| How can an empathic species kill so easily? | |
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by penny
» Wed Jan 03, 2024 10:42 pm
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penny
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I do not expect this to end up being a long winded thread. But this has always been in the back of my mind.
I do not view Treecats as psychopaths, but how can an empathic species kill so easily and not be affected by what the victim is feeling? They must be able to turn their empathy off during attacks. .
. . The artist formerly known as cthia. Now I can talk in the third person. |
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by tlb
» Thu Jan 04, 2024 12:02 am
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tlb
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We know that when Honor came back from Hades, her empathetic senses were too strong and she gradually managed to learn how to turn down the "volume". That has to be how the cats manage, as you said. They can give full attention to those that interest them and pay no attention to those that don't (except to check for threats). |
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by Daryl
» Thu Jan 04, 2024 6:06 am
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Daryl
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About 50 to 60 years ago I earned money hunting to part pay for my time at University. Now of course, I have kangaroos and such coming up to my houseyard fence, and would be appalled to see them shot. I don't need to harvest them now. Our moral perameters do adjust to our circumstances.
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by ThinksMarkedly
» Thu Jan 04, 2024 10:58 am
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ThinksMarkedly
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First, treecats don't usually kill other People or two-legs. Only those treecats who've already been damaged or who may have a further incentive (such as protecting one's clan and kin) would do that. Treecats usually prey upon non-sentient animals, who don't have a powerful mindglow.
Second, the two-legs that the treecats have clearly killed have either been because the former had ill-intent or because the treecat was protecting someone. During the Maccabeus assault, Nimitz was driven by both. Third, treecats probably rationalise well the problem and feel little guilt over doing the right thing. If that was an enemy they slew, then good riddance. If instead they killed by mistake or accident, then it was an accident and they should suffer punishment or penance for it. |
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by Joat42
» Thu Jan 04, 2024 12:07 pm
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Joat42
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Your question is framed from a human context. The cats are predators that happens to be telepathic and even predators have empathy because otherwise they wouldn't have a social structure to rear their young. A species that doesn't have a social interactions/structure and empathy in some form is an extinct species.
--- Jack of all trades and destructive tinkerer. Anyone who have simple solutions for complex problems is a fool. |
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by penny
» Thu Jan 04, 2024 4:51 pm
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penny
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Your post makes me question it even more. I don't just speak from a human context, but from a higher intelligence context. And Treecats are on a par with humans when it comes to intelligence. And even Treecats speak against the mindless killing that hexapumas do. Sure, Treecats are a predatory species, and so too are humans. Humans are at the top of the food chain. But as humans, we speak of murder -- or even killing in self defense -- without being affected by the kill as being psychopathic. Like Daryl spoke about shutting down the empathy to pay the bills, I still wonder if it affected him at the end of the day. As our own military who are definitely protecting themselves. I am told that even in the military, one tends to remember every single kill. With the very first kill being the most emotional. But for a cat, it should be different. Worse. Much worse. Cats are predators, yes. But they kill for food. Just like humans. And their prey, these lower life forms have no mind glow. It should be at least as difficult for a treecat to kill a two-leg as it would be for a non psychopathic human to kill another. That should be the nominal difficulty anyway. But we know that for a treecat it should be far more difficult, they FEEL the kill. It would be an insult to a treecat to later be interrogated about a kill and asked questions like "Didn't you feel anything?" A treecat feels everything! So how can they kill so easily without being affected by the kill unless they turn the empathy off. Tlb, good point about Honor dialing her empathy down. But Honor could only dial it down, not turn it off. For a 100 % purely empathic species I would tend to think the empathy would need to be turned off completely. .
. . The artist formerly known as cthia. Now I can talk in the third person. |
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by tlb
» Thu Jan 04, 2024 7:54 pm
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tlb
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Yes and I agreed with that. The point about Honor was that she could turn it down to a manageable level, so a cat should be able to do it much better. |
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by penny
» Thu Jan 04, 2024 8:47 pm
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penny
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You might be right. But didn't the cats have a problem dialing their empathy down during the Yawata Strike? Which would have been a perfect time to do so. Anyway, I am all in on the existence of some sort of coping mechanism, because what a treecat feels and what Honor feels should be a world of difference. And when a cat attacks, it is right atop the victim. Can't get any closer. .
. . The artist formerly known as cthia. Now I can talk in the third person. |
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by Joat42
» Thu Jan 04, 2024 9:13 pm
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Joat42
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Why would it be worse for a cat? You are still looking at this from a human context. They don't kill indiscriminately, they kill for food and self-defense. It's in their nature to do so and they have done so even after they developed telepathic abilities so why would they feel bad about doing something that is entirely natural to them even when they can sense the feelings of the prey? And animals do have mind glows, there's textev for it and one example is when Nimitz stalks a chipmunk I believe. You are also forgetting that cats kill cats when for example friction between clans flare up due to territorial reasons, and that would objectively be even worse than a cat killing a human because cats have complete 2-way communication. --- Jack of all trades and destructive tinkerer. Anyone who have simple solutions for complex problems is a fool. |
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by Fox2!
» Thu Jan 04, 2024 11:11 pm
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Fox2!
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The Yawata strike was a sudden, massive assault. The Treecats wouldn't have had time to "turn down" their empathic sense before it overwhelmed them. |
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