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I find myself utterly torn on stuff like this. I don't know about in this particular case but I think about cases like Ottilie Assing who had her entire (metic
by freedomben 3y ago
I find myself utterly torn on stuff like this. I don't know about in this particular case but I think about cases like Ottilie Assing who had her entire (meticulously preserved) collection of letters destroyed on her death. There were countless historical treasures in there that were entirely lost to history. Correspondence with important contemporary people, and entire stories that will just never be known. Frederick Douglass is probably the most significant figure involved, but she corresponded with countless leaders in the abolition, feminism, and religious freedom movements, including leaders of states.
The humanity behind the romantics was so obscured because of their careful crafting of their images, and a loss like that is impossible to even fathom. I'm sure she was in her opinion protecting people, but from this futuristic vantage point where we recognize the humanity in people, the human connection and loss from such willful destruction is painful to contemplate, and everybody involved is long dead.
If a friend of mine asked me to destroy their unpublished work I would, but I would probably hate myself for doing it.
- vasco 3y agoLets say you could take someone's remains and boot them up in a laptop and peruse all their memories from when they were living. Accept for a minute this piece of science fiction, but let's say the technology was there, it would just be about respecting or not the dead person's privacy. The ethics to me sound similar, if wishes are clearly known or can be inferred by a standard of reasonableness (like in the case of memories), I think the person's privacy trumps society's curiosity.
- freedomben 3y agoThanks this is a great thought experiment! It does seem like a great reductio ad absurdum since the collection of papers/correspondence is merely a subset of the life's worth of memories. I find myself being repulsed at this intrusion/invasion of privacy, so I am (as I suspected) very torn and inconsistent on this one.
- vonjuice 3y agoI think more than curiosity, in a case like this, it's the matter of the artistic merit. I don't think the sons would have published this if they didn't feel it was worth doing so. Good Black Mirror premise tho.