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> If you're watching game of thrones, you are watching people kill each other No, you're watching fictional people pretend to kill each other. You would have

> If you're watching game of thrones, you are watching people kill each other No, you're watching fictional people pretend to kill each other. You would have an argument if you used snuff films as an example. And yes, if watching a child being raped is illegal, than watching a real murder should be.

asanagi 11y ago
But simulated CP is illegal too. In many jurisdictions you can get locked away for drawing something on a piece of paper. This is probably what OP is addressing.
logfromblammo 11y ago
You are assuming that just because the prefrontal cortex sometimes knows the difference between reality and fiction, the rest of the brain must as well. If the argument is that seeing murders causes someone to become a murderer, I'm not certain you can exempt fiction. If you outlaw depictions of murder on the presumption that it would lower the actual murder rate, you have to go whole hog. _O \O/ ...meaning this ASCII art of ' |\+-@- one guy stabbing another guy / \ /| with a sword would be illegal. Believing in such suggests that Ludovico's Technique from Clockwork Orange is real, it works, and that humans can be effectively reprogrammed by presenting the appropriate images to the visual cortex and somehow zapping the limbic system, in exactly the same manner that Pavlov's dog was reprogrammed to salivate at the sound of a bell. So where are the televisions that shoot tiny darts of cocaine into its viewers whenever someone is killed on-screen? At least a violent video game provides some virtual reward for virtual murders, such as glowing green stacks of cash, or mission advancement, or some stupid little thing that produces a squirt of dopamine. That part of our brains does not know the difference between reality, dreams, and Hollywood trickery. Certain mirror neurons in the brain will fire whether you are actually doing yoga, thinking about doing yoga, or watching a yoga instructor do yoga. Your reward center doesn't really care if the image is a product of good photography or good GPU rendering. It doesn't even care that it is a 2D image rather than 3D reality. Fortunately, there appears to be no causal link provable flowing from watching something done to doing the depicted act yourself. Instead, it appears that those who are predisposed to do something, or have already decided to do it, will very often model, simulate, and practice that action--using whatever means they have at their disposal--before going on to do it. If any one tool or strategy becomes unavailable, another would be substituted.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > So where are the televisions that shoot tiny darts of cocaine into its viewers whenever someone is killed on-screen? Rather than direct chemical triggers that stimulate the brains reward system ("tiny darts of cocaine"), they typically use other triggers to the reward system, like music. Same effect, less additional machinery.

asanagi 11y ago

But simulated CP is illegal too. In many jurisdictions you can get locked away for drawing something on a piece of paper. This is probably what OP is addressing.

logfromblammo 11y ago

You are assuming that just because the prefrontal cortex sometimes knows the difference between reality and fiction, the rest of the brain must as well. If the argument is that seeing murders causes someone to become a murderer, I'm not certain you can exempt fiction. If you outlaw depictions of murder on the presumption that it would lower the actual murder rate, you have to go whole hog. _O \O/ ...meaning this ASCII art of ' |\+-@- one guy stabbing another guy / \ /| with a sword would be illegal. Believing in such suggests that Ludovico's Technique from Clockwork Orange is real, it works, and that humans can be effectively reprogrammed by presenting the appropriate images to the visual cortex and somehow zapping the limbic system, in exactly the same manner that Pavlov's dog was reprogrammed to salivate at the sound of a bell. So where are the televisions that shoot tiny darts of cocaine into its viewers whenever someone is killed on-screen? At least a violent video game provides some virtual reward for virtual murders, such as glowing green stacks of cash, or mission advancement, or some stupid little thing that produces a squirt of dopamine. That part of our brains does not know the difference between reality, dreams, and Hollywood trickery. Certain mirror neurons in the brain will fire whether you are actually doing yoga, thinking about doing yoga, or watching a yoga instructor do yoga. Your reward center doesn't really care if the image is a product of good photography or good GPU rendering. It doesn't even care that it is a 2D image rather than 3D reality. Fortunately, there appears to be no causal link provable flowing from watching something done to doing the depicted act yourself. Instead, it appears that those who are predisposed to do something, or have already decided to do it, will very often model, simulate, and practice that action--using whatever means they have at their disposal--before going on to do it. If any one tool or strategy becomes unavailable, another would be substituted.

dragonwriter 11y ago
> So where are the televisions that shoot tiny darts of cocaine into its viewers whenever someone is killed on-screen? Rather than direct chemical triggers that stimulate the brains reward system ("tiny darts of cocaine"), they typically use other triggers to the reward system, like music. Same effect, less additional machinery.