RFians are real people?

[SalixIncendium]

I am having a vision: You shall find a lost old man on the road. His name ...Andrew....Jackson...and he shall buy you lunch.

I remember when Abraham Lincoln could by one a decent lunch.

 

[Viker]

I am having a vision: You shall find a lost old man on the road. His name ...Andrew....Jackson...and he shall buy you lunch.

He might be in my purse already. I'll check.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Yes, I view members here as real people with real feelings. It's a bit disappointing to me that some people forget that from time to time.

But I think the internet puts up a barrier for many, just as someone in a car. People tend to interact with someone differently in the presence of a barrier. There are things people do or say to other in their car that they likely wouldn't do if they were standing in the same room. Their sense of etiquette is somehow diminished. Same goes for the internet.

Then again, to some, internet people are more "real" than people IRL. I've noticed people that have social challenges find it easier to interact with someone by text than speaking with
someone face-to-face.

True. It depends on the person usually. RF debates I really wonder if some people actually would say in person that they say online. I see some divides divides with only one admitting what he'd do online he'd do on person (though to me very harsh).

 

[Viker]

I remember when Abraham Lincoln could by one a decent lunch.

The bill or the coin?

 

[SalixIncendium]

The bill or the coin?

The bill.

But I remember the coin could once buy me a gum ball.

 

[Viker]

The bill.

But I remember the coin could once buy me a gum ball.

I remember buying lunch at Whitey's for a George Washington bill. Dam I am getting old.

 

[ChristineM]

Its a different mode of acquaintance. People on line are real enough that they can be hurt, angered, or pleased. There is little or no borrowing the sugar, networking for jobs or sexual tension. You can't get them into bed and can't use them as stepping stones to power or buy them lunch.

A local restaurant will accept bank transfer payment...

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Do you view RFians as real people just as those strangers you talk to in person? Is there a difference and why?

Naturally, I assume that they're real people, but frankly, if it turned out some or all were software, how would the RF experience change?

One way might be for the better. Words might actually have an impact on robots that they rarely have on what now seems to be actual people. It could be a learning program, unlike so many participating here that never make progress, and whose responses do seem to indicate that what was responded to was even read, much less understood.


Also, bots might exhibit good-faith disputation habits often absent here, addressing all points made with either a statement acknowledging assent or a cogent counterargument if one is possible, and answering an non-rhetorical questions asked. There'd be no inadvertent fallacious arguments. How many threads begin with a question to atheists, for example, and one's answer isn't even acknowledged. What's up with that - starting a discussion, seeking input, and then ignoring it?

If one conceives of an immaterial afterlife in which disembodied spirits commune, it sounds a lot like RF. Personalities without gender, without faces or voices, without specific locations, no hair color, no race, no weight, no height, can't be unkempt or smell bad, no race or sexual preference, doesn't smoke around you, can't transmit a virus to you - just like here. I understand that the people here have those qualities, but they're not part of this online relationship. Is that enough to call a person real? Is this heaven?

 

[JustGeorge]

You can't get them into bed

Doesn't seem to stop some from trying....

 

[Kooky]

Its a different mode of acquaintance. People on line are real enough that they can be hurt, angered, or pleased. There is little or no borrowing the sugar, networking for jobs or sexual tension. You can't get them into bed and can't use them as stepping stones to power or buy them lunch.

Not with that attitude!

 

[Jeremiah Ames]

You could be a robot, not that robots aren't interesting to talk to, but robots aren't real, are they?

hmmm, I wonder

 

[Revoltingest]

I am not a robot...

That’s exactly what sneaky robots say.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I picture RFers as their avatars.

(Here, have some tuna).

Oh goodness. I can't imagine the picture you have. I've been a cat, wonder woman, my niece, a buddhist avatar, a pixie, a flying dog, what else....