[UA] Suicide countdown

[Wade Lahoda]

On 8/19/06, Doctor Jest <doctorjest at darkdungeons.net> wrote:
> Come on, this isn't just a claim to someone committing suicide, it's a
> claim to RITUAL SEPPAKU LIVE ON THE INTERNET.

  Ahh, and here is where the misunderstanding is.  My reading of the
site isn't that it's a claim to commit ritual Seppaku live on the
internet.

  I believe the website claims to MOCK someone /else/ who has claimed
they will commit ritual seppaku live on the internet.

  I don't think that's so unbelievable at all, is it? :)

  I interperted this site as essentially someone seeing someone else
saying "I'm going to commit Seppaku!!", and them responding with "OH
YEAH?  I'm going to put up a whole website about it!  With a timer!!!
Let's see if you're really going to do it, huh, HUH?"

  That's my read on the website, at any rate...  And I'd like to think
my read, although perhaps saying something about human nature("Humans
are more than willing to ridicule and mock others"), is perfectly
plausible.

> ...On the other note, I ran a BBS system about 12 years ago. One of the
> door programs I ran was a "Chat with Lisa" program, which was designed
> to emulate a horny slightly drunk chick hotchatting with whomever was on
> the other side (but not without some good coaxing, of course... and it
> would use being drunk as an excuse when someone started questioning if
> it didn't make sense for some reason). I sometimes would watch people
> chat with this program back and forth as if it was a real person. I
> don't know how many believed it was real, and how many just played
> along, but I have seen people type some very intimate and personal
> things to a computer program. I am certain more than one person had some
> very private moments with that program. I am sure more than one person
> was complete fooled by the A.I.

  Okay, there are definitely story seeds there.  Not quite sure what
they are yet, but... :)

-- 
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are
always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
- Bertrand Russell