Wonderfully provocative post (meaning no disregard toward the poor old woman caught in the net of a rhetorical and definitional impasse). Obviously in reference to the line of thought in the “devil’s dilemma” enshrined in the original Bedazzled, and so many magic-wish-fulfillment folk tales, in which there is always a loophole exploited by a counter-force, probably IMO in response to the motive to shortcut certain aspects of reality and its regulatory processes, known or unknown.
It would be interesting to collect real life anecdotes about people who have “gotten what they want,” and end up begging for their old life back, like Dudley Moore’s über-frustrated Stanley Moon trapped in a convent.
I hope this question, ultimately of the relationship of the Part and the Whole, continues to be expressed, especially as relevant to any transhuman enterprise.
Wonderfully provocative post (meaning no disregard toward the poor old woman caught in the net of a rhetorical and definitional impasse). Obviously in reference to the line of thought in the “devil’s dilemma” enshrined in the original Bedazzled, and so many magic-wish-fulfillment folk tales, in which there is always a loophole exploited by a counter-force, probably IMO in response to the motive to shortcut certain aspects of reality and its regulatory processes, known or unknown. It would be interesting to collect real life anecdotes about people who have “gotten what they want,” and end up begging for their old life back, like Dudley Moore’s über-frustrated Stanley Moon trapped in a convent.
I hope this question, ultimately of the relationship of the Part and the Whole, continues to be expressed, especially as relevant to any transhuman enterprise.