BewilderedKat 16h ago

Hypothetical Scenario: You are going about your day and you come across someone basically naked, covered in mud, looking a bit frightened and seemingly, well *you*

They would be acting like how you might act if you came-to covered in nothing but mud and watching a (probably) clothed version of you cautiously approaching.

They have some memory loss and can't remember much from say, the past few weeks, but everything else is there.

What would you do? Like actually envision this happening, look at yourself in the mirror if you have to.

Assuming you help get them cleaned up, clothed, fed, etc. What do you think that situation will feel like? Would you be asking about memories to get a feel for how those line up? What if they remember more things than you?

How will this situation proceed? And what does your reaction tell you about who you are as a person? How does your reaction from the other perspective tell you about yourself?

What are some of the differences in how you wish it might go vs how it would be most likely to go?

I'm hoping for a sincere #Discussion and welcome anyone to reply   

#WhatIf #Imitosis #SelfReflection #MusingsOfAKat #KatQs

Show threadrecursive 🏳️‍🌈16h ago
@h3mmy It it implied that I would recognize this person as basically a copy of me, or is part of the scenario whether or not I would?
Show threadBewilderedKat 16h ago

@recursive
I feel that part of the scenario is definitely whether or not you would.

What actions would you take upon encountering this individual? Would you invite them into your home to help get them cleaned up? How would you decide that they are you? Is it enough to be convinced that they are you and share most of your memories? Etc.

Show threadrecursive 🏳️‍🌈

@h3mmy Yeah. This is really leading me to think about some uncomfortable moral questions of how I approach care for others vs maintaining resources and safety for myself

I think I was taught a lot of ambitious moral principles growing up, and yet in the realities of our present society, it's hard to live up to many of those principles without great self-sacrifice, and thus I find it challenging to *appropriately* extend help to others under the system of morality I was taught

This really connects with a lot of the kind of "discernment" I think I've been learning while doing therapy the past few years -- How do I *choose* correct action as a mature adult instead of merely engaging in a simplistic set of childish feelings of "I should"?

A lot of my own care of myself vis-a-vis neurodivergence and trauma has been bootstrapped by asserting that it is axiomatic that I am worthy of that care from myself, it is a useful belief

I would like to give that kind of care to anyone. But it's not easy to do in a society that's so against it that often doing so may detract from the care of oneself. I think that someone who is a clone of me would be pretty nifty and I would be more *interested* in them, but what part of my resources in life deserve to be allocated to those who I find interesting vs people in general?

(This isn't even getting to the problem of "we treat people as 'safe' based on some pretty shoddy similarity heuristics")

3:12amWeb
Show threadBewilderedKat 1h ago

@recursive
I definitely understand the conflict around the care for others vs the self. It's difficult to think through.

And the morality is complicated by the fact that this person is by all indications 'you' so they understand how you're approaching the situation. But additionally letting someone with your fingerprints and genetic information and memories run around with animosity is a potential liability for many folks.

Feel free to not answer this one, but have you been working on figuring out how you're feeling about something vs what you have been conditioned to feel? At least for questions that require some sort of spoon allocation? I ask because I feel this is a rather common thing amongst the neurospicy folks I talk to, and almost all them have framed it in different ways.

Re: "what part of my resources deserve to be allocated..."

I feel like the underlying question there is who gets to decide what counts towards "deserving." Is that right?

Show threadrecursive 🏳️‍🌈48m ago
@h3mmy Yes, this is a thing I think about often and don't yet have any good answers for, beyond "it's probably healthier for me to do things because I want to than because I 'should', because in my experience I want to do fairly good things anyway"