Are Any Of Your Interested/fascinated By Sociopaths?

I dunno... really the whole phrase the brain is like a computer seems to reek of Western cultural bias. If not simply due to longevity and complexity, it seems like it'd be much more appropriate and humble to say computers are like brains and try to figure out the similarities from there.


I'm not really following what you are saying about the exact state of every system describing it's determinism. To me, and I hope I'm way off base with this analogy, that's like saying if we knew every play that was ran in a football game, we could figure out who the winner is! Yah? And? The event has already occurred, what's the point? I also don't see how this is necessarily predictive for future games either.

 

i think software might reach a level of complexity where it appears more and more unpredictable leading to the illusion that they might thats something that would probably be referred to as a mysterious bug .. or more aptly an unintended feature.

 

if A shares similarities with B, then must not B share similarities with A? you can predict the weather with algorithms ... the more variables that are known the greatervthe accuracy. also small pertubations in an unstable system can cause large effects downstream ... a butterfly halfway around the world flapping its wings can add just the right amount of energy to cause a hurricane.

 

unintended....so that would be random chaos and no predictable pattern.....
i may have all of these intentions and plans...but then a tree falls down on me or something and end of my determination...unpredictable unintended random chaos would interfere....which had nothing to do with my self determination.....so really no one has that much control...or was that tree intended to fall on me from day one of my birth, so it was a pattern already set?

 

Regarding the butterfly effect taken literally...

http://www.livescience.com/17455-butterfly-effect-weather-prediction.html

 

no, i dont believe in that sort of 17th century style determinism, not in a strict sense (though this may be the case). i do however believe that despite what plans you may have, some unexpected event such as a tree falling in your path can change the entire course of your life in ways that arent immediately obvious ... or would it had been that way all along and werent aware of the event until it occurred. it gets tricky discussing such things.

 

okay, i wont argue with that since im not really qualified to ... however, i think you'll agree that in a general sense, a system in an unstable state can be set into a new state by small pertubations of which pinning down the origins of is non-trivial.

 

Yes, I know.....
so we won't....lol
and I am tired anyway.....
so am I even making sense anymore.....

 

Yah I'd likely agree with that in many instances, I'm having a difficult time applying it to consciousness and the themes discussed in the op. As Irm mentions, enviornmental influences clearly play a role but then many people experience some of those variables and don't turn out to kill people and eat their flesh.

I'm not completely comfortable with notion of like the combination of chidlhood trauma and some undeveloped serotonin receptors or something, leading to under-developed empathy or such is fully explanatory either.

Again, I think the perplexing behavior of some serial killers is what is fascinating. I don't think the public attempts to celebrate these people, eventhough that is kind of an indirect effect with the publicity they get but there are so many questions left open in regards to their neurochemistry, socialization, trauma, enviornment etc. I think many point to controlled, patterned, deterministic, qualities in behavior which is often expressed on some levels of serial killers but the particular manner it is expressed is often outlandish and does not seem proportiante to any means of measuring their behavior we can understand.

 

i wonder about what exactly these people feel when they commit such sick attrocities. i would not do such things because if i did what i would feel would be profoundly negative for an array of reasons. i wonder if we can really even relate to their frame of mind or emotions at all? what would it be like to be one of these psychopaths?

 

The title says sociopaths, but I think we're talking more about psychopaths.

I heard the psychopathic murderers fall into two groups. Those who wish to exert power over others by killing etc.
And those who get some sort of sexual thrill out of it.

Sociopaths are more about charm, smarm and manipulating social situations.
I suppose just as killing/swordsmanship may have been a major currency in medieval times, you could argue social interaction is a big currency today.

I knew an actual sociopath. A big group of use used to meet up. He always tried to arrange these gatherings, often for different events.
The group was really several subgroups who werent necessarily friends with each other. Anyway, he developed this wacko habit of trying to portray himself as the "leader". Trying to call the shots, and then being disrespectful to members of the group he couldn't milk in some way.

It soon became really tiresome, not least because despite his tantrums you could see that he was actually rather social INept, not adept.
One day he tried it with me, so I just got bored and went for the jugular. I told him he had a shit job, shit life, a shit baldey combover haircut that wouldn't even fool a spastic, that most of his friends think he is a prick, and that he only ever managed to pull fat pigs... off the Internet. I didn't say it out of anger, just out of boredom with how pathetic he'd become. So I said it all in a quiet, laid back voice and manner. I'd also found out he was attracted to kids (altho as far as I know, he never did anything).
He actually still wanted to be friends with me after I gave him both barrels. However, I declined the request and gave him a couple more "impartial observations".

I think its good to be aware of how psychopaths and sociopaths operate. And how to deal with them.

 

I agree. I find it interesting too. I'd watch video after video about them lol
And yes, I don't support the actions the did either.

 

I think the real fascination stems with a fascination with ourselves. To confront the serial killer is to confront one's own mortality and one's own constitution in the face of that mortality. For me that's all it boils down to, but I steer clear from reading or watching serial killers because I really don't want to have memories of their rubbish popping into my head.

 

BTK is one of the creepiest killers to me - he wore his mask very well. He didn't go home after a kill and sleep with a corpse or go home to his mom in some weird twisted Freudian relationship, and he didn't live alone. He went home and played with his kids and made love to his wife and they had no idea who he really was.

 

He also had stady jobs and worked at a church. People had NO idea.

 

I know a guy who has a total fascination with serial killers.
He's actually one of the nicest people I know.

One day, someone caused him a problem and he set about exacting quite a ... robust reply.
He never carried the plan out. But you have to wonder, does a serial type killer rest inside more people than we commonly believe?

 

That's slightly disturbing Pengu...

 

I do have a interest in people and body language but especially behavioural types.
Sociopaths for me are more of an interest than psychopaths. For me as a ex soldier I find it hard to accept that a person can have no thought or take responsibility for there actions and have no moral compass.

 

Here is a short video of one of the programs I have watched before on tv....Killer describes some gory details of his murders, so warning to those who would be disturbed by this...

all of neuroscience fascinates me....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6WASU4-2jU

 

My feeling to above video is not to exonerate killers, but for early prevention and intervention...that is why i said earlier...know your children...know their souls.....know them inside and out......this is my hope for neuro science and these killers to prevent it......but poverished families.....with abuse going on....will not be as astute, i fear.....

i would never want to feel what it is like to be these people with these brains for some of them. i don't think every killer has a lacking brain...either.

as a small child i accidentally stepped on a small turtle I had and realized it had cracked its shell on the underside slightly....i was about 5.....my father told me it was going to die because of what i did....by accident......and I was inconsolible over it for a very long time...i even had nightmares about it years later.....and feeling the way I did over the poor little turtle was bad enough to ever know anything more.