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jaidedctrl wrote

Uhhh, literally in a vacuum? Yea, they'd definitely be dead.
In a metaphorical vacuum, with no external influence— like an empty room? Also dead, since they'd need some external influence to survive (like receiving food, etc).

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365degrees wrote (edited )

Beyond the joke: in a "vacuum" with minimal external contact, they'd probably be in a bit of an iffy. I read in linguistics classes that people with very little contact are unable to speak any language (and due to childhood factors, may never learn to), and have other severe developmental issues. On the plus side, there's no cultural biases inflicted on the person.

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LostYonder wrote

They wouldn't be human, that's for sure. The idea of humans living in a vacuum is a liberal wet-dream! Essentially, the vacuum idea is the basis of Rawls's Original Position - no history, no culture, no ideology. According to Rawls, the people inside the OP would, miraculously, adopt liberalism as the basis of their ethics and social order. Of course, the other view of humans in a vacuum (assuming there are more than one) is the Lord of the Flies syndrome - the liberal imagining of what anarchy is like - self-serving, chaotic, violent, dystopic.

Ultimately though, despite the western liberal imagination, humans don't live in vacuums, don't live without their histories, their cultures, their faiths. Liberalism needs to erase those to make everyone good liberals - its imperialistic, violent, and oppressive.

Why ask what we would be like inside a vacuum? why not accept it doesn't exist and the world is messy, infused with incredible diversity...

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365degrees wrote (edited )

The person would probably be dead in a vacuum.

Source: xkcd

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