.
  3. Are we not minimally "programmed" before birth? To say that we are not, is to say that we have no ability to learn or think. By Objectivist principles, I mean the very basics of Reality and Reason. You're right. Sorry about that.
  4. Please, do not tell me what I do and do not assume, thank you. The philosophical profit gained from ARI's operation has nothing to do with this topic. Yes, they gain philosophically, great. But, why not financially as well? I've seen some other posts with answers I was looking for but some contradict eachother.
  5. (Mod's note: Later -- now merged -- topic starts here.) A few weeks back, I took the Jung Typology Test. It's basically a personality profiler. While reading the description of my personality type, INTJ, I noticed that I shared this type with Miss Rand. Does anyone else know their personality type? If not, feel free to take the test linked above, it only takes a few minutes. I know it's probably not an objective test but it's better than any fortune cookie or horoscope I've ever seen. We will probably find that we have very similar personality types according to that test, so the more interesting discussion may be how strong everyone scores in each category. If I remember correctly, I was 89% Introverted, 75% iNtuitive, 100% Thinking, and 44% Judging.
  6. If a species does not evolve to meet the demands of its environment, it will perish. Are you presuming that Objectivism "does not significantly impact the ability to survive as a living entity"?
  7. I go to the University of South Florida, a public school. Recently (since Pope John Paul II died), at the beginning of every class my US History professor gives us a brief update (5 minutes) on the latest pope news. He has never given us any other current events news. My solution was to go to class late and just skip that part of the lecture. Today, I followed my usual routine and arrived about 5 minutes late for class to witness him still discussing the pope situation. It was so bad that he actually had a live video feed (of the chimney) displayed adjacent to our lecture notes. We maybe had 50% of the time in class as normal lecture and 50% was interupted due to false smoke alarms and finally a debate over whether the smoke was black or white. Am I justified in being upset over this matter? Does the election of a new pope have enough significance in American history that it should garner attention in a college US History course or is this another violation of the first amendment in a public school?
  8. 1) Artificial intelligence. An area that I am very interested in, despite the bad name. I was wondering if robots programmed with Objectivist principles would need governing. 2) Evolution. Evolution "weeds out" those species too weak to survive. Since Objectivism equips man with the necessary philosophy for survival, who is to say (at some time in the future) people who adhere to Objectivism will not be the only ones to survive? Most everyone agrees that history teaches us valuable lessons to use in the present. So does the future, if one can predict it properly. (The evolution discussion has been split into a separate thread.. SoftwareNerd)
  9. I meant, why is an organization that promotes profit-seeking individualism for non-profit? Some could view this as hypocrisy. I assume it is just because of some ridiculous anti-profit laws and taxes. And as a result, at the current time, employees are actually able to make more money as a non-profit organization than if they declared a for-profit business. Am I correct in these assumptions?
  10. I was just on the ARI website and I noticed they are a non-profit organization. What's the catch?
  11. No, I meant exactly what I said, "use". The logic behind it is that no force can then be inititiated, in this hypothetical scenario. In this case, "use" and "initiate" are interchangeable. Again, I'm coming at it from a programming mentality. Like I said in my post above, a computer cannot do anything it is not programmed to do. So, no "accidents" could happen. I understand this scenario negates human nature. - That is the key to why government is needed. That was not my question but I have my answer anyways.
  12. Like someone above said, the answer is in "Isn't Everyone Selfish?" by Nathaniel Branden in VoS. Yes, we can do plenty of "somethings" where we have nothing to gain short or long term. Some people have been answering this question by implying that that something is continuous. In that case, wanting to live (a selfish desire) can not be achieved through selflessness. I'm interpreting the question as a single instantaneous decision. Continuously making ill-adviced selfless decisions would lead to self-destruction. The difference is in the Objectivist egoism and Hobbesian egoism. Thomas Hobbes argued that everything one does is selfish because one wants to do it. However, the selfishness of an action is more objectively determined in why one wants to do it.
  13. Sorry I've been gone and thanks to others' responses. I was considering omniscience "knowledge of everything." Also, my approach in this question (which I should have made clear at the beginning) is coming from a computer science major's prospective. Computers (as you know) cannot do anything they are not programmed to do. So, the idea presented would be people essentially "programmed" with reality, reason, rational self-interest and capitalism. I understand this would negate human nature. It teaches me about the philosophy. Again, I was trying to emulate a scenario that I am accustomed to. What is learned from this line of inquiry is that Objectivism has all the necessary tools for an individual's prosperity (like the programming of a computer). A computer programmed with specific instructions executes its tasks perfectly without the need for supervision. I figured out the comedy thing, thanks.
  14. Can you give me an example of a future violation of rights, assuming everyone would be an Objectivist in the future as well? What does omniscience have to do with it? Feel free to ignore the questions, like I said, I'm not completely read on the Objectivist concept of government. The same as every other line of inquiry: to learn. Any comments on the comedy issue? I mean, comedy has to have some truth to it or else it's not funny, but if it were all truth, it wouldn't be funny.
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