Questions tagged [morality]
Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour, i.e.: a particular system of values and principles of conduct; or, the extent to which an action is right or wrong.
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Short story with anthropomorphic rats, deadly addictive drug, noir crime setting: Spoiler alert
Seeking a pre-1980 (I believe) fantasy short story about crime and redemption. It’s written in the style of a gritty police procedural with the moral overtones of a classic detective story. The drug ...
user160795
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Science fiction book about some people who were mutants due to an environmental hazard
I read a story in the '80s (not sure when it was written) about some people who were mutants due to an environmental hazard. People ate black eggs from bubble-eyed goldfish to get high. I think the ...
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Story where words are banned
I am trying to find a story I read many years ago wherein, some time in the future, students wanted to put on a Shakespearean play but the censors found so many words had been banned and for disparate ...
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How did SCP-3848 affect human morality?
I was reading the SCP Foundation wiki as well as TVTropes and read about the interesting story of the ED-K-Class Lethe Scenario: a scenario where a memetic phenomenon called scp-3848 causes people to ...
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Do any empaths or telepaths in Star Trek follow a code of conduct?
In Star Trek: The Next Generation there are multiple species who can, to various degrees, read the mind and/or emotions of other beings. This brings up a host of privacy concerns, and this question ...
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Story about robots and their ethics and how they behave on a raft with room for one
Looking for a comic satirical robot-themed story from the 70s or earlier that took place at a British university. An ethics professor built a robot to solve the problem of ethical behavior when you ...
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Name of a short story from a "Years best Sci-fi collection"
I read it a few years back. The main theme of the story was that in the deep future, man has moved onto space ships completely and evolved further to a gravity free environment, having 4 hands and no ...
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Why not just steal a T14 hyperdrive generator?
I’m somewhat regrettably rewatching the Phantom Menace and it occurs to me that Qui Gon has no compunction over Force-ing Watto into selling a T14 hyperdrive generator for (worthless) Republic credits....
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What exactly is the Ancients' policy regarding intervention?
Context
We learn the ascended won't interfere in the affairs of mortals.
Daniel Jackson ascends with Oma Desala as his guide. Soon afterward, the system lord Anubis appears after what has been a long ...
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Did Captain Janeway commit human rights violations?
In Star Trek: Voyager Season 2 Episode 24, "Tuvix", there was an accident that following an away mission to collect some orchid samples. Only one molecular pattern rematerialized, and formed a healthy ...
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Superman's Morality: Has the idea that his morals are in a sense also super been discussed?
Throughout the years, Superman has been sorely tested by some very bad humans and aliens but afaik, the number of times he had taken life has been very few and there has always been an extraordinary ...
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Lost SF Short-Story, Solitary Human Explorer, too powerful to act. Alien POV
This is ultimately a rather dark story.
It involves a solitary human explorer on an alien planet.
The human has an alien as an assistant, or he is helping the alien to travel
somewhere through tunnels....
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Why is being an unregistered animagus against the law?
The wizarding world also has invisibility cloaks, disillusionment charms and polyjuice potions - using those a wizard can also disguise himself. All of those seem legal. An unregistered animagus, ...
user68762
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Did any Jedi question the ethics of having a clone army?
We have questioned the rationality of accepting a clone army without supervision but I'm more interested in the moral choice.
It's already difficult to me to let pass the fact that they let slavery ...
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How Do Superheroes Inspire People Exactly? [closed]
It seems that superheroes will often say that their main goal is not to fight for justice themselves but rather to be an example of virtue and "inspire people" so that the job of the superhero becomes ...
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Was there an in-universe discussion of super-hypnotism and ethics?
So, a bit ago I ran across a question on Superman's secret identity, where one of the answers reminded me of that ability known as super-hypnotism.
If I recall correctly, the power was 'discovered' ...
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Would Batman have committed genocide and killed his friends to gain victory?
In Superman/Batman Apocalypse:
Batman arms the hellspores and issues Darkseid an ultimatum: Release Kara, or he'll let them destroy Apokolips. As Batman was separated from the other heroes, and ...
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Were there any "good" Separatist military leaders?
In Heroes on Both Sides as well as other works, we see that there are "good" Separatist politicians who genuinely believe the Separatist cause will improves the lives of the general population and don'...
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Title/author of a short story about time travel/teleportation, ethics, death, washed out bridge
Likely I read this story in OMNI Magazine or Isaac Asimov magazine in high school (1981-1985). I remember it involved people either travelling through time or teleporting but ethically they were not ...
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Did Regina rape Graham?
One of the creators of the TV series Once Upon a Time seems to suggest that Regina didn't rape Graham. I know the creators have the final say over what the characters intended, thought and did, but ...
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Do droids know they inflict pain?
Related to this question about whether droids feel pain, I'd like to ask the inverse.
In Star Wars, especially the prequel trilogy we see droids kills, maim or hurt people. In one case even meet this ...
user20155
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Why didn't Flamel make more than one Philosopher's Stone?
In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, Harry Potter plans to use the Philosopher's Stone to guarantee immortality for everyone. (Yes, ambitious goal, dreams are free, etc etc...)
Obviously, ...
user32390
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Word of God on the murder of Tuvix
The Star Trek Voyager episode "Tuvix" dealt with a transporter accident that took two people and merged them into a unique lifeform, shown to be sentient and sapient and healthy. At the end, he ...
user16696
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Extinction/resurrection story
Please help me identify this story.
A woman wakes up in the wilderness, with no one else around. She has no idea why. That night, the answer comes to her in a dream: Humanity is extinct, but she ...
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Do Batman's "scare tactics,” used when gaining information from criminals, ever cross into torture?
A large part of Batman’s persona is the fear it strikes into enemies’ hearts. For example, a costume resembling a bat was chosen so that criminals would be afraid of him. There have been times when ...
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Would Luke Skywalker be considered a war criminal? [closed]
If the Death Star was the size of a small moon, I think it's safe to assume there were hundreds of thousands- if not millions of individuals stationed inside. Does this make Luke a war criminal, ...
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Has Captain America ever been completely in the wrong?
While watching people pick loyalties in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, some (a tiny bit) of the tension gets lost because of an easy litmus test: if Captain America objects to it, it's wrong. ...
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Is there a way to reconcile Janeway's behaviour after having left the anomalous void?
In the Voyager episode 7x15, Voyager is sucked into an anomaly known as The Void (not to be confused with the region of space of the same name). The point of the episode is to show that ideals can be ...
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Relative morality among aliens: human individualism vs insect collectivism vs hedonism
I once came across an online science fiction story dealing with the relativity of morality.
In it, humans on an interstellar mission come across a kind of insectoid species with crystaline bodies (if ...
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Book from the 70s: Battle/Balance between Light/Sun and Moon/Dark?
I remember reading a book in the 70s, so it could be YA. It is set on modern-day Earth, and the story is about a boy. His mother is sick (maybe cancer?) and he is socially awkward, so he doesn't ...
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What are the goals of the Jedi?
Are the goals of the Jedi ever clearly defined? From what I understood from the movies, they are dual -
To fight against the Dark Side.
To support the Senate.
However, these goals can be ...
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What's the difference between the Light side and the Dark side of the Force?
We know that Dark side is linked to emotion like fear and anger, but the interesting point here is the between line the two side of the force.
As an example, what make Mind tricks a "acceptable" ...
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Does any science-fiction handle the ethics of teleportation ("kill and clone")? [closed]
There are various ideas behind teleportation but the top two seem to be:
Disassemble someone and transport the exact person (matter / energy) to a new location and reassemble.
Clone someone at a new ...
