#252394 - 23/03/2005 15:36
An exercise from my Psychology class
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addict
Registered: 11/01/2001
Posts: 579
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An exercise from my Psychology class I took years and years ago. I though it was kind of neat it was too-hip.
You are given a Magic box with five buttons on it, each time you press a button it will do something the box can be used five times with the following cavaots.
1. It can not create more magic boxes
2. It can not create life
3. It can not alter perceptions of other people (make XXX fall in love with you or make you ruler of the world etc.)
4. It can’t directly cause death
5. It does exactly what you tell it to do.
I.e. if you pushed button one and asked for a cheese Pizza from Shakies it would make one and you would have four buttons left. If you asked for a lifetime supply of cheese pizza from Shakies it would do that and you would also have four buttons left.
So what you would do.
There are no right or wrong answers but after a week or two I will tell you want my teacher told my class and you might be surprised. If you have already done this exercise please don’t give away the ending.
This exercise has been around in different ways for years and years it has been in movies and books a variant of it was at the end of the Book “the time machine” where he came back and took three books but which books did he take.
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#252395 - 23/03/2005 20:09
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: belezeebub]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3584
Loc: Columbus, OH
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Quote:
It can not create life
Does this mean it can't give you the body of a 25 yr. old forever?
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~ John
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#252396 - 23/03/2005 20:26
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: JBjorgen]
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Registered: 11/01/2001
Posts: 579
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Nope it could give you the body of a 25 year old in fact it could give you the eyes of redford, the shoulders of Mr. Swartzniggar, the legs of rambo and the sholong of king kong (phrase from a movie) but that would still leave you 4 buttons to push.
when I say it can't create life I mean it can't clone 25 jeri ryans to be your love monkies. but you could augment your self or for that matter augment every person in the world, IE Push button and say I wish all the women in the world were 44-26-38 with red hair and green eyes, perfectly tan bodies of a 25 year old. ( the box can't make them love you but it could make them look like that)
Edited by belezeebub (23/03/2005 20:39)
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#252397 - 23/03/2005 20:26
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: JBjorgen]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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<mild shudder>
Who would want to live forever??? Ugh!
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Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs
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#252398 - 23/03/2005 20:33
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: pgrzelak]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 25/08/2000
Posts: 2413
Loc: NH USA
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Very true Mr. Mercury.
I'd use the first button to wish the box out of existance and just skip the dreadfully re-hashed plotlines about wishing.
-Zeke
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#252399 - 23/03/2005 20:49
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: Ezekiel]
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Registered: 11/01/2001
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Wishing the Box destroyed it a valid option.
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#252400 - 23/03/2005 21:00
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: Ezekiel]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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Mr. Mercury? Oh. Yes. Uh, not an intentional reference to either Queen or anything Highlander.
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Paul Grzelak
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#252402 - 24/03/2005 16:16
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: belezeebub]
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old hand
Registered: 17/01/2003
Posts: 998
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I always like the old Twilight Zone episode where a lady (I think) was given a magic box with one button on it. She would get a million dollars if she pressed the button. However, when she pressed it someone she did not know and would never meet would die. She opened the box, nothing inside, did some soul searching (for 20 minutes, lots of filler in old Twilight Zones), and then finally pressed the button. As soon as she did the door bell rang and the guy was standing there with a million dollars. He then took the box and said it would be reset and then would be given to...... "someone she did not know and would never meet ." ... do, do,do dooo....
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#252403 - 24/03/2005 21:48
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: Redrum]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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There was a variation on this with a husband and wife. They were told that the person that died would not be someone that the presser knew. The husband would not press it and told his wife that they would give the box back. His wife pressed it, person shows up reporting the husband dead and that his insurance policy came in. She, horrified asked why someone she knew died. The reply was "Did you really know your husband?"...
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Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs
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#252404 - 24/03/2005 22:33
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: pgrzelak]
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enthusiast
Registered: 31/05/2002
Posts: 352
Loc: santa cruz,ca
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1. an invisible protective bubble that would protect all children from harm and abuse
2. a glowing icon (ala 'the sims') would float over any (all) corrupt, lying, sack of muck politicians / leaders.
3. the ability to communicate with animals.
4. a new and improved spine to replace my old and busted one.
5. less spam.
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#252405 - 24/03/2005 22:35
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: lastdan]
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addict
Registered: 02/08/2004
Posts: 434
Loc: Helsinki, Finland
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I wish for a new button to appear after every button I press.
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#252406 - 25/03/2005 00:45
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: belezeebub]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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Quote:
and say I wish all the women in the world were 44-26-38 with red hair and green eyes, perfectly tan bodies of a 25 year old. ( the box can't make them love you but it could make them look like that)
I'd bet something like that would be sure to generate the opposite.
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Glenn
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#252407 - 25/03/2005 02:03
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: Redrum]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2858
Loc: Atlanta, GA
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Quote:
He then took the box and said it would be reset and then would be given to...... "someone she did not know and would never meet ." ... do, do,do dooo....
Ok, that's an awesome story. Wish I'd seen it- thanks for sharing.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
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#252408 - 25/03/2005 11:03
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: JeffS]
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old hand
Registered: 17/01/2003
Posts: 998
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Around the holidays the Sci-fi channel sometimes plays Twilight Zone marathons and runs all the old episodes. I think there’s like 56 of them. The old black and white one’s are the best. Once they went to color all their budget must have went into the color cameras because every other aspect of the shows sucked.
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#252409 - 25/03/2005 13:28
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: petteri]
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addict
Registered: 11/01/2001
Posts: 579
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Quote:
I wish for a new button to appear after every button I press.
Sorry that falls under the box can't make more boxes option.
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#252410 - 25/03/2005 13:34
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: belezeebub]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14493
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
Quote:
I wish for a new button to appear after every button I press.
Sorry that falls under the box can't make more boxes option.
No, this wish should work just fine.
If the person wants to sit there pushing a button forever with no net effect, then why not?
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#252411 - 25/03/2005 13:37
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: mlord]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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I don't know. You'd start to get a lot of buttons. And there'd not really be any guarantee where those buttons would appear.
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#252412 - 25/03/2005 14:20
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: belezeebub]
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addict
Registered: 11/01/2001
Posts: 579
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Well this has been fun but its time to let the cat out of the bag, just like the last time I did this and just like in class no one pressed a button and wished to make enough food to feed the hungry or enough meds to cure the sick or even a clean burning source of energy. just about every single button was ME ME ME ME ME and only ME.
I personally wished for a Car a home and a trillion dollars so I fell for the same Id complex as most humans do back when I first did this lession.
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#252414 - 25/03/2005 14:54
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: belezeebub]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12338
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Quote:
and just like in class no one pressed a button and wished to make enough food to feed the hungry or enough meds to cure the sick
Well, there was this one:
Quote:
1. an invisible protective bubble that would protect all children from harm and abuse
2. a glowing icon (ala 'the sims') would float over any (all) corrupt, lying, sack of muck politicians / leaders.
I think the second would end up helping humanity even more than the first. We'd get a lot done if we could get the bullsh*tters out of the way.
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#252415 - 25/03/2005 15:23
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: belezeebub]
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Registered: 11/01/2001
Posts: 579
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There were no right or wrong answers, like I said fifteen plus years ago when I did this I wanted much the same as everyone else, after we had to explain our button pushes in front of the class the teacher took a entire class to basically rip us apart for being so selfish I felt about three inches tall but he did in his overbearing way have a point.
My selfish wishes
1. A house on a hill with quad T-3 lines and a helicopter landing pad so I could fly into town hop in my truck do what I needed to do then fly home and never be bothered by other people.
2. The Money of course.
3. Ahh the truck it was a lifted black Suburban with eighteen 21” Polidex subs woofers with 10000 watts each Arranged on an amiable pivotal configuration like “Stalin’s organ” so I could Point it at people that annoyed me and blow them out of my way with a Wall of sound.
I forget what my last two where but some of the ones I remember from class were
1. Endless beer keg
2. Mile Long Joint
3. Aphrodisiac that really worked.
Etc…
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#252416 - 25/03/2005 15:50
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: bonzi]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
Although even obvious 'ethical' wishes need to be thorougly though out: should we wish just for cure for all diseases or go for immortality (with obvious implication of either overpopulation or stopping having children); for universal cornucopia or for a fair way to earn one (does not having to work lead to decadence, whatever one wants to mean by that) etc?
Yeah, I think an important part of being a god (which is what the box basically allowed) is knowing when to let go. The atheist messiah at the centre of the book Good Omens says something like "I could have 'saved the whales', but on the whole it's better if people learn that if they kill a whale, they've got a dead whale". If through civil wars, corruption, squandering of natural resources, etc., people end up in poverty, and then a god with a box comes along and clears it up, nobody's learned anything, and even if the problem of poverty stays divinely solved (infinite pizzas), the mindset that caused it will go on to cause other problems. Curing disease sounds like a more benevolent thing to do, though I bet the overwhelming majority of humankind's deaths from disease are from curable ones, and anyway if I'm not allowed to directly cause death I can't kill bacteria and viruses (though I guess I could render them sterile). "Curing" mortality does not sound like a benevolent thing to do.
The one thing I thought about wishing for was a solution to something we can't already solve for ourselves: blueprints for a starship, as a hedge against the finite resources of the single planet we currently occupy. But perhaps until we've sorted ourselves out a bit more (and I'm not allowed to directly change opinions), it's not the action of a benevolent god to unleash us on the rest of the universe.
Peter
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#252417 - 25/03/2005 15:53
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: belezeebub]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 25/08/2000
Posts: 2413
Loc: NH USA
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I don't think my wishing the box out of existence benefitted me in any way. It didn't benefit anyone else either, so I don't think my response falls under either category, it was niether selfish nor benevolent.
-Zeke
ps: That people are primarily selfish is an insight? So what? Who doesn't know that? That's why capitalism works - harness the power of 'Me' motivation. What's more powerful than that? Anyway, that's the start of a whole other thread, so I'll just leave it at that.
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#252419 - 25/03/2005 16:28
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: Ezekiel]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 13/09/1999
Posts: 2401
Loc: Croatia
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Quote:
That people are primarily selfish is an insight? So what? Who doesn't know that?
I don't know, Zeke... I think that this board shows that altruism has its moments, too (unless we consider satisfaction derived from a neat hack or FAQ used by a nice bunch of users also selfish, a notion that perhaps could be defended...) 
Quote:
That's why capitalism works
Well, kind of. Although it only had to show itself superior to travesties widely regarded as communist because they called themselves so. But, as you say, that's the matter of an entirely different thread.
FWIW, in fantasies like that one I usually with for myself the power (financial, if no other is available) to right the world's wrongs. Obviously, I don't think that the adage 'power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely' applies to me  .
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#252420 - 25/03/2005 17:02
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: bonzi]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 25/08/2000
Posts: 2413
Loc: NH USA
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Quote:
Quote:
That people are primarily selfish is an insight? So what? Who doesn't know that?
I don't know, Zeke... I think that this board shows that altruism has its moments, too (unless we consider satisfaction derived from a neat hack or FAQ used by a nice bunch of users also selfish, a notion that perhaps could be defended...)
Well, that'd be my argument from a psyche-101 type standpoint  No, I'm not really that jaded...but there is a kernel of truth to that, if one expands the definition of 'benfit' wide enough to include one's own feelings of self worth. But I'm not one to argue such things; to misquote Bones: "Dammit Jim, I'm an engineer not a psychologist!"
Of course one could also make the argument that my 'wish away' wish was really just a selfish desire not to get into ridiculous life-altering wishes, if one had the desire to push the issue...
In the end though I really do believe that almost everyone's hard wired for self interest as a matter of genetic survival. That said, we and the other social mammals have developed this lovely layer on top of that which involves direct and indirect reciprocity which we house-apes call civilization, which I quite enjoy.
-Zeke
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#252422 - 25/03/2005 17:17
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: belezeebub]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2858
Loc: Atlanta, GA
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As I was thinking this through, my first thoughts were about things I wanted- healing for my wife, the chance to play music for a living etc. Then I paused and said, "wow, that's really selfish." So I started thinking of more universal things. I suppose I got the point of the exercise, which is to drive home how selfish I am. I mean, I know it intellectually, but I don't always realize it practially.
Not a shocking realization, but it illustrates a good point nonethelss.
Of course, if Ayn Rand had taken this test her response would probably be, "Exactly- now you're getting it!"
Jeff
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
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#252423 - 25/03/2005 17:25
Re: An exercise from my Psychology class
[Re: bonzi]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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I personally have seen too many Twilight Zone episodes and read too many books involving badly phrased and destructive wishes. I only had three (1 selfish, 1 semi-useful, 1 defensive)...
a) Financial. I wish that any time I need to pay for anything that I can reach into whatever pocket or pack I have at the time and pull out the amount in cash (exact change and the appropriate currency) for that purchase for as long as I live. [This way, I avoid tax worries, theft worries, but still live and travel comfortably without having to worry about working for the rest of my life.]
b) Altruistic. I wish I had the power that once a day I could deliberately (not accidentally) touch anyone (including myself, if necessary) and heal whatever sickness they might have for as long as I live. [Doing a little good along the way, hopefully, or if I choose or need to heal an injury.]
c) I wish the box destroyed, so that other people would not do harm with it. [This thing is dangerous!!!]
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Paul Grzelak
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